IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2022 - 32

proof-of-concept stage, Shah shares
that, " We know this journey is not going
to be easy or short; we need to address
all the challenges of building a wearable
medical electronic device, prove
effectiveness of our approach through a
clinical study, have a design that is manufacturable
at scale and, finally, build
a brand that is trustworthy to
take the product to market.
But our team is highly
driven by the potential of
our idea to improve the
quality of life of women
and we are looking forward
to the day when our product
will be on the market. "
Other projects from the
promoted by WIE and the Women-toWomen
competition motivated me to
take a big step in the development of
this project. Right after the result of
the competition, I started a collaboration
with Alta Scuola Politecnica (ASP)
Italy, and currently I am coordinating a
team which includes eight smart and
hardworking students, plus professors
and researchers, all
working toward the realization
of this project. "
Azimi is a researcher in
the computer engineering
department of Politecnico
di Torino in Italy as well
Sarah Azimi
competition are also in continued development.
Sarah Azimi, whose project,
Fighting for a Future Free of Violence:
Exploiting Surveillance Videos for RealTime
Detection of " Signal for Help, " was
shortlisted as a runner up says " being
as a professor of computer
engineering who entered the
W-to-W competition after seeing the call
in WIE communications. As she notes,
" Every time, when I go to lectures and
see the few numbers of female students
in my classroom, I feel really sad and
I truly hope that this changes in the
near future. I believe organizations such
as IEEE Women in Engineering can
play a key role in getting young female
students and researchers motivated to
believe in themselves and contribute to
all the research fields as well as computer
engineering. So, I am a big fan of
organizations such as IEEE WIE, and I
always follow the news and events organized
by them. "
Her project takes the idea of getting
women to feel confident in themselves
even further: supporting their
safety. When Azimi, a researcher of
digital design for space applications,
read a 2021 news story about an
American teenager who was rescued
from her kidnapper by using the hand
" signal for help, " she began thinking
about how the surveillance videos
used in smart cities could be manipulated
to help with detection of this
very signal. " This girl was lucky that
someone noticed and saved her, but
then I think of all the others who are
not as lucky to have someone notice
their call for help, " says Azimi. " Obviously
violence, and especially domestic
violence, is a big issue that many
people are struggling with, and making
a step forward to solve this issue
would impact many people's lives, and
that is my main reason for working
on this idea. "
The version of the project that she
is now working on with ASP is " S2CITIES-Toward
Smart and Safe Cities. "
In addition to being supported
by a team, Azimi says she has been
able to progress the project thanks to
financial contributions from companies
who believe in S2CITIES's impact,
and the group hopes to apply their
research to the urban transportation
system in Italy soon. " It helped me
to have feedback from the community, "
adds Azimi of the competition, " I
understood the value and importance
of such a project and was able to move
it forward. "
Azimi and the team working on S2CITIES.
32
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2022
Winning Hearts and Minds
The two final shortlisted projects are
also moving forward, and both fall into
the space of smart education. Stacy
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2022

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