Chloe is a Cognitive Science Engineer in Aflac Northern Ireland and the Director of the Women Who Code Belfast Network.

Chloe began pursuing a career within Technology and Engineering during secondary education where her passion for IT led her to apply to study Software and Electronic Systems Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. Being in a male dominated course for 5 years only fuelled her passion to succeed and in July 2021 she graduated from the Masters pathway with a First Class Honours.

Throughout her time at university Chloe experienced a range of technical roles in order to understand the professional sector and discover an area that she would be passionate for. She was one of twenty students selected into the first year of the Kainos AI Camp program in 2018; a two week program designed to upskill students in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Following the two weeks, she was offered an unconditional offer for a placement year. During her placement year Chloe was one of the lead instructors on the 2019 AI Camp program and was placed within Kainos’ Applied Innovation team, where she worked on proof of concepts, upcoming technology and client demonstrations.

These experiences within Machine Learning and AI led Chloe to find an area within the technology sector that she was excited by and drove her involvement in organising the Artificial Intelligence NI (AI NI) meet-up group. Chloe organised their education track, AI NI Academy, delivering workshops to upskill the local community and two large scale Hackathons with over 250 attendees. In 2019 Chloe won the She Rocks Community Star Award from Women Who Code Belfast, for her work within the technology community. Chloe has always been passionate about the local tech community and in 2021 she joined Women Who Code Belfast as a Director and now leads the network and their events.

In 2020 Chloe joined Aflac NI as their first intern, working within Data & Analytics. Her work within this role led to a full time offer as a Cognitive Science Engineer and she joined in 2021 post graduation. Since then Chloe has worked in the Cognitive Science team, developing innovative proof of concepts for business stakeholders and contributing towards cutting-edge research. Within work, Chloe is an active member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee and is passionate about driving inclusive processes and culture, both internally and externally. Chloe uses her platform outside of work to actively encourage diversity and for women to pursue STEM subjects, through public speaking and panels, most recently SISTEM 2022 and Catalysts’ International Women’s Day panel. She strives to encourage women into STEM in the same way she was supported to, whether that is young students or career switchers.