Today we meet Luca, a young Data Scientist working for Target Reply, specialised in delivering Big Data, Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning solutions.
He has been rewarded for delivering great presentations on innovative topics and sharing his knowledge at corporate events. That is why Reply offered him the opportunity to fly to USA and participate at Rework, a Deep Learning summit in San Francisco.
Hey Luca, you just came back from the USA! Tell us more about the event you attended 😉
Sure! Rework is a worldwide conference acting as a melting-pot of theoretical and industrial applications of Deep Learning, from abstract obscure gradient optimisation techniques, to the nitty gritty of containerisation of Machine Learning models.
It happened to be in San Francisco 🏙️, which is kind of a beautiful city to stay in!
What was the most interesting speech you heard?
The most notable speaker, aside from Ian Goodfellow (praise the inventor of GANs) that consistently beams knowledge all around him, was Anirudh Koul, head of AI and Research at AIRA, a company specialised in application for the blind community.
Their app is a real-time talking camera, that describes live and with plenty of details the surroundings, providing a blind person the ability to perceive not only objects and people but also their distance, identity and often mood. The most astonishing example was that of a Haitian teacher 👨🏫 that managed to come home by himself after the 2010 earthquake. AI can (and should) be used for the best!
What stood out to you about the event?
The variety of topics with a common leitmotif, research, industrialisation, computer vision and healthcare. Also, an entire stage dedicated to ethical implications of AI is something that should make us think.
The limitless possibilities should be paired with a commitment to improving human lives. Health and Ethics play an essential role: these technologies are beneficial, but we have to make sure we avoid abusing them.
A slide summarised this concept in a simple punchline: “Can” is not “Should”. AI can be used for a greater good, let’s not waste its potential!
Where will you see AI benefit society the most?
A man much wiser than me once said:
“Leave this world a little better than you found it”
(thumbs up if you get the quote) 👍
Having a background in biomedical engineering, AI has an incredible potential, boosting diagnostic capabilities of specialised doctors, empowering smart prosthetics and aiding millions of people that struggle everyday with tasks that are trivial for us.
Will you apply what you have learnt in your job to improve your work?
The research topics were truly esoteric, with slides so full equations that catching a glimpse of the background colour was a struggle. Aside from that, the track on Machine Learning Engineering (that can be translated as: “deploying models into production in such a way the devops don’t wake you up at night swearing”) is something every single AI professional should study! 📚Deploy responsibly my friends!
Why a student 👩🎓 should join Reply?
Reply is a young, quality-driven, dynamic company where excellence is noticed and rewarded! If you study hard, work hard and train colleagues you get rewarded with treats and trips! Cool, isn’t it!? 😎
