Her Story
About Raiqa
Raiqa Rasool serves as a computer scientist at Jefferson Lab, a national physics laboratory in Newport News, Virginia, a role she began in March 2024. She also acts as Peninsula Organizer for The AI Collective Hampton Roads, a nonprofit AI community where she hosts bi-weekly meetups and organizes events to bridge gaps between students and industry professionals. With three years of experience in the IT industry, Rasool specializes in software development focused on web development, system-level programming, and high-performance computing. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences in June 2023 and completed a summer internship at CERN in Switzerland from July to September 2023. She is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech through its online part-time program.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Raiqa
01What do you attribute your success to?
Definitely my mom. I've always seen her working hard for us and pouring her complete life into making sure that we make something out of our life. I love her a lot so I want the best back to her. I always wanted to be independent and be fully in control, take care of myself so that I can be of use to others instead of relying on others. I like to grow as a person, learn new skills every year. I had some really great people in my life and learned from them. I pushed myself into social situations like volunteering and hosting meetups to get comfortable with social interacting.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
If you are feeling a little bit scared before you're trying something, that means you are doing the right thing. That means you are getting out of your comfort zone. After one point that feeling kind of gets addictive, you want to do things that pull you out of your comfort zone instead of staying stagnant.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don't be scared to reach out to people and look dumb. A lot of students don't want to look desperate by reaching out to people asking for advice. I've always been the person who would rather reach out to people. Most people are more than happy to help you. You just have to show the initiative and show the appreciation for the help they are offering. Just take the initiative. Just do it. Even if you fail, you will learn something.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The progress is happening at such a fast pace especially with AI that it can be really overwhelming and uncertain. Regardless of how much work you are putting in you see someone who is way ahead of you. It can force you to grow but at such a faster pace that you can be overwhelmed by all the information and you don't know where to start. That's why I started the AI Collective community - everyone was so overwhelmed so let's get together and try to figure it all together.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my work I would say if someone is expecting something from me that I will do a certain thing I will do it. There is a term for it, integrity maybe? That matters to me a lot. And then punctuality. I am always the person who will be in a meeting a few minutes before. I would never be late because I feel like that shows as if you don't respect other person.
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