From the very beginning, my interests, motivation, and goals were highly dedicated to the development of my community, finding innovative and effective ways to solve problems and implementing them accordingly. Born and raised in the north-western rural part of Bangladesh which is still not fully electrified, my childhood dreams and struggles have driven me to gather all aspirations for who I am today and explore all of my strengths which eventually help me to win over my infirmities. While studying computer science I was fascinated to know about its sectors like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Machine Learning. Thus, my devotion to solving problems and love for science has driven me to pursue my further studies and research in computer science.
Due to my outstanding result in the higher secondary level, I was awarded a “Merit-Based scholarship” at BRAC University and have studied almost free every semester. In my undergraduate life, I used to help freshers as Student Mentor so that they can get accustomed to the university rules. Moreover, I used to help my juniors to have a clear idea of concepts taught in various cs courses. Due to my academic excellence, my department has offered me the “Teaching Assistant/ Student Tutor” position during my last year where I have assisted faculties in developing study strategies as well as worked with students to develop a tutoring plan that fits their individual needs.
I grew up believing that the most suitable job for a woman is either a doctor or a teacher. This whole idea got changed when I joined the "Girls in ICT" program organized by Bangladesh Open Source Network (BDOSN) in 2016. While participating, I along with a few of my female friends, got the opportunity to explore some top IT-based companies which include BRAC Net, JoomShaper, Grameen-Phone, etc. I was fascinated to see the number of women working in such big companies where many of them are also playing leading roles like Head of Information Technology, Senior Software Developer, Specialist, etc. From that moment, I started to feel like I can also try growing my career in corporate sectors. Even in this pandemic situation, BDOSN is organizing several programs and workshops to involve young girls and women from all walks of life to learn leadership and empowerment in the world of technology. Some of their notable programs are- Girls innovation Boot-Camp, Ada Lovelace Celebration Week, and Several programming contests for Girls.
Just after my graduation, I joined the Largest Mobile Operator Company called “Robi Axiata Ltd” to complete an internship. There I worked in a project, BDAPPS which provides APIs to mobile application developers whose services reach about 4.5 million customer base every day. In January 2020, I was hired by BRAC University as “Lecturer” on a course contract basis and got the opportunity to teach 100-200 level CSE courses where I developed highly effective lesson plans, motivational exercises, and performance assessments for students. Right now, I am coordinating a special project of the BDApps platform called #BDAppsForHer in collaboration with BDOSN. The objective is to increase and spread the woman's knowledge and power through the community-led approach. Here, enthusiastic women from all around Bangladesh will get the chance to lead a community of developers, gain experience in solving problems, and get the chance to work with the largest Telco API based Appstore of Bangladesh, BDApps.
-Noshin Nawal,
Digital Commerce & API Services | Digital Services, Robi Axiata Limited