Mercedes Soria (pictured) knows what it’s like to beat the odds. Growing up in Ecuador, she heard about an exchange program between her native country’s school and Middle Tennessee State, so she decided to apply. Out of 5,000 applicants for the opportunity, Soria was one of only 20 selected to study in the United States.

After completing her studies, she joined Deloitte Ltd. as a software engineer, working on cutting-edge technologies. In a team of 40 people, she was the only female engineer. While at Deloitte, she founded the first Hispanic Network chapter at the firm’s technology services division.

The U.S. State Department runs a program to mentor and educate women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics from the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Few distinguished women are invited or approved to participate (only 100 were selected for 2018), but Soria was not only accepted into the program in 2016, her project with the Tunisian team won a cash prize.

Soria is now the vice president of software engineering at Knightscope Inc., a robotic security company. She was the recipient last October of the Leadership ABIE Award at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, where she spoke about the challenges for women in creating technology careers and offered encouragement for those seeking to beat the odds in a male-dominated profession. She highlighted her own company as one that is going against the grain.

“Knightscope is a really good company for women in technology,” Soria said. “Our women in technology numbers are about 25 to 28 percent of the company, which is a huge number for Silicon Valley.”

Soria visited the set of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, and spoke with host Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick) at theCUBE’s studio in Palo Alto, California. They discussed Knightscope’s technology and impact on fighting crime, the various robots offered, the company’s business model, and advice for women seeking science-related careers.

This week, theCUBE spotlights Mercedes Soria in our Women in Tech feature.

Complex technology uses artificial intelligence

At Knightscope, Soria is tasked with leading a team responsible for building software applications for the security operations center. It’s a complex technology stack that involves artificial intelligence, computer vision solutions and cloud processing. The company’s autonomous security guard robots continuously ingest data that must be optimized for customer use and, in some cases, acted upon quickly.

The cost of fighting crime in the U.S. is one area where Knightscope hopes to make an impact. A recent study showed that police spending alone in the previous fiscal year ranged from $381 per person in Los Angeles, California, to $772 per person in Baltimore, Maryland.

“Our goal is to cut that in half with the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics,” Soria said.

The company has built different robots scaled to the security demands of particular environments. Knightscope’s K5 is its flagship robot, a rolling automated sentry equipped with cameras and sensors that replay sound and video back to human supervisors.

The K5 is often used to patrol parking lots and shopping malls. One customer, a hospital that stays open around the clock in Los Angeles, used the K5 to curtail car break-in issues in parking lots.

“They would have at least one break-in every week,” Soria said. “So we put our machines there, and over the past seven months … they got zero, no break-ins.”

For indoor patrols, Knightscope released its K3 model in 2016. The machine can autonomously protect property using 360-degree daytime and nighttime high-definition video, thermal imaging and facial detection. Machine learning algorithms can also detect when people have entered an image.

Last fall, the company provided a preview of two new models, the K1 and K7 robots. The K1 is a stationary robot than can scan people for weapons as they walk by, detecting size and shape using the same millimeter wave technology employed at airport security checkpoints. The K7 is 770-pound robotic vehicle designed to traverse rugged outdoor areas, such as air fields or wind farms.

Data gathered and humans decide

Knightscope’s robots serve as critical data-gathering devices, but human interface remains a part of the equation. Each machine comes equipped with a “push-to-talk” feature that allows people to talk directly with staff in a security operations center. And a decision to take action in response to a crime or threatening situation in real time still resides in human hands.

“All that information that we provide is so the human can make a decision about what to do next,” Soria said.

Want to buy a $100,000 security robot? Didn’t think so. Knightscope’s business model takes this into account by offering what amounts to “robots as a service.” Instead of purchasing the machines, customers rent them out for a reasonable hourly rate and can take full advantage of upgrades.

“I charge you $10 an hour and give you a robot that not only changes software every other week, it changes hardware every six months and you have a robot that will fit your needs the best,” Soria explained. “People are really accepting that model.”

As a technology executive who has overcome long odds to build a successful career at the forefront of robotics, Soria gladly devotes time to mentoring others who are seeking tech-related opportunities. “You’re out there in front of everything that’s happening with technology and it’s actually exciting,” said Soria, who encouraged women to reach out for advice as they pursue tech careers. “There’s a lot of women that would be happy to help out, and one of those is me.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CubeConversations.

Photo: SiliconANGLE