Scatter Podcast

Scatter Podcast host Javier Orraca moderates a data science career panel hosted by R-Ladies Irvine. Tune in to hear five ladies in different data science industries discuss their academic and career journeys. This episode is loaded with career advice and recommendations on how to break into analytics and data science. Special thanks to Alyssa Columbus and Madeline Bauer of R-Ladies Irvine for helping make this event a reality! Enjoy the show and please visit the links below for more information.

Panelists on LinkedIn:

Colleen Kelly, PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenlkelly/

Leondra James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leondrajames/

Zhi Yang, PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhiiiyang/

Tiffany Collins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/punkrawkboss/

Karin Kricorian, PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinkricorian/

R-Ladies Irvine resources:

Career Panel Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nYLu6V3Nvz8

R-Ladies Irvine homepage: https://www.rladiesirvine.org/

GitHub: https://github.com/rladies-irvine/presentations

On Episode 29 of Scatter Podcast, Joel interviews guest Alex Johnson, Founder of Plotly, a leading platform and library (Python & R) for creating data analytics visualizations.

Scatter Podcast interview with Carlos Brown, Data Scientist at Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting services to the public and commercial markets. Passionate about his job, Carlos talks to us about the power of telling stories with data. Using open source programming tools, machine learning, statistics, and data visualization, Carlos helps his clients solve challenging business problems. We discuss what life as a data scientist in business consulting is like, data privacy issues, as well as how to begin and succeed in this niche. Enjoy the show!

Links:

Carlos Brown's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-brown-eit/

Guidehouse: https://guidehouse.com/

After several months of break, Scatter Podcast is back and excited to introduce its new co-host, Joel Dayrit. Joel is an Associate Data Analyst at Kung Fu Factory, an independent gaming developer of popular mobile games based in Los Angeles, CA. At Kung Fu Factory, Joel analyzes everything from player activity to in-game data, looking for insights into behavior and finding opportunities to capitalize on creating engagement and giving users an improved experience.

Joel is one of the smartest people that I've collaborated with and he pivoted his career to data science after 14 years with Symbol Sciences, a Philippines based hardware and solutions provider for automatic identification and data collection systems. Joel's analytics tools of choice include the R programming language and Excel. Aside from analytics, Joel enjoys photography, robotics, and LEGOs. :-)

Welcome, Joel, to the Scatter Podcast team!

Links:

Joel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-dayrit/

Kung Fu Factory: http://www.kungfufactory.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Jonathan Regenstein, Director of Financial Services at RStudio. Having spent several years at J.P. Morgan where he worked alongside quantitative analysts and researchers, Jonathan turned from Excel to R for more robust reporting, visualizations, and reproducibility of financial models. After joining RStudio, he continued to develop his R programming skills and eventually authored "Reproducible Finance with R - Code Flows and Shiny Apps for Portfolio Analysis."

For anyone interested in careers at the intersection of Finance and Data Science, or anyone interested in learning more about R, this episode is certainly a treat. We cover a lot popular packages, programming best practices, and upcoming tools that will enhance your modeling work flows. He offers a ton of valuable insights, be sure to follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter, and enjoy the show!

Links:

Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkregenstein/

Jonathan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jkregenstein

Reproducible Finance with R: https://www.amazon.com/Reproducible-Finance-Portfolio-Analysis-Chapman/dp/1138484032

RStudio: https://rstudio.com/

Shiny: https://shiny.rstudio.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Matt Dancho, CEO and lead Data Science instructor at Business Science University. I'm currently enrolled in Matt's R Shiny 102 course and have really enjoyed his training style full with sample code and video explanations of his modules. If you're interested in developing your analytics and data science chops with R, Matt's offering a special 15% discount for his 4-course R machine learning bundle (discount link below!). Matt is an incredible educator and passionate about adding value to the business organization through machine learning and artificial intelligence. Enjoy the episode, follow Matt on LinkedIn, and subscribe to Scatter Podcast if you enjoy what you're hearing!

