The Tech Trek

Meet: Chris Byington is VP of Data at Updater, where he leads the Data team in partnering with stakeholders to bring data to bear on the company’s toughest problems.  Before Updater Chris led Analytics at Heroku, a Salesforce company, where he used data to deeply understand software developers and help them be more successful.  A recovering stats nerd, Chris’s favorite statistical technique is bootstrapping.  He holds a bachelor's degree in French and Economics from Pomona College

What you’ll learn:

Mentoring - if you have ever wanted to become a mentor we have great tips

Mentees - are you looking to find a mentor?

Professionals - so you are a senior IC or a manager and you might want to find a mentor

If you would like to reach out to Chris about anything he discussed on the podcast, please reach out to him via his LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-byington/

Meet: Mahesh Ramasubramanian is the co-founder and CEO of Loom.ai, a San Francisco-based company that has developed an end-to-end deep learning platform for deploying personalized 3D avatars for enterprise applications. With over 15 years of experience leading visual effects for several blockbuster movies at DreamWorks Animation, Mahesh is also a voting member of the Oscars Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

What you’ll learn:

Simplifying - leveraging AI and deep learning to bring a complex Hollywood technology to individual consumers

Deep learning - Loom.ai went from 7 minutes to process an image into an avatar to just seconds

LoomieLive - creating your own personalized 3D avatar

You can reach out to Mahesh via LinkedIn

Give LoomieLIve a try!

Meet: Lisa Mirkovic, VP of Data Engineering at Capital Group. Lisa has been at the Capital Group for over 20 years and is passionate about paying it forward whenever possible, especially within the data and engineering community.

What you’ll learn:

Career Advice - how to be self-aware and be happy in your career

Data Engineering - the key attributes it takes to be a good data engineer

Leveling Up - creating an internal training academy for your organization

If you would like to connect with Lisa please message her on LinkedIn.

Meet: Mike Doll is the Head of Data at Udacity, an online education platform dedicated to training the world's workforce in the careers of the future. Mike is responsible for the functions of data engineering, data science, BI, and analytics.

What you’ll learn:

Nontraditional path - transitioning to data science without having the hard skills

Lean into the curiosity and opportunity - build connections within your organization

Coming up to speed - focused on the longterm, but providing value in the short term

If you want to connect with Mike, please reach out via LinkedIn

In this episode, we talk to Suxi Li, the head of data analytics at Investors Business Daily in Los Angeles, California. They discuss building teams, onboarding through COVID-19, interview tips, and more. Suxi shares his background and extensive experience in data science, business insights, and market research across various industries. He also talks about how he built a centralized data and analytics department at IBD to support different divisions with reporting, analysis, and actionable insights that enable smart business decisions. The episode provides informative insights into building a successful team and utilizing data analytics for business growth.

Highlights:

[00:03:25] Smart Paywall project.

[00:06:26] Building a Strong Data Team.

[00:10:01] Budgeting for new hires.

[00:14:58] Frequent team meetings.

[00:21:29] Analytical thinking in interviews.

[00:26:16] Investing in data analytics future.

[00:28:59] New big data platform.

If you would like to connect with Suxi please visit his LinkedIn profile.

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Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player.

Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com

Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

Sivan Aldor-Noiman, Data Science leader, speaks on the podcast about her transition from academia to industry and why data science is an ideal field for diversifying the industry. She talks about her background in Israel and her experiences managing teams and transitioning back to technical work and data engineering. She describes her current role and the platform her team is working on, designed to enable people to figure out what's healthy and tasty for them.

Highlights:

00:03:48 Data Science for Everyone.

00:10:01 Reduce food waste with smarter shopping.

00:15:38 Academia to industry transition was difficult.

00:17:25 Explore leadership opportunities outside academia.

00:22:48 Prepare for interviews thoroughly.

00:30:56 Gain hands-on experience with data.

00:34:00 Learn business and soft skills.

00:40:06 Develop soft and technical skills.

00:47:04 Women bring ethical awareness to data science.

00:53:33 Government regulation of data.

00:55:26 Mentor and help others.

You can reach out to Sivan via LinkedIn.

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Thank you so much for checking out this episode of The Tech Trek, and we would appreciate it if you would take a minute to rate and review us on your favorite podcast player.

Want to learn more about us? Head over at https://www.elevano.com

Have questions or want to cover specific topics with our future guests?

Meet: Sri Sethupathy, the VP of Data and Analytics at Age of Learning. Sri built the analytics team at Hulu. He has served as an executive advisor to multiple startups and early-stage companies as well.

What you’ll learn:

Building teams - set the right tone with relationships and have the right people in the right roles

Interviewing - do research, be prepared, and be passionate. Your attitude matters.

Hiring - heat skill map to help identify gaps and synergy between all internal teams

Connect with Sri: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vastav

Meet Pedro Alves, founder and CEO of Ople.ai. Pedro founded Ople.ai in 2017. He started Ople with the goal of creating a platform that puts the knowledge and expertise of the world’s leading data scientists at the fingertips of analysts and SMEs.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

ROI - the top 3 things to help establish ROI for AI projects

Democratize AI - allow larger numbers within an organization to use AI and make it commonplace

Data Scientists - how the role of a data scientist will continue to evolve

Bonus tip:

Regret - listen to Pedro’s view on how he deals with the path not taken

Contact Pedro:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroalvesds/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/pedro_data_sci

Meet Raghu Dhara, the Head of Data Science at KeepTruckin. He is a Harvard grad who founded a start-up from his dorm room and was also a staff writer on the Harvard Crimson newspaper.

What you’ll learn:

Entrepreneurship - do’s and don'ts of building a start-up

Skills - what data scientist need to do to up their skills and stay relevant

Hiring - what to put on your resume and interviewing tips

Bonus tip

Founder’s view - there is a lot more to starting a company than just coding - market validation is a must

Today’s guest is Jon Morra, the Chief Data Scientist at Zefr, in episode #2 of The Tech Trek. Jon founded a start-up early in his career and was the Director of Data Science at eHarmony before his current position at Zefr. He’s a member of the LA CTO Forum and organizer of the LA Machine Learning Meetup. 

Highlights

01:56 - Jon reflects on his experience leading a time during the pandemic.

04:46 - How selective should you be when hiring new employees?

12:08 - Tips for re-energizing and re-focusing overworked teams.

16:59 - What’s the hardest skill to develop as a leader?

22:33 - John shares the traits he looks for when hiring.