On the season finale, Rea and Ashwin are joined by Sarah Shaik and Nakul Malhotra. The theme of our discussion is 'ethics in technology'

We discuss the example of a smart home speaker (think 'Google Home') and all the ethichal aspects around Google Home's usage and data governance.

Sarah introduces us to the 3 pillars of ethics in technology - 1. rights to data, 2. utilitarianism and 3. Common good while Nakul talks about how there is a need to be cautiously optimistic while developing and adopting technology.

We also talk about the growing influence of the big techs and their responsibility to be ethical while scaling. 

Our guests, Sarah and Nakul work as software engineers/developers in California and are quite passionate about the ethical side of tech.

Their LinkedIn's-

Sarah Shaik- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-shaik/

Nakul Malhotra- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nakulmalhotra/

Links- 

Google Assistant calling a restaurant for a reservation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RHG5DFAjp8

On the 7th episode, we recap Neural Networks and introduce Deep Neural Networks / Deep Learning. We discuss the advantages of Deep Learning , its real-world applications, and how they are different from neural networks. Deep Learning is compute-intensive and when used well, can save thousands of hours while trying to make predictions.

Show notes-

Edu material -

Neural Networks in 5 minutes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfmFfD2RIcg

How Deep Neural Networks Work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILsA4nyG7I0

00.15-2.30 - Recap of Neural Networks

2.30-4.30 - Introduction to topic and business application

4.30- 7.30 - Introduction to deep learning (with retail example)

7.30- Behind the scenes-Neural Networks

10.00- 10.45- Difference between neural networks and deep learning

10.45- 14.00 - How Deep Learning Is self-teaching

14.00- 15.00 Deep Learning and its resource instensive nature

15.00 - 17.15- Benefits of Cloud in enabling deep learning

17.15-19.30 - Summary

19.30-20.00- Special Announcement and wrap up  

On episode 6, we discuss some common day-to-day examples of where AI and ML are being used. For example - Spotify's Discovery feature, Youtube Video Recommendations, Facial Recognition.

We deep dive into the example of how AI and ML tools can help with predicting the value of a property. We understand why and how more data (and inputs) increases the accuracy of whatever we are trying to predict (in this case, the property value).

We also throw in some mild regression and stats references to sound smart but the episode remains simple for the most part to introduce the concept of neural networks.

We discuss the use of these neural networks (a series of algorithms) that enable the AI and ML predictions. We discuss their application in retail (Online shopping like Instacart and Sephora) and how these tools help for better customer repeat purchases and retention. Other industries we touch are real estate as well as raiways.

A relevant Youtube video that summarizes AI/ML - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJeNghZXtMo

0.30' - 1.30' - Topic Introduction

1.30' - 4.00'- Various day-to-day examples

4.00' - 9.00'- Application in Real Estate

10.00' - 13.00' Application in Retail (Instacart and Sephora)

13.00' - 14.00'- Privacy Concerns around data collection

 14.00'- 15 Online Grocery Store Ocado using Dynamic Pricing to decide prices

15.15'- 16.00' How these predictions get better (investment to improve algorithm accuracy by reducing margin of error)

16.00 - 17.30' Application in Railways

17.30' -  19.10' - Summary and wrap up.

On episode 5, we do a brief recap of episodes 1 to 4 and solidify the learnings by discussing the NoSQL Document Database and its application in a real-life marketing scenario.

Have you ever gotten targeted with images of a product on social media only minutes after you mentioned the product to a friend or browsed it on your phone? Listen more to find out how this works!

0'-1.20'- Recap of 1-4 episodes

For the rest of the episode, we discuss a real-life scenario of a consumer being shown images of products on social media that he/she may have browsed only minutes ago. We understand how a NoSQL Document database enables this 'smart marketing'.

We chat about ETL (Export, Transfer and Load) Constraints, Formatting Constraints and other constraints that make SQL databases less favorable than NoSQL Databases for the above mentioned application.