Links:

Business Science: https://www.business-science.io

Matt's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattdancho/

15% off R 4-course bundle: https://university.business-science.io/p/4-course-bundle-machine-learning-and-web-applications-r-track-101-102-201-202a/?coupon_code=scatterpodcast

Scatter Podcast interview with Christina Stathopoulos, Analytical Consultant at Google and Adjunct Professor at IE Business School in Madrid. Christina has a BS in Science, Technology, and Society from North Carolina State University and holds a MS in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE Business School in Madrid. Having spent seven years in Spain and traveling frequently for business, workshops, and leisure, Christina shares a unique, international perspective on the state of data science and the tech world in 2019. At Google, she uses advanced analytics tools to drive insightful and actionable business impact for her clients to achieve their marketing goals. Christina is also a facilitator of Google's #IamRemarkable initiative to empower women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond. For two years, Christina has also been an Adjunct Professor at IE Business School, teaching Big Data and Analytics-related courses for MBA students.

I really enjoyed getting to know more about Christina's work and she provides a lot of great resources to learn more about analytics and data science topics. We had an engaging discussion around diversity and inclusion in the tech world, and potential ways to tackle the inequality gap. Enjoy the show and feel free to reach out to Christina directly via LinkedIn!

Links:

Christina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinastathopoulos/

Google's #IAmRemarkable: https://iamremarkable.withgoogle.com

Extended Show Notes: https://www.javierorraca.com/scatterpodcast/episode-024/

Scatter Podcast interview with Hayden Balow, Organizational Development Analyst at Blizzard Entertainment. In the mid-1990's, I was a fanatic of the Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft series so I really enjoyed hearing how Hayden's team utilizes research, statistics, and people analytics to make the Blizzard work environment better for their employees. Hayden attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth for his Bachelor of Applied Science in Psychology, and he received his Masters in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Lamar University. Hayden kicked off his career as a People Data Analyst at Zappos and later moved to Blizzard, so he's got solid academic and practical experiences in people analytics.

I am personally very interested in people analytics so I enjoyed understanding the kinds of problems that are being tackled by I-O Psychologists and People Analytics professionals. Hayden describes some of the latest trends in this space including how NLP and organizational network analyses are being used to understand employee sentiment, organizational outcomes, drivers for churn, ROI on company trainings, etc. Hayden wrote an extended list of people analytics resources that are posted on my blog so be sure to check that out and enjoy the show!

Links:

Hayden's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenbalow/

SoCal People Analytics group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13609176/

Extended Show Notes & Resources: https://www.javierorraca.com/scatterpodcast/episode-023/

Scatter Podcast interview with Will Chase, Data Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. I stumbled upon one of Will's interactive, web-based data visualizations ("Visualizing Risk: Remotely Triggered Earthquakes" - link below) and was fascinated by the way he leveraged the power of R, Mapbox, and D3 for this stunning data storytelling project. Will has a BS in Microbiology and is almost entirely self-taught in the programming, data science, and advanced visualization space. He provides solid resources throughout the episode and lists some of his favorite, world-renowned data visualization designers, and it's great to see him contributing back to the data science community by open-sourcing as many projects as he can. Will is a great resource for anyone wanting to up the ante on their visualization skills. He's responsive via email, Twitter, and GitHub, and I'd definitely recommend following Will on your platform of choice... I have no doubt that he'll rise to be a visualization influencer in the years to come. Enjoy the show!

Links:

Will's website: https://www.williamrchase.com

Will's visualizing risk project: https://www.williamrchase.com/vizrisk/vizrisk_main/

Will's Twitter: https://twitter.com/W_R_Chase

Will's GitHub: https://github.com/will-r-chase

Scatter Podcast interview with Ben Taylor, Co-Founder and Chief AI Officer at Zeff. I met Ben at the Data Science GO conference in 2018 and was blown away by his artificial intelligence experience and thoughts about how to break into data science. Self-described "PhD dropout," Ben taught himself programming and data science and has a sincere passion for transforming the field with AI. Prior to founding Zeff, he held various roles including hedge fund Quantitative Analyst, Data Scientist, and Chief Data Scientist. He attributes his success in part to his stubbornness and continuously pushing current technological limits.

Ben discusses a fascinating AI side project that he's been developing - an AI-operated Call of Duty player that battles humans over Xbox Live! We talk about career tips for students, resources for business managers, hiring complexities, data science conferences, and how to find balance between work and family life. Great conversations and I had a blast having him on the show. Enjoy!

Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bentaylordata/

Zeff: https://zeff.ai

Data Science GO: https://www.datasciencego.com