Conversations on Applied AI

I’m so happy that Nick Walton took time out of his busy schedule to join us and talk about human and AI collaboration. This was one of my favorite conversations on the Applied AI Podcast! Nick is the CEO and founder of Latitude, a company working to develop unique, immersive virtual experiences with cutting-edge machine learning technology. Nick attended Brigham Young University, where he received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and since graduating has been working in the areas of autonomous driving and as an AI research assistant before starting Latitude in 2019.

Latitude is currently hiring!

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future AppliedAI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• AI Dungeon
• AI Dungeon - History
• GPT-2
• GPT-3
• NLP
• Zork
• Dragon Model
• Open AI
• Tensorflow
• Pytorch
• T5
• Transfer Learning
• Greedy Algorithm
• Just For Fun
• Skyrim
• Her ( Movie )

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

Amazing topic and conversation! In this episode, Fatma Kocer talks with Justin Grammens about the fascinating work she and the team at Altair are by using Data Science and modeling to improve product design using structural optimization. Her quote that just being a Data Scientist, but needing to "know the domain" today, is spot on and very insightful. There are many other great quotes and insights from Fatma in this episode!

Fatma has received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, and an MSc and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Iowa in Structural Optimization. Currently, she works as the Vice President for Engineering Data Science at Altair. In this role, she and her team work on engineering data science strategy, development, and execution which includes investigating and applying the latest technologies in the field, providing feedback into Altair's software, and supporting customer projects. 

Fatma is also a huge source of inspiration for women in the areas of STEM and education. as she is one of the recipients of Crain’s 2019 Notable Women in STEM recognition.

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• AppliedAI Meetup in July 2020
• Structural Optimization
• Loss Function
• Computer Simulation
• Crash Simulations
• A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
• Differential Equation
• CAD
• Coursera

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

In this episode, Tyler Nigon shares with Justin Grammens his deep experience in production level agriculture and some of the cool ways AI is being applied to his field.

Tyler is a Ph.D. Candidate in Land and Atmospheric Science at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Soil, Water, and Climate. Tyler is passionate about sustainable agricultural productivity. His research focuses on evaluating remote sensing and other precision agriculture tools to reduce fertilizer loss and keep our soil and water resources clean and productive.

Tyler has been learning and applying AI techniques during his statistical training and graduate studies and he says that he finds AI to be a useful tool for the agricultural sector, not only in research but in practice as well.

Tyler also recently co-founded Insight Sensing (together with a fellow Ph.D. candidate at the U) as part of the National Science Foundation Small Business Technology Transfer program.

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• GIS
• Remote Sensing
• Hyper Spectral Imaging
• Reprogramming the American Dream
• Multi Spectrical
• Planet Scope Imagery
• Regression Analysis
• Support Vector Machine
• Petiole Nitrate Sampling
• Precision Agriculture

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

Super excited the share the conversation I had with Nicholas Heller. Nick is PhD student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota -- Twin Cities.

Nick's research focuses on the development and validation of clinical prediction models for risk stratification and treatment planning in genitourinary cancer, especially renal cell carcinoma. In particular, he's interested in the use of deep learning to incorporate tumor appearance into prediction models in more expressive and objective ways while maintaining transparency and biological plausibility.

Nick shares some really good books that I have listed in the notes below. Please reach out to Nick on his personal UMN page.

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• Medical Imaging
• Classification
• Segmentation
• Amazon Mechanical Turk
• Bias and Unbiased
• BraTS Dataset
• BraTS on Kaggle
• KiTS Challenge
• Nick’s Github Repository
• Nick’s KiTS Data
• Transfer Learning
• Cross-Sectional Imaging
• 510(K) Clearance
• Andrew Ng
• Michael Neilson
• Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning
• Intro to Statistical Learning
• Deep Medicine

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

I’m so happy to have had the opportunity to interview Tina Nguyen for this podcast. In this episode, Tina shares how she came from humble beginnings in Vietnam to go to college, receiving multiple master's degrees, an MBA, and now is an ML/AI Portfolio Manager at U.S. Bank in their Data Science department. Tina calls the women in her life a major strength in helping set her work ethic to arrive where she is at today.

She is also on the executive board of directors at Northpoint Health and Wellness Center and a Woman of the Year Legends Award Winner from the Leukemia and Lymphoma society.

In an extremely inspirational interview, you'll learn that Tina is a real go-getter and I fully believe that everything she sets her sights on, she will achieve.

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• Augsburg University
• Predictive Modeling
• Marketing Mix Modeling
• Multi-Touch Attribution
• Graph Theory
• Differential Equations
• Applied Mathematics
• The War on Normal People 
• NIPS Conference
• ATM Skimming
• Ethical AI
• GDPR
• ICML
• Neural IPS
• Conflict Management
• One Dimensional Man

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

In this episode, we speak with Jake Mason, a Senior Data Scientist at Carrot Health. Prior to his current role, he was at United Health Group where he developed and lead teams building real-time machine learning applications. Outside of his professional work, Jake has been a cofounder of two awesome meetup groups here in the Twin Cities. The first is "Analyze This" a group that focused on creating data science challenges by teams from data scientists in the community to help non-profits or other organizations achieve what they would have not been able to do themselves. Likewise, his next group, StarEightyTwo was on a mission is to help individuals learn analytics while creating positive change for nonprofits, businesses, and the public sector.

