A researcher’s life - Cengiz shares her story

Abu Dhabi, March 18, 2022:

Having diverse role models in STEM – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – will inspire the next generation of women in the field. That is what encouraged Sevim Cengiz, who after becoming a biomedical engineer, decided to teach herself to code and enter the realm of artificial intelligence (AI).

Cengiz is a Ph.D. candidate in the Computational Imaging Lab (CIL) at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, a part-time research assistant in the BioMedical Image Analysis (BioMedIA) lab at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence (MBZUAI) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and a mother of two.

Women inspire women

Cengiz names her Ph.D. supervisor Dr. Esin Öztürk Işık (UC Berkeley) as her inspiration to continue her studies and strive for a dedicated career in academia.

Globally, women in science have achieved numerical parity (45–55%) at the bachelor’s and master’s levels of study and are on the cusp at the Ph.D. level (44%). But according to a 2018 UNESCO report: "women are not benefitting fully from employment opportunities open to highly educated and skilled experts in cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence where only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman."

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The gender gap widens as women progress in their academic careers, with lower representation from doctoral student to assistant professor to full professor. Overall, female researchers represent 33.3% of all researchers and tend to get smaller research grants; only 12% of members of national science academies are women.

Cengiz is proud to be a woman working in STEM research. “Instead of pursuing a career in industry where I didn’t feel like I was constantly producing something; now I am producing something to make things better,” Cengiz said. “We are always researching and looking at new data sets to improve the way things are done. I’m really happy in academic life and I love being a scientist.”

Supporters on the sidelines

Neither of Cengiz’s parents worked in STEM – her dad was an accountant and her mother a stay-at-home housewife – but she said she grew up with a terrific support system. “My parents are the real supporters in my life,” Cengiz said. “Not only before but also after marriage; they always support me. Before university, my dad sold his car to fund the fees of my private teacher who visited our home for one to two hours to teach me the topics that I didn't know. My dad believes that every girl should go to university so they can have their own money and own dreams. They visit from Turkey often to look after the kids too.”

cengiz 4 web1.jpgThe move to Dubai in 2017 was difficult and Cengiz admits that continuing her Ph.D. by distance would not have been possible without the support she received from Ozturk Isik; MBZUAI’s Dr. Mohammad Yaqub; her husband; and her parents and parents-in-law.

“My advisor is really cool, and she always supports women in research and academic life because she's a mom too,” Cengiz said. “She’s had the same experience I am having now. She told me that I can do it, we can manage it, we can work as a team. She trusts me, and I trust her."

“Dr. Yaqub also encouraged me to concentrate on my Ph.D. - this is how women can have such roles in academic life,” Cengiz continued. “You need to manage your family, spend time with your kids, and work and do research. It would be more difficult to do all these things in my home country. This country is more flexible in its approach to balancing work and life.

“My husband, who is a software developer, often asks me why I do not want to work in industry and work nine to five,” Cengiz said. “I often judge myself too and think ‘is this the right way?’ as I’m six years into my Ph.D. But I tell him that I belong in research and academia, and even though it isn’t regular hours, it is rewarding. I hope to make a difference in the medical field and help people.”