Women in ML & DS Tech Talks #4

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AGENDA
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6:00 – 6:30 Networking along with food & drinks

6:30 – 6:40 Introduction

6:40 – 7:10 Elisa Sheng – Challenges of Experimentation in a Digital Marketplace

At Convoy, we’ve built a digital marketplace to connect truck driving businesses to our customer’s shipments as well as the infrastructure to collect comprehensive data on each transaction and user engagement with our technology. Our data have a complex underlying network structure and unique supply/demand equilibrium constraints. In this talk, I will review my exploratory work to create a synthetic dataset of bidding behavior that exhibits interference and evaluate analysis of a 2-stage randomization design experiment. My goal is to provide insight into the intricacies of a digital marketplace, using Convoy as a specific example, and difficulties with applying solutions developed for the general interference setting.

7:10 – 7:40 Rachael Tatman – Dialog Systems 101: Everything you always wanted to know about natural language interfaces but were too afraid to ask

How many conversations do I need to train a chat bot? How can you handle the fact that people can say the same thing in many different ways? Do I need to be using one of those models named after Sesame Street characters? We’ll cover all these questions in a beginner friendly introduction to dialog systems, conversational AI and chatbots.

7:40 – 8:30 More networking

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SPEAKERS INFO
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Elisa is a Senior Research Scientist at Convoy. In 2015, she completed her PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Washington, where she was funded by a T32 training grant sponsored by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). As a graduate student, she explored several areas of research–including statistical learning, meta-analysis and statistical genetics–before identifying a dissertation topic in causal inference motivated by quantitative research in Motivational Interviewing. As a mental health trainee, she had a unique opportunity to work with David Atkins, a professor trained in clinical psychology that built his research career, and founded his own company, in technology solutions for psychotherapy. Her exposure to tech in the academic setting led her to pursue a career in Data Science. Elisa lives in Seattle, where she has had the opportunity to work in data generated for a variety of business applications, including housing at Zillow, health and wellness at Arivale, and currently, logistics at Convoy.

Dr. Rachael Tatman has a PhD in linguistics and a hedgehog named Gustav. You can find her (and the occasional Gustav picture) on Twitter @rctatman. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/rachael-tatman-500a323a/

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SPONSOR
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Thanks to Convoy for hosting http://www.convoy.com

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CODE OF CONDUCT
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WiMLDS is dedicated to providing a harassment-free experience for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment of participants in any form. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate.

Be kind to others. Do not insult or put down others. Behave professionally. Remember that harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary jokes are not appropriate.

Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly community for all. All attendees should read the full Code of Conduct before participating: http://github.com/WiMLDS/starter-kit/wiki/Code-of-conduct