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• Venn Diagram of Data Science
• Reprogramming the American Dream
• Nasim Taleb
• Daniel Kahneman
• Signal & The Noise
• Visual Studio Code
• RStudio
• Python
• R
• Analyze This!
• Logistic Regression
• Machine Learning
• XGBoost
• Ensemble Learning
• PJReddie
• Mapping Prejudice
• Continuous Learning
• MinneAnalytics

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

This episode is a followup from some of the great conversations we had with Dave Mathais back in Episode 6! This time around, Dave and I riff on all the various online courses, meetups ( Hint -- AppliedAI.MN ), and data challenges that both compies and communities are holding to help elevate and build a community around what's possible with Artificial Intelligence.

Finally, if you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• Fast.AI
• TWIML
• Twin Cities Deep Learning Study Group
• DeepLearning.AI
• Peter Thiel
• 5AM Club
• Flipped Classroom
• SciTech Experience
• DevPost

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

In this episode, we go deep with the always fascinating and expert in the field of data, Statistics, and Six Sigma Master Black Belt, Kevin Church.

A chemical engineer by training and applied statistician by vocation, Kevin has more than 20 years of experience in the practical application of statistical thinking and the scientific approach to improve business performance. Kevin helps organizations by leading teams on Predictive Analytics, Executive Coaching, and everything in between. He’s spent the past 3 years at United Healthgroup / Optum and has been involved in co-founding and building multiple meetup groups that focus on educating attendees on data science through competitions that help non-profits.

We cover a ton of ground this episode. Everything from where Kevin got his start, how he has been able to continually apply first principals from W. Edward Deming, Six Sigma to dozens of challenges in his career that involve data and touching on the applications of Artificial Intelligence to create profound knowledge and delighting the customer.

If you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events!

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Here's just a few of the many fun and interesting topics discussed during this podcast:

• W. Edwards Deming
• Profound Knowledge
• Six Sigma
• Data Science Venn Diagram
• Decision Tree Models
• Control Chart
• Fishbone Diagram
• Independent & Dependent Variables
• Interactions
• Weapons of Math Destruction
• Dan Atkins
• Overfitting
• MinneAnalytics
• Amy Lindgren
• Black Swan Theory
• The Signal and the Noise

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

Our guest today is Parker Erickson! Parker is currently a student at the University of Minnesota pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science. Interested in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and graph databases. He’s also been a software engineering Intern at Optum and has developed, among many things a fraud detection system using graph databases and machine learning. The system is currently in the patent process.

In this episode, Parker shares some of the projects he has built while his time at Optum and a number of others that he’s building in his own spare time. You can check out Parker’s Github account for all the gory details.

Finally, if you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events!

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Here's just a few of the many fun and interesting topics discussed during this podcast:

• Graph Convolutional Neural Networks
• AI Racing League
• Baseball Pitch Prediction
• AlphaGo Documentary
• The Master Algorithm
• The Book of Why
• Genetic Algorithm
• Software 2.0
• Linear Regression
• StatCast
• PyBaseball
• Wins Above Replacement ( WAR )
• Parker's Medium Blog

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens

In this episode, we are joined by Dave Mathias. Dave is a Data & Product Coach at Beyond The Data and host of the Data Able Podcast. He’s also a leader in the Data Science and Analytics community having founded many meetups, conferences and is on the board of MinneAnalytics. Dave shares with us his deep experience in using data within originations to make better product decisions. We also touch on AI and generalized learning along with what the world might look like if Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) becomes a reality and human relationships in movies such as Ex Machina and Her. We also touch on a few online courses that our listeners might be interested in taking to learn more about applying Artificial Intelligence to their particular domain.

Since recording this, I had a followup conversation with Dave specifically on Education and AI, which will be coming in a future episode!

Finally, if you are interested in learning about how AI is being applied across multiple industries, be sure to join us at a future Applied AI Monthly meetup and help support us so we can make future Emerging Technologies North non-profit events! 

• Emerging Technologies North
• AppliedAI Meetup

Resources and Topics Mentioned in this Episode

• Twin Cities (Data) Visualization Group
• Twin Cities Data Fluency Group
• Product Camp Twin Cities
• Customer Focus North
• Generalized Learning
• The Differences Between Artificial and Biological Neural Networks
• Homo Deus
• Data ( Star Trek )
• Radio Isn’t Dying
• AI for Everyone
• Liberal Arts Education

Enjoy!
Your host,
Justin Grammens