Reference Video to understand NoSQL Document Database- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nigPkP6QeTk

On episode 4, we discuss the types of Relational (SQL) Databases provided by different Cloud Providers and their unique benefits. We break down the terms 'cloud native' and 'cloud capable' services. We discuss ROI, one of the key metrics that helps a company in making a decision about moving to the cloud or not. We also chat about data warehousing and reiterate the value of the cloud.

Relevant links-

Amazon Docs - https://docs.aws.amazon.com/

Amazon ROI Calculator- https://aws.amazon.com/tco-calculator/

Microsoft Docs- https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/?product=featured

Microsoft Calculator-  https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/tco/calculator/

Relevant timestamps:

0-1' Recap

1'-2:30'- Inroducing topic

2.30'-3.20'- Cloud Native Services

3.30-4.15 Cloud Capable Services (Eg- Mongo DB)

4.15'- 7.15'- Integration of cloud native and cloud capable services

7.15'- 8.30 Amazon's Relational Database Offering (RDS and Redshift among others)

8.30' - 9.20' - Data Warehousing

9.20' - 12.20' - Microsoft's Relational Database Offering 

12.20'-13.30'- Business Case for databases

13.30-14'- Google's offerings

14-17.30' - ROI 

17.30' - 20' - Long term benefits of Cloud

20'-22'- Recap

On the third episode of the show, we talk about the different layers of an application and specifically focus on databases. We introduce and breakdown 'SQL' and 'NoSQL' databases. We also talk about their use-cases and benefits while introducing examples like Netflix. We chat about ACID compliance and wrap the episode up, with a quick summary.

Recommended reading- A link that summarises SQL v/s NoSQL pretty well- https://www.thorntech.com/2019/03/sql-vs-nosql/

Relevant timestamps: 

0:30-2:00-Recap of episode 2

2:00-3:15 Different kinds of layers in an application (Presentation, Application and Database)

3:15-4:00 - Introduction to Databases

4:00- 6:00- SQL

6:00-11:15- NoSQL and types of NoSQL Databases (Netflix Example)

11:15-13:00- Document Databases

13:00- 15:00 Wide column databases

15:00-16:00- Graph Databases

16:00-16:40 - How to decide between SQL and NoSQL Databases

16:40-22:00- ACID Compliance 

22:00-24:30- Wrap up and Summary 

On the 2nd episode of 'Tech Talk with Rea Ashwin', we chat about 3 different cloud service  Models- their key features, benefits and examples-

1. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), 2. Platform as a service (PaaS) and 3. Software as a Service (SaaS). Our host, Rea, uses a ‘Pizza cooking’ example to simplify the understanding of the 3 models.  

Relevant timestamps:

0-1.45-Intro

1.45-2.20-Recap

2.20-11.20- IaaS (key features + example)-

11.20-19.30-PaaS

19.30-21.30- SaaS

21.30-23.20- Summary and wrap up

Image of Comparison across 3 models-

https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/saas-vs-paas-vs-iaas-breakdown.jpg

On the first episode of Tech Talk, we talk about the basics of Cloud and what 'cloud computing' means. We elaborate the advantages of Cloud and how it helps businesses be more efficient. We also breakdown the terms- 'Virtualization','Multitenancy' and 'Web Services'- 3 terms that you cannot escape while learning about the cloud.

Relevant timestamps:

1:30-3:00- Intro

3:00-4.30- Defining the cloud

4:30-5:00- What was the world like before the cloud?

5:00-6:00-Different cloud providers in the market

6:00-9:30-3 advantages of the clud for businesses

9:30-11:00- How does Cloud facilitate and quicken the company's go-to-market strategy

11:00-12:15-  How we use the cloud in our daily lives

12.15-14.45- 'Virtualization'

14.45-18.15- 'Multitenancy'

18:15-20:00- 'Web Services'

20:00-20:30- Wrap up

Show notes-

Multitenancy example- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ccSmOxpMw&vl=en

We'd love to hear what you thought about the episode any also about any topics that you'd like us to cover. 

You can reach us at [email protected]

Spotify Link-https://open.spotify.com/show/7xnAWajIE4zyK8AsqkpHCb

Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Tech-Talk-108170184214172

Coming soon on Apple Podcasts and all other podcasting stations

-Rea and Ashwin