Conversations on Applied AI

The conversation this week is with Jacob Solawetz. Jacob is a Machine Learning Lead at RoboFlow where he’s developing and scaling computer vision using autoML model training and deployment. Prior to RoboFlow he was a Senior Quantitative Associate Analyst at Travelers. Jacob holds a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis where he majored in Mathematics, Economics, Philosophy, and Computer Science. That quite a range of things to be studying. I love it! Welcome, Jacob and thank you for being on the program. 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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeComputer VisionMachine LearningLabelingAndrew YangThe War on Normal People1000 BrainsMATLABEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

The conversation this week is with Eri O'Diah. Eri is a seasoned strategist who has been applying experience as a creative at the intersection of Black, immigrant, millennial, women to deconstruct biased systems and advocate for equitable social outcomes. A leading priority of her work currently, is the study of unconscious bias and how deep learning and emerging technologies can be used to better understand and accelerate the deconstruction of cognitive bias and reduce the impact on marginalized groups.Her career highlights include more than 10 years in marketing, entrepreneurial experience; developing and managing complex projects, being 2019 LLS Woman of the Year Nominee, and named 2020 Emerging Business Owner by the National Association of Women Business Owners - Minnesota Chapter.She is a graduate of California State University Northridge with an extensive background in digital marketing strategy, social media, and web development. In her free time, she can be found in a yoga class or volunteering as the regional director of BDPA-Midwest. Most recently Eri has founded SIID. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, SIID™ Technologies applies big data and emerging technologies to evaluate, uncover, and correct the influence of human biases on decision-making and communication. You can learn more at SIID.AI 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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeMurder of George FloydMinnesota NiceEx-Googler Timnit Gebru Starts Her Own AI Research CenterMITMIT IncubatorNazism1619 ProjectCasteWeapons of Math DestructionEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

The conversation this week is with Erik Zwiefel. Erik is is a Director and Technical Specialist in the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning group at Microsoft. He helps customers build out Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence solutions leveraging Microsoft Azure and open source data science packages. Prior to that, he was a Senior Lead Data Scientist at Target as an operational Lead for the Enterprise Data, Analytics, and Business Insights Testing team.He holds a master's degree in business intelligence and has taught graduate-level courses in the Master's of Science Business Intelligence and Analytics program at Saint Josef’s University.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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeBusiness IntelligenceBiochemistrySpotfirePythonAzureEmotional IntelligenceGPT3Accelerating ReturnsStackOverflowSolution ArchitectMLOpsKaggleGitHib CopilotAI and MusicMusic and AIAmazon CodeGuruAssistive TechnologyBrandon Sanderson - Skyward SeriesQuantum ComputingOpen AIAI DungeonJon CoonsAIoTFederated LearningAzure RTOSEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

The conversation this week is all about the intersection of Intellectual Property and Artificial Intelligence! I'm thrilled to have an expert in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Patents, and Intellectual Property on the program. This is an amazing conversation and one in which I learned so much in just a short period of time from our guest, Ryan Phelan!Ryan is a registered U.S. Patent Attorney and partner at the intellectual property law firm of Marshall Gerstein & Borun LLP. He works with everything from startups to Fortune 500 companies to develop and protect their innovations and businesses with IP.  He holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and is a former technology consultant at Accenture. He is also the founder of PatentNext, a Patent and IP law blog focusing on Next-Generation and New Age Technologies. Hs is also an adjunct professor at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law teaching coursework on Patenting Software Inventions in the United States.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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeAccentureFinTechPythonAIoTPatentabilityTrademarkTrade SecretTitle 35Alice DecisionAI Inventor News Article -2021GPT-3Supervised LearningUnsupervised LearningYann LeCunPatent TrollRyan at Marshall GersteinEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

If you are curious how a Data Science leader thinks about applying Artificial Intelligence to physical dynamic systems in the areas of Industrial IoT, then this is the episode for you!QingHui Yuan, a Director of Modeling and Data Science at Donaldson joins us to talk about all of the topics above and much, much more!  Prior to joining Donaldson, he was a manager at Eaton in their Hydraulics Advanced Technology Group. QingHui has Master's Degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical engineering, both from the University of Minnesota.I love QingHui's definition of Artificial Intelligence. He states, "Learn from the past, predict the future."  Spot on and conscience! 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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeControl EngineeringDynamical SystemEmbedded SystemPhysical SystemAutonomous DrivingInternet of Things ( IoT )AI Carbon FootprintEdge ComputingEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

