Abdigani Diriye

Abdigani Diriye (born 1986 ) is a Somali computer scientist and research scientist at IBM Research – Africa, working in the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI), data mining and financial technology (FinTech). Diriye was named a TEDGlobal 2017 fellow, an MIT Technology Review 'Innovator Under 35',

Education Abdigani Diriye was schooled in the United Kingdom, moving from Somalia at age 5 due to civil unrest.

Research and career Under the guidance of Prof. Ann Blandford and Dr. Anastasios Tombros, Diriye conducted his PhD research on understanding the role searching interfaces play in the process of information seeking.

Diriye, during his PhD, undertook internships with Microsoft Research (June 2010 - October 2011) and Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto labs (June 2011). This position, working with Dr. Aniket Kittur led Diriye to develop new approaches that combine human and machine-generated data that helps people find and understand information on the internet more effectively.

Currently Diriye is a research scientist and manager at IBM Research Africa and steers Innovate Ventures: a startup technology fund in Somalia, having founded it in 2012. Next Einstein Fellow (NEF) 2017-2019