Inma Martinez: Digital transformation 2021

Episode number nine of the EAIE podcast series takes up the topic of digitalisation, a matter that was of immense importance in 2020 and that’s certain to continue featuring prominently in the field of international higher education in 2021. Guest Inma Martinez, a globally recognised digital pioneer and artificial intelligence scientist, weighs in on key issues of how technology can support the work of higher education, and how very real human needs and interests sit at the heart of all technological innovation.

For quite a number of years now, the many and varied possibilities of technology to play a game-changing role in higher education have been widely discussed, hotly debated and eagerly anticipated. But 2020 truly marked a watershed moment for rhetoric to meet reality: technology-based solutions were deployed rapidly by higher education institutions around the world to fill the gaps in our ability to convene in-person meetings and face-to-face classes as a result of the fast-moving COVID-19 pandemic. What have we learned from this experience? And where are we headed next in terms of digital developments? Join us in conversation with technology expert Inma Martinez as she reflects on these remarkable recent events and the transformational effects they have already rendered – and may yet enable – in our relationship with digitalisation.

About Inma Martinez

An engaged scientist, Inma Martinez advises on corporate projects in a variety of industries where artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation can help transform businesses. For more than 10 years she has developed a close relationship with Imperial College London where she is a guest lecturer in the MSc in Management, the MSc in Economics and the MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy programmes. She is also a mentor of disruptive new scientific projects at their accelerator programme spin-off, Deep Science Ventures, a venture-builder science institute where audacious entrepreneurial scientists explore solutions to the world’s challenges. Inma recently joined SynSapien, an organisation of 500 scientists from European and US universities that are developing medical equipment at low cost to fight COVID-19.

Further reading

For further insights into the topics touched on in this episode, the following resources may be of interest:

→  Top IT Issues, 2021: Emerging from the Pandemic (EDUCAUSE, 2020)
→  DIGI-HE Webinar series: A strategic reflection on digitalisation in higher education (European University Association, 2021)
→2020 Spring Forum: Digitalisation
→  AI in international education: redefining who ‘we’ are (EAIE blog)
→  Virtual exchange and Internationalisation at Home: the perfect pairing (EAIE blog)

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