Girl Decoded

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In a captivating memoir, an Egyptian American visionary and scientist shares her personal transformation while pursuing her calling to humanize technology and enhance human connection. Rana el Kaliouby stands out in both the tech world and her native Middle East as a Muslim woman in a predominantly white and male field. Raised in Egypt and Kuwait, she grew up with a strict father who valued tradition and high expectations for his daughters, alongside a mother who was among the first female computer programmers in the region. Defying traditional roles, el Kaliouby pursued her daring dreams, earning a PhD at Cambridge. Now a divorced mother of two, she moved to America with a mission to humanize technology before it dehumanizes us. Most communication relies on nonverbal cues—facial expressions, tone of voice, body language—which are often lost in digital interactions. This creates an emotion-blind digital landscape that undermines the empathy and intelligence that define humanity. To address this loss of emotional intelligence online, she co-founded Affectiva, pioneering Emotion AI to help technology understand human emotions. Her journey from a compliant Egyptian girl to a trailblazing woman reshaping technology is powerful, but learning to express and act on her own emotions becomes her greatest challenge.