Wow! Where to start. What an amazing interview and opportunity to have Greg Hayes on our program. We had a great conversation on applying Design Thinking and Machine Learning to solve business challenges. We talk through how to bring business stakeholders, R&D teams, and experimentations to apply MLOps at scale with an iterative approach.Greg is a technical leader in Machine Learning Engineering and Advanced Analytics with a strong interest in open source platforms written in Python. He has more than 20 years of experience leading global multi-disciplinary technology teams, and collaborating with global stakeholders to identify and align on new opportunities.  He is currently a Data Science Director at Ecolab and is responsible for leading the selection and deployment of technology platforms to create and operationalize Data Science products at scale.Greg served for many years as a team mentor as a part of the First Robotics Competition with his passion being to encourage the interest in science and technology, and to show kids that science and technology are both fun and rewarding. That’s awesome. I thank you Greg for giving back to help kids in that way and for being on the program today!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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeSix SigmaMachine LearningIn Memory DataDesign ThinkingEthnographyEcolabMLOpsModel RetrainingHuman in the loopPythonSolution ArchitectureKubeflowDistributed ComputingFirst RoboticsDonkey CarAI Racing LeagueDan McCrearyEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

This week I am thrilled to be joined but a serial entrepreneur, engineer, inventor, and pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Peter Voss. Peter coined the term "AGI" (Artificial General Intelligence) in 2001 with fellow luminaries in this fascinating area of Artificial Intelligence.Peter is the Founder/ CEO and Chief Scientist at AGI Innovations and IGO and published a book on Artificial General Intelligence in 2002. He is a technology innovator who has for the past 20 years been dedicated to advancing Artificial General Intelligence. His experience includes founding and growing a technology company from zero to a 400-person IPO. In 2008 Peter founded Smart Action Company, which offers the only call automation solution powered by an AGI engine. Peter is currently focused on commercializing the second generation of his AGI-based "Conversational AI" technology called "Aigo". It is implemented using a brain-like cognitive architecture – also known as "The Third Wave of AI".Peter also has a keen interest in the inter-relationship between philosophy, psychology, ethics, futurism, and computer science. You can follow and read his articles on Medium.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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeAGI InnovationsAGIPaper on the Third Wave of AINarrow ( weak AI )ChatbotsLife ExtensionFuturismRay KurzweilAubrey De GreyDavid SinclairEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

How does one ensure that data models are performing the right tasks as the right time? We've heard a lot about MLOps and in particular Responsible AI. In this episode, I speak with Sabina Stanescu on a number of applications she has worked on in Product Management address many of these points using MLOPs tools and techniques. Besides being the Director of Product Management and Data Analytics at Altair, she enjoys being a lead instructor of Data Analytics at BrainStation, has generously volunteered her time to mentor at a number of Coding Hackathons and Ladies Learning to Code events and speakers regularly at multiple conferences and meetups.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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeAltairMLOpsData ScienceNatural ScienceDevOpsDevOps to MLOpsSeldon CoreMulti-armed BanditA/B TestingMoneyball (film)Khan AcademyCode.orgHour of CodeEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

How do machines on the internet know who and what to trust? As tens of billions of internet-connected devices are already online and billions more added each year, this becomes a real question and one with no easy answer.In this episode, I talk with Jason Shepherd, VP of Ecosystem at edge orchestration company Zededa. Jason shares with us how he helped lead an open-source initiative to form an entire platform to answer these questions of security and trust through a series of fabrics and interconnected ecosystems. We also discuss why open systems, distributed computing will win in the future and how AI at the Edge is changing the way the Internet of Things is being adopted.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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeRun-DMCEdgeXAlvariumApache FoundationAndroid ThingsOperational TechnologyTrust FabricsBlockchainEdge AIKubernetesTinyMLAmbient ComputeInternet of ThingsComputer VisionInnovator's DelimmaBelldiverDefShepherdEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens

Bias in Machine Learning models is a real problem, but also is the lack of representation of women and minorities in the more general Data Science field. Join me this week as I speak with Jessica Meyer about going from the start of her career working at Best Buy in their Marketing department to today being a Principal Data Scientist at Optum.Jessica shares with us both her story and her passion for helping women and minorities be represented in the field of Machine Learning and Data Science. She hosts a popular podcast called Women in Technology Twin Cities and speaks at conferences such as the Women in Analytics & Data Science Virtual Conference this past fall. She is also an Adjunct Faculty Associate at Columbia University working in the School of Professional Studies Analytics Program.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 NorthAppliedAI MeetupResources and Topics Mentioned in this EpisodeBest BuyOptumML OpsAutonomous DrivingNeuralinkThe Moment of Lift ( book )Becoming ( book )WIT Twin CitiesEthics of AIBias in Amazon's Recruiting ToolCourseraKaggleMinneAnalyticsWomen in Analytics ConferenceEnjoy!Your host,Justin Grammens