In 2017, Aqsa Fulara, a small-town girl from Sangli, Maharashtra, joined Google and currently leads the tech giant’s revolution in AI and machine learning innovations.
Aqsa Fulara, a small-town girl from Maharashtra, who once faced hurdles in pursuing quality education away from home, is now a leading name at Google, where she is helping transform Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), and blazing a trail for underprivileged women in India.
Who is Aqsa Fulara?
Born and raised in a middle-income household in Sangli, a small town in Maharashtra’s Sangli district, Aqsa Fulara completed her early education in her hometown and later completed her Bachelors degree from the Walchand College of Engineering in Sangli. After her degree, Aqsa wanted to pursue higher studies outside but faced hurdles as she comes from a conservative community where allowing women to study away from home is frowned upon.
However, Aqsa persevered and ultimately made it to the University of Southern California (USC), where she earned her Masters degree in engineering management. Later, Aqsa Fulara had a brief stint at Stanford University where she honed her practical skills in cutting-edge technology, including AI and ML.
From Sangli to Silicon Valley
In 2017, Aqsa Fulara joined Google and currently leads the tech giant’s revolution in AI and machine learning innovations. Reflecting on her journey, Fulara said she was always passionate about technology and wanted cutting-edge tech like AI and ML to help solve real-world problems like traffic congestion and enhancing congestion management strategies.
Since joining Google, Aqsa has had a deep impact on the tech leader’s AI and ML developments, especially in scaling products such as Recommendations AI, which is now integrated into Google’s Vertex AI Search.
Fulara has also massively contributed to the growth of other innovative Google products such as Team Workspaces and Looker Studio Pro, which provide custom recommendations and data insights to enhance business intelligence capabilities.
“I was driven by a curiosity to solve complex problems,” Aqsa says.
Google’s culture of innovation
Talking about her work at the Google, Aqsa Fulara credits much of her success to the culture of innovation and support for creativity fostered by the company. “Google’s culture of innovation has been pivotal,” she asserts, noting that the tech giant backs creativity through initiatives like 20% projects and hackathons, an environment she says allowed her to pivot into product management, and leveraging AI expertise to deliver customer-centric solutions.
In the near future, Aqsa Fulara believes generative AI and personalized recommendations will play a transformative role in the next decade by revolutionizing data accessibility and collaborative workflows across industries.