Dating with Models: A How-to Guide for Programmers and Architects

Summary:

eHarmony was one of the earliest, fastest growing and still one of the largest online dating sites. From the beginning, eHarmony has had data centric models at its very core. Every pair of users that are introduced to each other must pass through psychological compatibility models. Years of matching and communication data is combed through to generate models that predict communication. Over the years eHarmony has evolved its models to more and more sophisticated models that require an ever increasing amount of data, both during training and even more critically during the match creation process.

This presentation, by eHarmony architect Ryan Barker, will start with a brief overview of of the various architectures spanning the last 13 years, followed by an in depth analysis of the current hybrid SOA + Hadoop based architecture. Machine learned dynamic code generation scala models, JMS and REST based services, spring wired Hadoop jobs and various back end processes all producing and consuming a protocol buffer based data model.

Food and Beverages will be Provided by MACRO.CCS.

(Psst: non alcoholic beverages only, though there are talks of doing happy hour afterwards at a santa monica bar if anyone is down...)

Agenda:

7:00pm – Networking, Sipping, Noshing

8:00pm – Recruiting Segment

8:15pm –eHarmony Video – A Social Revolution

8:20pm – 9:30pm – Presentation + Q&A Session

Speaker Bio:
http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/1/7/7/c/event_238206012.jpegRyan Barker graduated with a BS in Computer from UCSD in 2000 and is the software architect of EHarmony.com. He is focused on performance tuning of SOA and hadoop based applications. Recently Ryan and the rest of the matching team completed a redesign of the backend matching system, increasing performance up to 20x in some cases. Previously, Ryan had worked at ITG on their pre-trade transaction cost analysis system.

Company Bio: eHarmony is an online dating website designed specifically to match single men and women for long-term relationships. To optimize the matching process, eHarmony operates eHarmony Labs, a relationship research facility, and publishes eHarmony Advice, a relationship advice site. http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/a/f/c/a/event_236505002.jpeg

Prospective eHarmony members complete a proprietary questionnaire about their characteristics, beliefs, values, emotional health and skills. Matching algorithms, which the company believes matches people's core traits and values to replicate the traits of happy couples, use these answers to match members with compatible users.

A new, complex software technology not only evaluates the answers to the questionnaire but also each user's behavioral data such as average time spent on the site.The software analyzes 500 variables to further optimize the matches and, as a result, there has been a 34% increase in communication between users in the past year. (via Wikipedia)

Sponsor Bio: MACRO.CCS is sponsoring the food+drink for this event. Curious who the heck they are? A West Coast Based IT placement and consulting firm with a focus on relationship building and a tailored, perfect-fit, approach to your career in technology. http://www.macroccs.com

Parking: Park in building and bring your parking tickets for validation