Scatter Podcast

Scatter Podcast host Javier Orraca moderates a data science career panel hosted by R-Ladies Irvine. Tune in to hear five ladies in different data science industries discuss their academic and career journeys. This episode is loaded with career advice and recommendations on how to break into analytics and data science. Special thanks to Alyssa Columbus and Madeline Bauer of R-Ladies Irvine for helping make this event a reality! Enjoy the show and please visit the links below for more information. Panelists on LinkedIn: Colleen Kelly, PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenlkelly/ Leondra James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leondrajames/ Zhi Yang, PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhiiiyang/ Tiffany Collins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/punkrawkboss/ Karin Kricorian, PhD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karinkricorian/ R-Ladies Irvine resources: Career Panel Video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nYLu6V3Nvz8 R-Ladies Irvine homepage: https://www.rladiesirvine.org/ GitHub: https://github.com/rladies-irvine/presentations

On Episode 29 of Scatter Podcast, Joel interviews guest Alex Johnson, Founder of Plotly, a leading platform and library (Python & R) for creating data analytics visualizations.

Scatter Podcast interview with Carlos Brown, Data Scientist at Guidehouse, a leading global provider of consulting services to the public and commercial markets. Passionate about his job, Carlos talks to us about the power of telling stories with data. Using open source programming tools, machine learning, statistics, and data visualization, Carlos helps his clients solve challenging business problems. We discuss what life as a data scientist in business consulting is like, data privacy issues, as well as how to begin and succeed in this niche. Enjoy the show! Links: Carlos Brown's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-brown-eit/ Guidehouse: https://guidehouse.com/

After several months of break, Scatter Podcast is back and excited to introduce its new co-host, Joel Dayrit. Joel is an Associate Data Analyst at Kung Fu Factory, an independent gaming developer of popular mobile games based in Los Angeles, CA. At Kung Fu Factory, Joel analyzes everything from player activity to in-game data, looking for insights into behavior and finding opportunities to capitalize on creating engagement and giving users an improved experience. Joel is one of the smartest people that I've collaborated with and he pivoted his career to data science after 14 years with Symbol Sciences, a Philippines based hardware and solutions provider for automatic identification and data collection systems. Joel's analytics tools of choice include the R programming language and Excel. Aside from analytics, Joel enjoys photography, robotics, and LEGOs. :-) Welcome, Joel, to the Scatter Podcast team! Links: Joel's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-dayrit/ Kung Fu Factory: http://www.kungfufactory.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Jonathan Regenstein, Director of Financial Services at RStudio. Having spent several years at J.P. Morgan where he worked alongside quantitative analysts and researchers, Jonathan turned from Excel to R for more robust reporting, visualizations, and reproducibility of financial models. After joining RStudio, he continued to develop his R programming skills and eventually authored "Reproducible Finance with R - Code Flows and Shiny Apps for Portfolio Analysis." For anyone interested in careers at the intersection of Finance and Data Science, or anyone interested in learning more about R, this episode is certainly a treat. We cover a lot popular packages, programming best practices, and upcoming tools that will enhance your modeling work flows. He offers a ton of valuable insights, be sure to follow him on LinkedIn or Twitter, and enjoy the show! Links: Jonathan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkregenstein/ Jonathan's Twitter: https://twitter.com/jkregenstein Reproducible Finance with R: https://www.amazon.com/Reproducible-Finance-Portfolio-Analysis-Chapman/dp/1138484032 RStudio: https://rstudio.com/ Shiny: https://shiny.rstudio.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Matt Dancho, CEO and lead Data Science instructor at Business Science University. I'm currently enrolled in Matt's R Shiny 102 course and have really enjoyed his training style full with sample code and video explanations of his modules. If you're interested in developing your analytics and data science chops with R, Matt's offering a special 15% discount for his 4-course R machine learning bundle (discount link below!). Matt is an incredible educator and passionate about adding value to the business organization through machine learning and artificial intelligence. Enjoy the episode, follow Matt on LinkedIn, and subscribe to Scatter Podcast if you enjoy what you're hearing! Links: Business Science: https://www.business-science.io Matt's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattdancho/ 15% off R 4-course bundle: https://university.business-science.io/p/4-course-bundle-machine-learning-and-web-applications-r-track-101-102-201-202a/?coupon_code=scatterpodcast

Scatter Podcast interview with Christina Stathopoulos, Analytical Consultant at Google and Adjunct Professor at IE Business School in Madrid. Christina has a BS in Science, Technology, and Society from North Carolina State University and holds a MS in Business Analytics and Big Data from IE Business School in Madrid. Having spent seven years in Spain and traveling frequently for business, workshops, and leisure, Christina shares a unique, international perspective on the state of data science and the tech world in 2019. At Google, she uses advanced analytics tools to drive insightful and actionable business impact for her clients to achieve their marketing goals. Christina is also a facilitator of Google's #IamRemarkable initiative to empower women and underrepresented groups to speak openly about their accomplishments in the workplace and beyond. For two years, Christina has also been an Adjunct Professor at IE Business School, teaching Big Data and Analytics-related courses for MBA students. I really enjoyed getting to know more about Christina's work and she provides a lot of great resources to learn more about analytics and data science topics. We had an engaging discussion around diversity and inclusion in the tech world, and potential ways to tackle the inequality gap. Enjoy the show and feel free to reach out to Christina directly via LinkedIn! Links: Christina's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinastathopoulos/ Google's #IAmRemarkable: https://iamremarkable.withgoogle.com Extended Show Notes: https://www.javierorraca.com/scatterpodcast/episode-024/

Scatter Podcast interview with Hayden Balow, Organizational Development Analyst at Blizzard Entertainment. In the mid-1990's, I was a fanatic of the Warcraft, Diablo, and Starcraft series so I really enjoyed hearing how Hayden's team utilizes research, statistics, and people analytics to make the Blizzard work environment better for their employees. Hayden attended the University of Minnesota-Duluth for his Bachelor of Applied Science in Psychology, and he received his Masters in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Lamar University. Hayden kicked off his career as a People Data Analyst at Zappos and later moved to Blizzard, so he's got solid academic and practical experiences in people analytics. I am personally very interested in people analytics so I enjoyed understanding the kinds of problems that are being tackled by I-O Psychologists and People Analytics professionals. Hayden describes some of the latest trends in this space including how NLP and organizational network analyses are being used to understand employee sentiment, organizational outcomes, drivers for churn, ROI on company trainings, etc. Hayden wrote an extended list of people analytics resources that are posted on my blog so be sure to check that out and enjoy the show! Links: Hayden's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/haydenbalow/ SoCal People Analytics group: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/13609176/ Extended Show Notes & Resources: https://www.javierorraca.com/scatterpodcast/episode-023/

Scatter Podcast interview with Will Chase, Data Scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. I stumbled upon one of Will's interactive, web-based data visualizations ("Visualizing Risk: Remotely Triggered Earthquakes" - link below) and was fascinated by the way he leveraged the power of R, Mapbox, and D3 for this stunning data storytelling project. Will has a BS in Microbiology and is almost entirely self-taught in the programming, data science, and advanced visualization space. He provides solid resources throughout the episode and lists some of his favorite, world-renowned data visualization designers, and it's great to see him contributing back to the data science community by open-sourcing as many projects as he can. Will is a great resource for anyone wanting to up the ante on their visualization skills. He's responsive via email, Twitter, and GitHub, and I'd definitely recommend following Will on your platform of choice... I have no doubt that he'll rise to be a visualization influencer in the years to come. Enjoy the show! Links: Will's website: https://www.williamrchase.com Will's visualizing risk project: https://www.williamrchase.com/vizrisk/vizrisk_main/ Will's Twitter: https://twitter.com/W_R_Chase Will's GitHub: https://github.com/will-r-chase

Scatter Podcast interview with Ben Taylor, Co-Founder and Chief AI Officer at Zeff. I met Ben at the Data Science GO conference in 2018 and was blown away by his artificial intelligence experience and thoughts about how to break into data science. Self-described "PhD dropout," Ben taught himself programming and data science and has a sincere passion for transforming the field with AI. Prior to founding Zeff, he held various roles including hedge fund Quantitative Analyst, Data Scientist, and Chief Data Scientist. He attributes his success in part to his stubbornness and continuously pushing current technological limits. Ben discusses a fascinating AI side project that he's been developing - an AI-operated Call of Duty player that battles humans over Xbox Live! We talk about career tips for students, resources for business managers, hiring complexities, data science conferences, and how to find balance between work and family life. Great conversations and I had a blast having him on the show. Enjoy! Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bentaylordata/ Zeff: https://zeff.ai Data Science GO: https://www.datasciencego.com

Scatter Podcast interview with Ben Denzinger, Product Designer at MaCher. This isn't a traditional data science episode but one focused on a topic that analytics and data science teams should become familiar with: Design Thinking. Design thinking is not a new concept, product designers like Ben have used it for decades, yet it is a framework that can be used in almost all aspects of business to justify your existing solution or to develop alternative solutions. Ben's design journey is great to hear and he walks us through his education and career experiences as an Industrial Designer and Product Manager. As Product Designer at MaCher, it is fascinating to hear how the business empowers their employees to self-manage, to use the design thinking process, and to continuously re-think what it means to make sustainable products. Enjoy the episode! Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-denzinger/ MaCher: https://macher.com

Scatter Podcast interview with John Peach, Sr. Data Scientist at Amazon. John has an extensive data science background ranging from academia, to early-stage startups, to large data drive organizations such as Amazon. His team helps to improve and expand the capabilities of Alexa Skills (third party applications). John actively participates in his local data science community, he is one of the leaders of the Orange County R Users Group (“OCRUG”), and he frequently speaks at data science conferences around the world. He shares advice for how to break into data science and grow your career. In this episode, we discuss many topics but one of which is “Data Science Design Thinking.” John has borrowed this concept from the design world and extended it to the data science world. It is a process or framework that will help people without a solid research background learn to think like a scientist. John thinks that many scientists accidentally learn to think this way and that we can train others to apply the techniques to strengthen the science in data science. Enjoy the show! John's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpeach/ Meet the Alexa Software Team: https://youtu.be/KpXEsrjcj6Y

Scatter Podcast interview with Leondra James, Manager, Analytics & Operations at Saatchi & Saatchi. From violinist and music major to data scientist, Leondra has had a unique mix of academic and professional experiences that have shaped her career in data. Saatchi & Saatchi is a global advertising agency operating in 76 countries and Leondra works in their Los Angeles office. While she only joined the agency in January 2019, she's no stranger to media & entertainment having previously held data analytics roles at Alternative Revolt Magazine, Amazon Studios, and Twentieth Century Fox. For people with non-technical backgrounds wanting to have careers in data science, Leondra offers words of encouragement and provides feedback not often talked in the data science community - Your creativity is a strength that would benefit data teams. Leondra drops lots of great tips and resources, so get ready to take some notes! Leondra's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leondrajames/ Saatchi & Saatchi (Los Angeles): https://www.wearesaatchi.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Justin Fortier, Principal Data Scientist at ViralGains. Justin and I met at the Data Science GO conference in 2018 and I enjoyed getting to learn about his journey as a data scientist. ViralGains is a video advertising technology startup that helps publishers push video ad content to the most appropriate consumers. Given that ViralGains operates within the real-time bidding ("RTB") domain, their ad bidding and classification algorithms need to transact and process within 100 milliseconds. Justin explains the classification models that he relies on, he provides an overview of RTB, and he discusses AdTech concerns around fraud. It was a pleasure to have him on the show. Keep up with his conference presentations and podcast appearances by following him on LinkedIn and enjoy the episode! Justin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-fortier-4563554/ ViralGains: https://www.viralgains.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Ben Lewis, Business Intelligence Analyst at MeridianLink. Ben and I met at a hackathon hosted by the Orange County R Users Group ("OCRUG") and I was immediately impressed by his R programming capabilities. Ben has an industrial engineering and operations research background from UC Berkeley, and as a BI Analyst at MeridianLink, he builds dashboards and web-apps via R Shiny. MeridianLink provides enterprise business solutions for financial services organizations and Ben's team focuses on developing web-based credit reports, lending, and financial analytics dashboards. Ben is an active member of the Southern California data science community, he regularly attends and volunteers at OCRUG, and he shares great resources and tips on this episode. Ben's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-lewis-ba379144/ MeridianLink: https://www.meridianlink.com

Scatter Podcast interview with Meltem Ballan, Ph.D., Data Scientist and Architect at General Motors. Meltem's deep analytical and data science expertise developed over her 20 years of experience in academia, consulting, and the corporate world. Before "data science" became a popularized catchphrase in business, Meltem was known as an Algorithm Developer. At GM, Meltem's team aims to enhance the driver experience where she applies neuroscience theory to analyze massive data sets via machine learning and artificial intelligence. Meltem is active within the data science community, she speaks at conferences and workshops, and is active on LinkedIn. Meltem's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meltemballan/ General Motors: https://www.gm.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with David Wasserman, Transportation Planner & Data Scientist at Fehr & Peers. Specializing in transportation planning and engineering services, Fehr & Peers is a consulting firm that has serviced public and private sectors since 1985. David has worked with them for four years at the intersection of data science, transportation and urban planning, and he gives us a deep dive into some of the work he's done. David has spent significant time working with GIS systems and advanced visualizations and explains how these tools are helping to study and solve complex transportation planning challenges. David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-j-wasserman/ Other links: David's GitHub: https://github.com/d-wasserman Fehr & Peers: https://www.fehrandpeers.com/data-science/ Esri's Complete Street Rule: https://github.com/d-wasserman/Complete_Street_Rule Brisk Synergies: https://brisksynergies.com/ Numina: http://www.numina.co/ Ecopia: https://www.ecopiatech.com/ Mapillary: https://www.mapillary.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Beau Walker, Founder and CEO of Method Data Science. Beau is a data scientist and passionate R and Python programming educator for analytics and data science. He's actively involved in the data science community and it was a pleasure to have Beau on the podcast to discuss his education and data science journey. Method is on a mission to inspire and train the next generation of data scientists, and they're accomplishing this by managing small teams of resident data scientists working on real-world data engagements. Beau's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beauthescientist/ Method Data Science: https://methoddatascience.com/

Scatter Podcast interview with Matt Segal, Data Director at TBWA\Chiat\Day, a global creative advertising agency based in Los Angeles, California. Chiat/Day's "1984" ad campaign for Apple, introducing the Macintosh computer, gave the agency global notoriety with their forward-thinking and disruptive ads. Matt discusses the benefits of agency life as a data strategist, shares several project examples, and covers several tools that his team uses for social web listening and analytics. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/segalmatt/ Other links: TBWA\Chiat\Day: http://tbwachiatdayla.com Gatorade commercial: https://youtu.be/ZCEdBfBolWk Adidas Japan commercial: https://youtu.be/M1FOg-KHP28

Scatter Podcast interview with Vince Giovannini, Data Scientist at CBRE, a commercial real estate investment company that also offers a wide range of real estate consulting services. Vince works in the Labor Analytics team at CBRE and shares great insights about the labor products he has worked on and how labor is connected to the real estate market. Vince shares several project examples that he's been a part of at CBRE and it was great getting to hear how his firm uses data science to derive deeper insights. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincegiovannini/ Other links: CBRE: https://www.cbre.us/ CBRE's Global LaborView: https://www.cbre.com/about/tech-vantage/global-laborview