Nisreen al-Shareef

Engineer advocating for women in STEM through Jordan's first all-female robotics lab

Nisreen al-Shareef is a Jordanian engineer who founded the Sisterhood of Robotics in 2017. This initiative established Jordan's first all-female robotics laboratory, training over 300 women in AI and automation. Her work addresses the stark gender disparity in STEM fields, where only 15% of Jordan's engineers are women. Al-Shareef’s team developed GuardianBot, a disaster response robot deployed during 2020 floods in Amman, showcasing practical applications of their skills. Partnering with UNESCO and Cisco, the lab provides free certifications recognized by global tech firms. Al-Shareef’s advocacy led to Jordan’s Ministry of Education integrating robotics into high school curricula starting 2022.

Her TEDx talk "The Future of Work Demands Gender Equality" critiques patriarchal hiring practices in MENA tech sectors. Critics question scalability, but al-Shareef points to 60% of lab graduates now employed in tech firms like Microsoft Jordan. She co-authored the 2021 Arab Women in Tech Report, revealing 40% of Arab women leave STEM due to workplace discrimination. Al-Shareef’s upcoming Women in AI Summit (2023) aims to replicate the lab model across Gulf states, leveraging partnerships with Qatar Foundation and Dubai Future Accelerators.