Sara Polak

Artificial Intelligence Archaeologist, Paioneers (Czech Republic)

Sara is a Czech who studied archaeology and anthropology at Oxford with a PhD in human cognition and music. For the past six years she has worked in hi-tech companies in the UK, USA and New Zealand. She is the leader of the Czech initiative in artificial intelligence under prg.ai. The initiative seeks to connect industry, academics, government and start-ups, to harness the talents the Czech Republic has in the field of AI and make Prague a global AI hub. The focus is on Neuron soundware - a company that specialises in predictive maintenance and is bringing a revolution to manufacturing. This is achieved by detecting audio signals that indicate whether a machine is broken. Sara's passion is helping institutions and individuals navigate the next chapter of societal development, which will be dominated by artificial intelligence. It will cause breakthroughs in the way our agriculture, government, society and community operate. This is exactly what Sara is currently trying to achieve while working at Startup Disrupt and as the founder of Disrupt House. She wants to help society adopt the latest innovations.