Iliana Ramirez is committed to leading initiatives that give women, girls, and vulnerable populations the skills they need to succeed in computer science.
She is a professor at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and the Director of Human Capital at the Nuevo Leon Cluster of Information Technology.
Iliana Ramirez was raised in terrible poverty in a neighbourhood close to the city’s landfill in Mexico City, where she was born and raised.
Her family’s financial hardships were so severe that they were forced to forage for market leftovers at the end of the day in order to survive.
They also did not have running water or a bathroom.
Despite this, Iliana never had any doubts about pursuing a professional job because her mother had always emphasised the value of education to her since she was a little child. As a result, Iliana attended Mexico’s National University to pursue a career in computer engineering.
Hearing in a generalised sense that women do not pursue technological occupations was one of Iliana’s primary motivations for studying computer engineering.
After her career was over, Iliana went to work at the Bank of Mexico, where she was a member of the group that created the first method for transferring money electronically between banks.
She was inspired by her coworkers to submit an application for the Chevening scholarship, and as a result, she left for the UK in 1998 to pursue her Master’s degree at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.
Iliana had always wanted to study in the UK, not only for the opportunity to enhance her academic career in a nation that was at the forefront of software and computing breakthroughs, but also for the chance to study abroad and return to Mexico to put her newfound knowledge to use.
Iliana says that one of the most important lessons she took away from her time in the UK was seeing how important ideals like equality, inclusivity, and diversity are.
Her life was forever changed by the experience of being treated equally both inside and outside of the classroom, regardless of her gender, socioeconomic standing, or outward look.
As she describes it, it was a lovely lesson in dignity and humanism.
When Iliana returned to Mexico, her newfound expertise helped her advance professionally, and she went from being a software engineer to being in charge of implementing the enterprise management system at the Bank of Mexico.
With the aim of creating the information technology human capital that the state of Nuevo Leon and the nation need, Iliana now works with teams from universities like the MIT, the University of Colorado, and other foreign teams.
For instance, girls between the ages of 12 and 17 can develop their skills by using MIT curriculum materials that have been customised for a Mexican context through the Patrones Hermosos (or Beautiful Patterns) programme, which she oversaw until 2019 and is implemented in collaboration with Monterrey’s Tech and the MIT.
The success of this programme has led to its implementation in 24 of Mexico’s 32 states and the participation of 1600 girls.
Additionally, Iliana runs free information technology summer camps for both boys and girls, with 200 to 300 participants each year.
The programme now includes more than 500 participants and includes students from numerous Latin American nations, including Peru, Chile, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Guatemala.
For young men and women, there are also software development training programmes that offer a personalised service to match their aptitudes with the essential skills to assure a spot in the hiring process of potential companies.
In conclusion, owing to Iliana’s leadership, the programmes and projects that have been carried out from 2014 to 2022 have positively influenced 15,000 girls and young men and women, of whom 8600 are women.
Iliana continues to prioritise the expansion of these programmes for women, girls, and vulnerable groups into other parts of Mexico and Latin America, concentrating on creating a distinctive impact in the most underserved areas.
The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, where there are 25 Nobel laureates enrolled, opened my eyes to the possibility of breaking down the barriers that ignorance, poverty, violence, and bigotry erect through the gift of knowledge and positive role models.
That everyone has a responsibility to provide opportunities to those who do not have them or do not see them by teaching and offering time, mentorship, and helping to remove the frontiers and paradigms that prevent creating abundant, pacific, and productive societies, just as the Chevening scholarship gave me the gift of living a life that was radically different from the one I was accustomed to for one year.