Women have made huge contributions to the scientific community. Raising their visibility and representation of women in science is key for ensuring that the next generation of scientists have positive role models and learn to value diversity and equity in science. Scientists like Dr. Irune Agirre show that women are present and competitive in a largely male-dominated field.

Dr. Irune Agirre is a researcher and Functional safety engineer at the dependable embedded systems department of IKERLAN

She currently manages and participates in several projects for the design and development of safety-related systems, focusing on the hardware and software design and development based on functional safety standards. Her research interests include the dependability of autonomous systems and the safety challenges brought by them, such as the increasing hardware and software complexity and unpredictability.

Irune is currently working as part of the SAFEXPLAIN project, specifically working towards making Critical Autonomous Artificial Intelligence-based Systems (CAIS) safe with the goal of bridging the fundamental gap between Functional Safety (FUSA) requirements of CAIS and the nature of deep learning solutions.

Irune is responsible for the FUSA related activities and collaborates with AI and platform experts in the definition of safety processes for DL-based software development and the definition of novel architectures and strategies to reach (and prove) correct operation in compliance with certification standards. She also coordinates the internal project team at Ikerlan, which includes a multidisciplinary team of functional safety engineers, Data Analytics and AI specialists and software engineers with high expertise in the railway domain.

By  creating an inclusive and supportive environment, we can ensure that  women continue to play a key role driving the field of  science and research forward and that they inspire the next generation of female  scientists to follow in their footsteps.