Mona Nabil Demaidi

Dr Mona Nabil Demaidi is an entrepreneur and women’s rights advocate. She obtained her PhD in Advanced Software Engineering and Machine Learning, MSc with distinction in Software Engineering and Data Management from the University of Manchester, UK. Dr Mona joined An- Najah National University in 2016, to become the youngest female with a PhD certificate at the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. Her research focuses on building personalized learning environments using machine learning. She published six journal papers and a book on building eLearning platforms using machine learning, and obtained three research awards. Besides her academic work, Dr Mona is an active member of several societies which globally support youth and women in the technology sector. She has been a board member with Women in Engineering and Arab Women in computing since 2014. In 2017 she became the first female chair for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in Palestine and was awarded the senior membership from IEEE to become the first woman to obtain such an award. Dr Mona’s ambition to help Palestinian women was not limited to Palestine or the MENA region, she was keen to find opportunities to improve the network for Palestinian women and help them connect with the rest of the world. Therefore, in 2019, Dr Mona became the Co-Managing Director for Girls in Tech in Palestine which is the first chapter in the MENA region.
In addition to supporting women in Palestine, Dr Mona is highly involved in the Palestinian startup ecosystem, she consulted for several startups to improve their nascent ideas and expansion. Moreover, she participated as an advisory board member for several incubators and accelerators in Palestine, and judged at several local and international entrepreneurship competitions. In 2019, Dr. Mona was selected to represent the Palestinian women in the International Visitor Leadership Program – IT entrepreneurship. Also, on the volunteering front, but closely tied to industry and education, Dr Mona served as the Chairwomen of the first Palestinian IEEE Women in Engineering Leadership Conference. Currently, Dr Mona is leading STEMpire that aims to empower future innovators through STEM education, bootcamps, and hackathons.