Mercedes Soria

Mentor Mercedes Soria was recently featured in Diversity in Action’s cover story for its May/June issue. Mercedes is the Vice President of Software Engineering at Knightscope and is involved in advancing the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives. The cover story specifically focuses on her work with autonomous physical security machines that share data with law enforcement officials in order to prevent crime. For example, if deployed in a school, such a robot could inform police of the location of an active shooter before weapons have been fired. These machines are already being used at LaGuardia Airport in New York and at shopping centers and corporate campuses.
Mercedes also discusses her experience as a woman in tech and her mission to inspire more women to enter the industry. Before joining Knightscope, Mercedes worked at Deloitte where she founded a Hispanic network resource group and mentored many female colleagues. She says, “the main problem that I see for women is they don’t see somebody who looks like them in a leadership role [and think] ‘OK, I can be that person.’ My goal is to push for diversity and to push for women.”