DAML May meetup -- Interactive visualization + Embracing data science hype

Hello Data Nerds!

We're a little behind with announcing this month's meetup, but it's happening! Join us next Tuesday, May 26th, at 6pm at Galvanize in Pioneer Square. As usual, we'll start with socializing over food. Talks will begin at 6:40pm.

We have two great speakers lined up this month: Jeff Heer from University of Washington and Chris Harland from Microsoft. They will tell us about visualization and interactive data analysis, and data science hypes.

http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~jheer/images/heer.png

Jeffrey Heer, University of Washington
Visualization and Interactive Data Analysis

Abstract:

Data analysis is a complex process with frequent shifts among data formats and models, and among textual and graphical media. We are investigating how to better support the lifecycle of analysis by identifying critical bottlenecks and developing new methods at the intersection of data visualization, machine learning, and computer systems. Can we empower users to transform and clean data without programming? How can we support more expressive and effective visualization tools? How might we enable domain experts to guide machine learning methods to produce effective models? This talk will present selected projects that attempt to address these challenges and introduce new tools for interactive visual analysis.

Bio:

Jeffrey Heer is an Associate Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he directs the Interactive Data Lab and conducts research on data visualization, human-computer interaction and social computing. The visualization tools developed by his lab (D3.js, Vega, Protovis, Prefuse) are used by researchers, companies and thousands of data enthusiasts around the world. His group's research papers have received awards at the premier venues in Human-Computer Interaction (ACM CHI, UIST, CSCW) and Information Visualization (IEEE InfoVis, VAST, EuroVis). Other awards include MIT Technology Review's TR35 (2009), a Sloan Foundation Research Fellowship (2012), and a Moore Foundation Data-Driven Discovery Investigator award (2014). Jeff holds BS, MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, whom he then betrayed by joining the Stanford faculty (2009-2013). Jeff is also a co-founder of Trifacta, a provider of interactive tools for scalable data transformation.

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Chris Harland, Microsoft

Embracing Data Science Hype

Abstract:

Humanity is blessed with a plethora of articles about how awesome data science is, all of the amazing things data science has done for humanity, and how the future will be a wonderland of algorithmic bounties. As a data scientist at Microsoft I've seen a wide swath of "canonical data science problems" and I've come to fully embrace the hype. In this talk, we'll cover three popular scenarios (ads, recommendation, and A/B testing) and one lesser known (competitive estimations) by comparing the popular perception of the problems to the reality therein (challenges, approaches, etc...). My goal is to impart a more accurate picture of the scenarios and curate an appreciation for their subtleties and nuances while at the same time "lifting the veil" for those who don't encounter these problems on a regular basis.

Bio:

Chris Harland is a Data Scientist at Microsoft working on problems in Bing search, Windows, and MSN. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Oregon and has worked in a wide variety of fields spanning elementary science education, cutting edge biophysical research, and recommendation/personalization engines.

Chris came to Microsoft and data science by way of the University of Chicago where, after completing a post-doc, he founded a data science consulting start-up where he gained a large array of data science skills. Chris enjoys all things data science from blogging and tutorials to operational models that impact product users every day.

Logistics

6:00pm Food + socializing

6:30pm Quick sponsor comments from Dato and Galvanize

6:40pm Talks

7:40pm More socializing + Q&A

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A note about our sponsors:

Dato, maker of machine learning tools for data scientists, will be providing food. They are organizing the Data Science Summit and Dato Conference (http://conf.dato.com/) this July. Register (https://datasciencesummit15.eventbrite.com/?discount=DAML) with discount code DAML for 20% off the list price.

Galvanize, whose mission is to make education and growth accessible for everyone, will provide space for this meetup. Check out their Data Science Open House (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/data-science-open-house-seattle-tickets-16916883855) on Wednesday, May 20th.