This episode of Ken's nearest neighbors is powered by z by hp, hp's high compute workstation grade line of products and solutions. Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Mikiko Bazeley. Miki is an informally-taught Machine Learning Engineer, focused on combining 5+ years of experience in data analytics + data science, growth, & engineering to help make machine learning useful by developing tooling, infrastructure, & processes for data scientists at Mailchimp.Prior to Mailchimp, Miki's worked as a data scientist and analyst in a number of industries like solar, 3d modeling software, anti-piracy tech, health tech and real estate tech for companies like Autodesk, Teladoc, WalkMe, etc.In her spare time, Miki mentors, speaks, and writes about her experiences bootstrapping her learning and succeeding without a Master's or PhD. Her goal is to help shatter the myths around breaking into data science and machine learning and encourage public learning through LinkedIn.Both Miki and I come from a mixed Caucasian and Asian homes, and we talk a lot about how finding ourselves between cultures was both liberating and alienating. She also touches on how she was able to find herself after college by treading her own path that her parents didn't quite understand. Finally we touch on how and why she transitioned from data science to machine learning engineering. This is a loaded episode as we also touched on her experience going through a data science bootcamp.

 Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Kurtis Pykes. Kurtis is a self-taught ML Engineer from London England but describes himself as a global citizen. He currently works as a freelancer for various companies and also maintains his own Medium blog. In the past year, he was voted to have some of the best medium blog content by his peers on linkedin. In his spare time, he likes to read, exercise, and play chess (even though he's pants).  Kurtis has a Fascinating story. We talk about tragedy derailed his professional football career, his scary experience as part of a cult, and how he found purpose and personal growth through the study of machine learning and writing.  I loved chatting with Kurtis, and I'm excited I get to share our conversation with you all. 

 Dr. Wanless researches advanced analytics application to various aspects of sport organization operations from customer relationship management to the diffusion of natural language processing (NLP). In 2021, Dr. Wanless was awarded the Ohio University College of Business Excellence Intellectual Contributions Award as well as the Outstanding Teaching Recognition. Dr. Wanless published more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in outlets including the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, Journal of Sports Analytics, Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, and International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. Additionally, she has given over 60 peer-reviewed and invited presentations at conferences including the North American Society for Sport Management, INFORMS spORts, Sport Marketing Association, Applied Sport Management, Annual Fund Analytics & Execution Symposium, and the National Sports Forum. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Wanless competed for Nike, Asics, the New York Athletic Club, and Team USA as a professional track and field shot putter maintaining top 20 in the world for 5 consecutive years. In 2004, Wanless was recognized as the NCAA Woman of the Year for the state of Maine.  In our conversation today, we talk about how Liz was able target find the same passion for data that she had for athletics, her own experience with impostor syndrome in the male dominated field of sports analytics, and why there aren't more women working in the domain. Liz has an awesome story, and I really enjoyed my chat with her. 

We are actually giving away 4 copies of Tyler's book! Comment on the YouTube video with why you want to learn streamlit for a chance to win one of the copies! You can also win by commenting on the twitter post, my instagram post, or my linkedin post related to this podcast! Tyler is a data scientist at Facebook who recently published a book on the Python library Streamlit called 'Getting Started with Streamlit for Data Science’. He graduated from the University of Florida in 2018, and worked on election integrity problems for nonprofits and research labs while there.

 As an analytics manager, Karen is passionate about how data science and analytics can support businesses and help them better understand their customers. While she finds digging into data fun, she believes that it comes with responsibility, and her uncompromising focus on data integrity enables her to build trust and strong relationships with stakeholders. Most of all, she strives to help others craft their own path to personal and professional fulfilment. She believes that focusing on personal development and having access to role models is key to having a successful career – no matter what your definition of success is. This is why she created the Women in Data Podcast in partnership with Women in Data UK. This resulted in an industry recognition as a Twenty in Data and Technology 2020, which awards visible and accessible female role models for the next generations of data professionals. 

Scott Taylor, The Data Whisperer, has helped countless companies by enlightening business executives to the strategic value of proper data management. He focuses on business alignment and the “strategic WHY” rather than system implementation and the “technical HOW.” As Principal Consultant for MetaMeta Consulting, he helps Enterprises and Tech Brands tell their data story. His book – TELLING YOUR DATA STORY: Data Storytelling for Data Management is available now.An avid business evangelist and original thinker, he continually shares his passion for the value of data through industry events, public speaking opportunities, blogs, videos, whitepapers, podcasts, cartoons, puppets shows and all forms of thought leadership.He lives in Bridgeport, CT where he often kayaks in Black Rock harbor. He can also juggle pins and blow a square bubble.

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Al Bellamy. Al is a data analyst who recently retired from the Marine Corps. He just started working as a Senior Marketing Intelligence Analyst at Annalect, a Marketing and Advertising Analytics agency based in New York. Until recently, he was the social media manager for the How to Get an Analytics Job podcast. He lives in North Carolina with his wife and three sons. He and loves to write and talk about analytics, veteran transition, networking and personal branding. In this episode we go deep in to the lessons that Al learned from the military that he can translate into the data domain. We also talk about his experience breaking into the field as an intern in his 40's. 

Mark Freeman is a community health advocate turned data scientist interested in the intersection of social impact, business and technology. His life’s mission is to improve the well-being of as many people as possible through data – especially among the marginalized. As the founder of On the Mark Data, Mark uses this platform to share impactful ideas via content creation, as well as push for innovation through consulting startups. In this episode we dive we dive deep into mental health in the data science domain, something we both believe needs to be talked about more. We also talk about how community, systems, and culture can help breed resilience and success on our data science journey. I hope you enjoy the episode, I know I had a blast speaking with Mark.

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Jacqueline Nolis. Jacqueline is a data science leader with over 15 years of experience in leading data science teams and projects at companies ranging from DSW to Airbnb. Today she is the Head of Data Science at Saturn Cloud. For fun Jacqueline likes to use data science for humor—like using deep learning to generate offensive license plates. In this episode we talk about some keys to breaking into the data science field, her book on the topic, and how she blends data and art in her side hustle. I hope you enjoy the episode!

This episode of Ken's Nearest Neighbors is Powered by Z by Hp. Hp's High compute, workstation grade line of products and solutions. Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Nicholas Renotte. Nicholas is a Data Science Specialist at IBM with a bunch of experience in helping clients make the most of their data and leverage the best in Machine Learning and Deep Learning. But he didn't start out here, oh no, he actually started out as an accountant, built a startup and somehow along the way found himself loving all things data. When he's not eating pizza or running ultramarathons he's funneling all that data love into making tutorials that help people get started with Data Science, Machine Learning and Deep Learning on YouTube. Nick has some of my favorite computer vision tutorials on YouTube and his channel is one of the first places I personally go to learn some new tools.