Florida Business Analytics Forum

2018 Florida Business Analytics Forum

May 15, 2018

Speaker Line-Up

Valliappa Lakshmanan - View Slides

He is a tech lead at Google for its Big Data and Machine Learning Professional Services on the Google Cloud. His mission is to democratize machine learning so that it can be done by anyone anywhere using Google's amazing infrastructure. Before working at Google, Lakshmanan led a team of data scientists at the Climate Corporation and was a research scientist at NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, working on machine learning applications for severe weather diagnosis and prediction. He has a bachelor's degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, a Master of Science from The Ohio State University in Columbus, Oh. and a PhD from the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Ok.

About his talk

What is machine learning and what kinds of problems can it solve? Google thinks about machine learning a little differently: it's about logic, rather than just data. Lakshmanan will talk about why such a framing is useful when thinking about building a pipeline of machine learning models. The Machine Learning, field is evolving rapidly -- from Lakshmanan's perspective watching many companies in many industries leverage Machine Learning, he observes how abstraction levels of Machine Learning are increasing, how data comprehensiveness is becoming more important than data size and why systems can often build on top of preexisting models. Lakshmanan will end with what Machine Learning achieves in terms of business impact and personalization.

Frank Yiannas - View Slides / Video

Oversees all food safety, as well as other public health functions for the world's largest food retailer, Walmart, serving more than 200 million worldwide each week. Prior to joining Walmart in 2008, Yiannas served as the director of safety and health for the Walt Disney Company for 19 years. Yiannas is a registered microbiologist with the American Academy of Microbiology. He received a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Central Florida in Orlando and a Master of Public Health from the University of South Florida in Tampa.

About His Talk

Advances in technology are allowing retailers to create more transparent, efficient and sustainable supply chains. In this session, Yiannas will share how Walmart is testing blockchain in hopes of creating a safer, more efficient and more sustainable food system. Walmart serves more than 260 million customers on a weekly basis in nearly 12 thousand stores and 28 countries worldwide. Given the scale of the company, it is critical for Walmart to have effective systems in place to quickly trace the origin of products in order to maintain high standards of food safety. In early 2017, Walmart and IBM conducted the world's largest proofs of concept using blockchain for food traceability and transparency.

Tina Eliassi-Rad - View Slides

Tina Eliassi-Rad is an associate professor of computer science at Northeastern University in Boston. She is also on the faculty of Northeastern's Network Science Institute. Prior to joining Northeastern, Eliassi-Rad was an associate professor of computer science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Before that she was a member of technical staff and principal investigator at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, CA. Her research is rooted in data mining and machine learning and spans theory, algorithms and applications of massive data from networked representations of physical and social phenomena. Eliassi-Rad earned a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, WI.

About Her Talk

While analytics is now commonplace in the business world, other issues such as fairness and biases inherent in machine learning algorithms are now getting greater attention from business leaders. Eliassi-Rad will address the following questions: What is machine learning? Is there such a thing as just machine learning? If so, is just machine learning possible in our unjust world?

Erich Huang

Erich Huang is a co-director of Duke Forge and assistant dean of biomedical informatics. Huang aims to create a data science culture and infrastructure for biomedical and healthcare research. He is the first faculty recruit to a new initiative and new division at Duke in the Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics leading a Duke University School of Medicine initiative for a data service for biomedical researchers. A few of his leading projects on applied machine learning, user interfaces and visualization of surgical outcomes (Clinical & Analytic Learning Platform for Surgical Outcomes, CALYPSO) and a chronic kidney disease "early warning" system. Huang received a PhD from Duke University in Durham, NC.

About His Talk

The talk will highlight Duke's new initiative in health data science. "Duke Forge" is predicated on "Health Data in Action" and has the ambitious goal of playing a significant role in providing actionable insights and working with the community within the university, the health system and beyond to improve health outcomes. Huang will explain how the Forge provides data science thought leadership through a diverse team of scholars, clinicians and experts spanning multiple disciplines who represent Duke's campus-wide interest in actionable health data science. The Forge is a symbol of creation through transformation—a transformation that entails strenuous work but results in lasting tools capable of improving life and solving big problems.

Panelists

Dayana Cope - The Walt Disney Company

Dayana Cope leads the advanced analytics group at Walt Disney World. Her team focuses on providing analytical insight to solve operational challenges at Disney theme parks and resorts. Throughout her career, Cope has spearheaded the inception and advancement of analytics efforts within global corporations. She serves as the INFORMS Roundtable representative for Disney.

Kenty Adams - Humana

Kenty Adams is responsible for the transformation of the CarePlus Health Plans subsidiary. With data science, advanced analytics and enterprise architecture concepts, he is responsible for the strategy to enhance the company into a digital enterprise. Adams has worked in the governmental domain as a statistician, and in telecom, manufacturing and now in the healthcare insurance domain as an IT leader, and has been an evangelist throughout his career in the data science domain. He has been the catalyst to major data science and innovation initiatives for Fortune 100 companies.

Meagan Corbett - Tableau Software - View Slides

Meagan Corbett developed the Tableau for Teaching program that supports global operations and strategic development. Leading hands-on training workshops for students and professors, she has helped classrooms grow exponentially. Corbett is also working with the USF Muma College of Business Center for Analytics & Creativity on a citizen data science program for undergraduate business students. She received a MBA from Washington State University in Pullman, Wa.

Moez Limayem - Dean of Muma College of Business - View Slides

Moez Limayem joined the USF Muma College of Business in 2012, coming from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. The results from his few years on the job are impressive: the college has received three multi-million-dollar naming gifts and its programs have risen in national rankings. Limayem earned an MBA and PhD in business administration from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota.