Career advice, learning, and featuring women in ML and AI - Isabella Bicalho
In this podcast episode, we talked with Isabella Bicalho about Career advice, learning, and featuring women in ML and AI.
About the Speaker:
Isabella is a Machine Learning Engineer and Data Scientist with three years of hands-on AI development experience. She draws upon her early computational research expertise to develop ML solutions. While contributing to open-source projects, she runs a newsletter dedicated to showcasing women's accomplishments in data science.
During this event, the guest discussed her transition into machine learning, her freelance work in AI, and the growing AI scene in France. She shared insights on freelancing versus full-time work, the value of open-source contributions, and developing both technical and soft skills. The conversation also covered career advice, mentorship, and her Substack series on women in data science, emphasizing leadership, motivation, and career opportunities in tech.
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Background of Isabella Bicalho
2:02 Transition to machine learning
4:03 Study and work experience
5:00 Living in France and language learning
6:03 Internship experience
8:45 Focus areas of Inria
9:37 AI development in France
10:37 Current freelance work
11:03 Freelancing in machine learning
13:31 Moving from research to freelancing
14:03 Freelance vs. full-time data science
17:00 Finding first freelance client
18:00 Involvement in open-source projects
20:17 Passion for open-source and teamwork
23:52 Starting new projects
25:03 Community project experience
26:02 Teaching and learning
29:04 Contributing to open-source projects
32:05 Open-source tools vs. projects
33:32 Importance of community-driven projects
34:03 Learning resources
36:07 Green space segmentation project
39:02 Developing technical and soft skills
40:31 Gaining insights from industry experts
41:15 Understanding data science roles
41:31 Project challenges and team dynamics
42:05 Turnover in open-source projects
43:05 Managing expectations in open-source work
44:50 Mentorship in projects
46:17 Role of AI tools in learning
47:59 Overcoming learning challenges
48:52 Discussion on substack
49:01 Interview series on women in data
50:15 Insights from women in data science
51:20 Impactful stories from substack
53:01 Leadership challenges in projects
54:19 Career advice and opportunities
56:07 Motivating others to step out of comfort zone
57:06 Contacting for substack story sharing
58:00 Closing remarks and connections
🔗 CONNECT WITH ISABELLA BICALHO
Github: github https://github.com/bellabf
LinkedIn: / isabella-frazeto
🔗 CONNECT WITH DataTalksClub
Join DataTalks.Club: https://datatalks.club/slack.html
Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html
Datalike Substack - https://datalike.substack.com/
LinkedIn: / datatalks-club
--------
54:40
AI in Industry: Trust, Return on Investment and Future - Maria Sukhareva
Reflection on an Almost Two-Year Journey of Generative AI in Industry – Maria Sukhareva
About the speaker:
Maria Sukhareva is a principal key expert in Artificial Intelligence in Siemens with over 15 years of experience at the forefront of generative AI technologies. Known for her keen eye for technological innovation, Maria excels at transforming cutting-edge AI research into practical, value-driven tools that address real-world needs. Her approach is both hands-on and results-focused, with a commitment to creating scalable, long-term solutions that improve communication, streamline complex processes, and empower smarter decision-making. Maria's work reflects a balanced vision, where the power of innovation is met with ethical responsibility, ensuring that her AI projects deliver impactful and production-ready outcomes.
We talked about:
00:00 DataTalks.Club intro
02:13 Career journey: From linguistics to AI
08:02 The Evolution of AI Expertise and its Future
13:10 AI vulnerabilities: Bypassing bot restrictions
17:00 Non-LLM classifiers as a more robust solution
22:56 Risks of chatbot deployment: Reputational and financial
27:13 The role of AI as a tool, not a replacement for human workers
31:41 The role of human translators in the age of AI
34:49 Evolution of English and its Germanic roots
38:44 Beowulf and Old English
39:43 Impact of the Norman occupation on English grammar
42:34 Identifying mushrooms with AI apps and safety precautions
45:08 Decoding ancient languages like Sumerian
49:43 The evolution of machine translation and multilingual models
53:01 Challenges with low-resource languages and inconsistent orthography
57:28 Transition from academia to industry in AI
Join our Slack: https://datatalks.club/slack.html
Our events: https://datatalks.club/events.html
--------
52:58
Large Hadron Collider and Mentorship – Anastasia Karavdina
We talked about:
00:00 DataTalks.Club intro
00:00 Large Hadron Collider and Mentorship
02:35 Career overview and transition from physics to data science
07:02 Working at the Large Hadron Collider
09:19 How particles collide and the role of detectors
11:03 Data analysis challenges in particle physics and data science similarities
13:32 Team structure at the Large Hadron Collider
20:05 Explaining the connection between particle physics and data science
23:21 Software engineering practices in particle physics
26:11 Challenges during interviews for data science roles
29:30 Mentoring and offering advice to job seekers
40:03 The STAR method and its value in interviews
50:32 Paid vs unpaid mentorship and finding the right fit
About the speaker:
Anastasia is a particle physicist turned data scientist, with experience in large-scale experiments like those at the Large Hadron Collider. She also worked at Blue Yonder, scaling AI-driven solutions for global supply chain giants, and at Kaufland e-commerce, focusing on NLP and search. Anastasia is a mentor for Ml/AI, dedicated to helping her mentees achieve their goals. She is passionate about growing the next generation of data science elite in Germany: from Data Analysts up to ML Engineers.
Join our Slack: https://datatalks .club/slack.html
--------
54:13
MLOps as a Team - Raphaël Hoogvliets
We talked about:
00:00 DataTalks.Club intro
02:34 Career journey and transition into MLOps
08:41 Dutch agriculture and its challenges
10:36 The concept of "technical debt" in MLOps
13:37 Trade-offs in MLOps: moving fast vs. doing things right
14:05 Building teams and the role of coordination in MLOps
16:58 Key roles in an MLOps team: evangelists and tech translators
23:01 Role of the MLOps team in an organization
25:19 How MLOps teams assist product teams
27 :56 Standardizing practices in MLOps
32:46 Getting feedback and creating buy-in from data scientists
36:55 The importance of addressing pain points in MLOps
39:06 Best practices and tools for standardizing MLOps processes
42:31 Value of data versioning and reproducibility
44:22 When to start thinking about data versioning
45:10 Importance of data science experience for MLOps
46:06 Skill mix needed in MLOps teams
47:33 Building a diverse MLOps team
48:18 Best practices for implementing MLOps in new teams
49:52 Starting with CI/CD in MLOps
51:21 Key components for a complete MLOps setup
53:08 Role of package registries in MLOps
54:12 Using Docker vs. packages in MLOps
57:56 Examples of MLOps success and failure stories
1:00:54 What MLOps is in simple terms
1:01:58 The complexity of achieving easy deployment, monitoring, and maintenance
Join our Slack: https://datatalks .club/slack.html
--------
55:36
Using Data to Create Liveable Cities - Rachel Lim
We talked about:
00:00 DataTalks.Club intro
01:56 Using data to create livable cities
02:52 Rachel's career journey: from geography to urban data science
04:20 What does a transport scientist do?
05:34 Short-term and long-term transportation planning
06:14 Data sources for transportation planning in Singapore
08:38 Rachel's motivation for combining geography and data science
10:19 Urban design and its connection to geography
13:12 Defining a livable city
15:30 Livability of Singapore and urban planning
18:24 Role of data science in urban and transportation planning
20:31 Predicting travel patterns for future transportation needs
22:02 Data collection and processing in transportation systems
24:02 Use of real-time data for traffic management
27:06 Incorporating generative AI into data engineering
30:09 Data analysis for transportation policies
33:19 Technologies used in text-to-SQL projects
36:12 Handling large datasets and transportation data in Singapore
42:17 Generative AI applications beyond text-to-SQL
45:26 Publishing public data and maintaining privacy
45:52 Recommended datasets and projects for data engineering beginners
49:16 Recommended resources for learning urban data science
About the speaker:
Rachel is an urban data scientist dedicated to creating liveable cities through the innovative use of data. With a background in geography, and a masters in urban data science, she blends qualitative and quantitative analysis to tackle urban challenges. Her aim is to integrate data driven techniques with urban design to foster sustainable and equitable urban environments.
Links: - https://datamall.lta.gov.sg/content/datamall/en/dynamic-data.html
00:00 DataTalks.Club intro
01:56 Using data to create livable cities
02:52 Rachel's career journey: from geography to urban data science
04:20 What does a transport scientist do?
05:34 Short-term and long-term transportation planning
06:14 Data sources for transportation planning in Singapore
08:38 Rachel's motivation for combining geography and data science
10:19 Urban design and its connection to geography
13:12 Defining a livable city
15:30 Livability of Singapore and urban planning
18:24 Role of data science in urban and transportation planning
20:31 Predicting travel patterns for future transportation needs
22:02 Data collection and processing in transportation systems
24:02 Use of real-time data for traffic management
27:06 Incorporating generative AI into data engineering
30:09 Data analysis for transportation policies
33:19 Technologies used in text-to-SQL projects
36:12 Handling large datasets and transportation data in Singapore
42:17 Generative AI applications beyond text-to-SQL
45:26 Publishing public data and maintaining privacy
45:52 Recommended datasets and projects for data engineering beginners
49:16 Recommended resources for learning urban data science
Join our slack: https: //datatalks.club/slack.html