Christine Robson '99 Delivers Assembly on Machine Learning

Exeter Alumna Christine Robson Weaver ’99 spoke at assembly on Tuesday about her recent work with Google’s Research and Machine Intelligence Group and the powers of Machine Learning. A graduate of MIT and UC Berkeley, Robson started off working as an IBM researcher and has since had a successful career in STEM. During her talk, Robson explained the distinctions between Artificial Intelligence and her field of expertise, Machine Learning. She described the ways in which Google uses Machine Learning, explaining its application in Google Translate, Google Photos and YouTube.

For some students, Robson’s talk made a possible career in technology seem more achievable. “I always saw myself going into the STEM field in the future and pursuing something with algorithms and coding,” prep Leah Delacruz said. “But, Ms. Robson’s speech made it seem more real, like I can and will really do this.”

Robson fell in love with mathematics at an early age and has been pursuing her calling since. “My career now is basically just more math, which was always the ultimate goal,” she said.

Robson attended the Academy for a full four years prior to seeking out higher education. She attributed many of her skills as a female manager in STEM to the lessons she learned about vocalizing her views at the Harkness table. “As a manager, especially during larger meetings, I talk a lot and I blame that on Exeter,” she said.

The integration of technology and mathematics is one that appealed to Robson and made her want to be part of the tech field, despite some obstacles she met along the way. She recalled one instance in an advanced math course at MIT when a 92-year-old professor expressed his sexist views on “women’s inability to understand high-level math.” As the only woman in the course, Robson went on not only to excel in her math studies, but also to thrive in demanding STEM field occupations.

Even with offers from other companies, Robson knew that she belonged at Google. “I feel like the kinds of things I wanted to accomplish, I could do at Google,” she said. Her transition into the company was smooth and easy. “I had been in IBM research before Google research and working on my doctorate at Berkeley so I kind of [have] always been in a research focused environment working with a lot of really smart people,” Robson said.

With the growth of Machine Learning, Robson has been working on several new projects. One of the more exciting projects she has taken on is using Machine Learning for music generation. “We have been making a lot of open source tools and putting them out there and engaging with the music community and the machine learning community,” she said. “It’s not that the music isn’t great. The music is great. It’s that we can make tools that artists can use and take melodies and go forward with them.”

In her presentation, Robson offered advice to current Exonians, saying, “I think the most important thing is that you do something that you feel personally excited about.” In fact, Robson originally went into pre-med when she arrived at MIT. When she switched into research and Machine Learning, she didn’t know how important a field it would soon become.

She went on, encouraging students not to limit themselves to one path. “Exeter students really do find their passion here so I think that’s one of the special things about Exeter,” she said. “Try and hang onto that. Don’t run off to college and lose it thinking that you have to do the career that you imagined you would do when you had that College Counseling conversation. Stick with what you are passionate about.”

Prep Cristal Reyes learned a lot from the assembly and enjoyed Robson’s humor. “I learned a lot,” she said. “I never knew anything about the STEM field or coding or anything like that. So it was good when she explained her career in simple terms in a way that everyone could understand. And her jokes made the assembly more interesting.”

Senior Efia Nuako also appreciated the simple way in which Robson explained a complex topic. “I liked how she took a lot of technical stuff and put it into laymans terms,” she said.

Lower Emma Dixon also felt inspired by Robson’s talk, saying “It was nice to see how an alumna could leave Exeter and develop something really cool and come back and share that with us.”