Winning Women: Dineo Lioma's big plans for artificial intelligence in the world of medicine

Dineo Lioma's energy and enthusiasm are infectious, and the way she speaks about things such as artificial intelligence (AI), DNA, enzymes and gene sequencing to aid those in the field of healthcare makes one believe there is hope for our virus-stricken world. Lioma has co-founded two medical technology companies, founded a third and currently runs two of them – and she is not yet 30 years old. She has a master's degree in micro and nanotechnology enterprise with distinction from Cambridge University in the UK. Cambridge offered Lioma the chance to do her PhD there to "work out how to harness solar and mechanical energy", but the engineer, who grew up fiddling with electrical plugs in her family's home in Bloemfontein, Free State, and obtained her BSc in metallurgical and materials engineering with 24 distinctions from Wits University, declined the offer. "I knew I wanted to work in the field of health and to help South Africa progress. There was not a lot going on in micro and nanotechnology here, so I came home. I wanted to give back," she says.