Interview with Gema Parreño, Lead Data Scientist at Apiumhub
Tags: apiumhub, datascience, events
Published: 2021-05-20 12:58:33

---
title: Interview with Gema Parreño, Lead Data Scientist at Apiumhub
published: true
date: 2021-05-18 11:36:14 UTC
tags: Apiumhub,DataScience,Events
canonical_url: https://apiumhub.com/tech-blog-barcelona/interview-gema-parreno-lead-data-scientist/
---

[Lo que AI que oir](https://anchor.fm/spainai/episodes/14---Entrevista-a-Gema-Parreo--Lead-Data-Scientist-en-Apiumhub-e10mjbt) is a podcast initiative of Spain AI that explores interesting information to discover and understand the present and future of Artificial Intelligence. Last May 12th they interviewed our Lead Data Scientist at [Apiumhub](https://apiumhub.com/), Gema Parreño, who reviewed her professional career and her connection with artificial intelligence, machine learning, video games and [data science projects](https://apiumhub.com/data-driven-project-solutions/).

## Irruption into technology

[Gema Parreño](https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gema_Parre%C3%B1o) has a degree in architecture from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, after a period of professional reinvention she currently works as a Data Scientist. 

Her background helped her to consider the tools at her disposal and create a mental model. Her career began in innovation, landscaping and urban planning competitions. After the outbreak of the real estate crisis in 2008, she decided to turn to the digital world and started working on projects with Maya and 3D Studio. Her foray into the technology industry began with the 3D animation and video game industry, eventually founding his own startup. 

Knowledge of the technical pipeline marked a turning point towards technology. Her genuine interest in data and artificial intelligence has always been “able to answer questions with data”. This interest led her to learn programming (Phyton) and in 2014 she started researching neural networks.

### Technological projects and challenges

In 2016, Gema Parreño and her team successfully presented their award-winning project Deep Asteroid in NASA’s Space App Challenge competition. Deep Asteroid focused on a Deep Learning model based on an intelligent system capable of realizing the moment when the meteorite changes its characteristics and predicting what it will do. 

Gema Parreño’s technological interests expanded during her time working at BBVA, as part of the bank’s commitment to the Data and Analytics sector.  
While it is true that Gema’s interest in technology has always been related to video games, she found a way to link Machine Learning techniques with one of her favorite video games, Starcraft, with [interesting contributions](https://soygema.github.io/starcraftII_machine_learning/#0) to Blizzard’s game.

[On lessons learned] “Challenges are part of the journey, they are opportunities to learn…There is no such thing as overnight success, it is important to fall in love with the problems and not the solutions.”

#### Language as a central axis

Gema Parreño’s career has always had a central element of interest: language. Specifically, the discipline of reinforcement learning has been one of the pillars of her contributions to the [DeepMind project](https://www.deepmind.com/) and her latest project [Mempathy](https://soygema.itch.io/mempathy), a narrative experience focused on conversation with AI.

##### Recognitions and present: Lead Data Scientist

Gema Parreño has been recognized by Business Insider as a member of its list of [young leaders of the technological revolution, under 35 years old](https://www.businessinsider.es/23-jovenes-espanoles-35-anos-liderar-revolucion-tecnologica-millennials-373531).

Recently, Gema Parreño, has joined the [Apiumhub team](https://apiumhub.com/tech-hub-barcelona/) as a Lead Data Scientist to continue her work focused on Machine Learning First Products, and lead the Data-Driven area of Apiumhub.  
You can [listen](https://anchor.fm/spainai/episodes/14---Entrevista-a-Gema-Parreo--Lead-Data-Scientist-en-Apiumhub-e10mjbt) to the full interview here ( note: it is in Spanish )! I hope you found this article useful, if you need help with a Data Science Project, [contact us](https://apiumhub.com/es/soluciones-data-driven/)! We have experts in this field.