The eXeML Conference opens in Sandton today and I am one of twelve American and South African leaders in Machine Learning sharing their knowledge.
When successfully implemented, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence can have a profound effect on the landscape of the industries it is used in and Polymorph was chosen as one of the companies to showcase how we are successfully implementing Machine Learning as a solution to transform and increase productivity.
With over a decade of training engineers and executives in cutting edge science and technology, Nikolaos Vasiloglou, is the perfect founder for a conference on Machine Learning. As Vasiloglou states “[d]iscovery is probably the easiest step and not enough”, thus a conference that brings together experienced practitioners and focus on education to ensure that “Executive ML is Machine Learning in practice!”
Discussions, presentations and the curriculum of learning will focus on established and growing South African markets such as retail, finance, security, mining, healthcare, manufacturing, transport, energy and education. As Vasiloglou states, “you don’t need a PhD in science or math to follow this curriculum. After spending a day with us you will not only learn about the trends in ML, but you will learn recipes and lessons that you can immediately apply in your organization”.
My talk is entitled “Combining Behavioural Science and the Internet of Things with ML to increase efficiency” and will discuss how insights from behavioural science provide greater understanding of psychological factors that determine human behaviour. My belief is that Machine Learning, behavioural science and IoT can improve our health, our working lives and ensuring that the machinery we use improves to be efficient and safe.
I am honoured to be sharing the stage and to learn from some great South African and American speakers:
- Beverly Wright, Executive Director, Business Analytics Center, Georgia Tech Business School Analytics Center (USA) will be discussing business executives’ perceptions of Machine Learning. Focusing on defining Machine Learning, what the best applications are, the limitations and barriers as well as the outlook of business executives on the future of machine learning.
- Wes Chaar, Senior Vice President, Analytics, Data and Decision Sciences, Turner/TimeWarner, (USA) will discuss the changing landscape of advertising, data sources and how to create scalable solutions using Machine Learning
- Skyler Speakman, Research Scientist, IBM Africa (Kenya) will take us through an investigation of how using Machine Learning in mobile phone based credit scoring led to a successful implementation recommending the credit product to an additional 1 million customers compared to the bank’s original method while demonstrating a lower default rate
- Frans Cronjé, Founder, DataProphet SA will present a case study of DataProphet’s solutions. This will focus on how unsupervised machine learning techniques can be used to discover new relationships in order to reduce scrap, improve yield and lower operating expense variation
- Mohamed Aly, Founder and CEO, Seeloz (USA) will present a case study on Data-Driven operational efficiency for the enterprise highlighting the roadblocks facing Machine Learning and AI driven automation. As well as showcase successful attempts for disrupting end-to-end value chains such as FMCG & Healthcare using scalable machine learning platforms
- Alex Conway, Founder and CTO NumberBoost (SA) will give us an understanding of what’s possible by presenting real world case studies of state of the art approaches to various computer vision problems
- David Elliott, Global Product lead , Enterprise Cloud, Google (USA) will highlight how Google uses Machine Learning to optimize internal processes. Showing practical examples of Machine Learning in action
- Chris Currin, PhD Candidate in Computational Neuroscience, University of Cape Town will talk about chatbots. Their ‘personalities’, the architecture, logic and systems required to make them ‘tick’
- Tshilidzi Marwala, Professor and Vice Chancellor, University of Johannesburg will highlight examples of how Artificial intelligence (neural networks, particle swarm optimization, simulated annealing, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms) is applied to creating models of diverse areas such as the stock market, credit scoring, the spread of HIV and interstate conflict.
- Marc van Heerden, Senior Specialist, Advanced Analytics, Bain and Company, SA will discuss the impact of using analytics in insurance on claims loss prediction and pricing and how this will change the way insurers do business
- Founder of eXeML, Nick Vasiloglou will discuss the challenges of cybersecurity in the era of artificial intelligence, the methods and algorithms for fighting cybercrime and practical examples
- The day closes with a panel discussion on in-house or outsourcing AI/Analytics in a large corporation. The role of start-ups and consulting firms in the AI transformation of large enterprises moderated by Theunis Jansen van Rensburg, Head of Commercial Analytics, Wonga, SA
Please contact us to see how Machine Learning can benefit your organisation!
