This week we spoke to Deborah, who split her PEY between 12 months at Clarifai in New York City and 4 months at the MIT Media Lab!

Notes:

1:20 - getting into engineering, previous work experience and first jobs at JR Deep and with Project Include, becoming interesting in working in tech

3:45 - developing skills through attending lots of hackathons, attending TechCrunch Disrupt!

6:20 - learning about Clarifai in NYC and computer vision in school, deciding on doing PEY

10:00 - Embarking on a campaign to find a job at a startups, getting a job at Clarifai

13:00 - Work experience at Clarifai, startup work culture

18:10 - Transitioning to a role that felt more like a full-time position

20:05 - Living in Manhattan, moving to Brooklyn

22:20 - Neighborhood culture, comparing Toronto, Ottawa, and NYC, having space for personal growth

27:42 - Summer research at MIT Media Lab, "anti-disciplinary research"

30:45 - Finding out about the researcher through a TED Talk, research in algorithmic/data bias

36:17 - Other things going on at the lab, prosthetics, "do-ocracy" vs a meritocracy

39:58 - Constraints of industry vs. research, justifying research, corporate sponsored research

43:20 - Life outside of work, meeting cool hip musical friends in Cambridge

45:24 - Differences between MIT and UofT, "intersession", alumni relations

52:02 - Coming back and appreciating Toronto in a new way, changes to plans for 4th year

56:00 - Mentorship, machine learning twitter

Links:

Twitter: @rajiinio

Music by Shawn Lee