Here’s What’s New with ODSC West 2020

6 min readJul 16, 2020

Virtual learning is becoming the norm for a lot of people and is easily accessible regardless of location. That’s one of the reasons why ODSC West is going virtual this year from October 27th-30th.

Following ODSC East 2020, the demand for another virtual event was clear. Over the course of four days, ODSC East hosted over 200 sessions and saw 6000+ attendees learn data science in a virtual environment. The ODSC West 2020 Virtual Conference will contain the same breadth and depth of content as ODSC East, but with new speakers, focus areas, and content. Here’s a bit more about what you can expect this October.

Sessions

What separates ODSC events apart from other virtual conferences is the diversity of content offered. Our speakers come from various industries — both professional and academic — to showcase their expertise in anything machine learning, deep learning, NLP, and more.

The ODSC West 2020 Virtual Conference will have something for everyone: from ML and DL to business applications and case studies, and from beginner to advanced. Regardless of where you are in your data science career, there’s a path for you. Some focus areas include:

Speakers

With 50 training sessions, 52 workshops, and over 320 hours of original content, there’s something for everyone. Here are a few of the many speakers attending:

Eric Xing, PhD: Founder & Chief Scientist, Professor | Petuum, Carnegie Mellon University
Lisa Amini, PhD: Director | IBM Research
Gill Bejerano, PhD: Professor | Stanford University, Stanford AI Labs
Suchi Saria, PhD: Professor, Machine Learning & Healthcare | Johns Hopkins University
John Zedlewski: Director, GPU-Accelerated Machine Learning | NVIDIA
Tian Zheng, PhD: Chair, Department of Statistics, Associate Director | Columbia University, Data Science Institute
Dr. Jon Krohn: Chief Data Scientist, Author of Deep Learning Illustrated | Untapt
Jennifer Wortman Vaughan, PhD: Senior Principal Researcher | Microsoft Research

These are only a few of the many speakers who will present at the event. Aside from the specific focus areas, you’ll learn about important topics like recommendation systems, transfer learning, machine vision, unsupervised learning, and more, in addition to the countless tools that data scientists use daily like frameworks, libraries, and other in-demand skills.

Virtual Conference Format

It’s Modular

All training sessions are modular, meaning everything is structured in an easy-to-follow format designed to balance instruction, hands-on training, and then a Q&A session. This ensures that you get the information you need, followed by a practice run and actual implementation of the new code, then a chance to ask questions related to what you just learned.

It’s in the Cloud

By using Jupyter Notebook and Codelab, most training sessions will be on open-source, cloud-based documents to host and share code, visualizations, text, and other important information needed for your training session.

It’s Live

All of these sessions are in real-time, and function as if you’re at a conference in-person. The presenter will walk through everything right then and there.

Each session will have their own communication channel, too, meant for real-time discussion with other participants and for the Q&A part of each module.

It’s easy to switch between tracks, too. Everything will be viewed in an easy-to-use dashboard, so it’s simple to switch between focus areas. Halfway through the current machine learning session but want to learn more about NLP? You can easily switch to that one and catch the first half on-demand.

It’s On-Demand

On-demand videos will be made available for each session. Need to rewatch one that you participated in live? Had to choose between two talks that you were interested in? These videos will be available for you immediately. The module format will make it easy for you to follow, especially if you only need to refresh your memory for one section of a session.

Materials are all online

Everything will be right there for you in each session. While it’s recommended that you set up as much as possible before each session, such as downloading required programs and familiarizing yourself a bit with the topic, all session materials will be made available to you right there. Any subsequent materials (such as something mentioned in a Q&A session) can be shared via the unique communication channel, too.

Networking opportunities

A popular component of conferences is the networking aspect. Some people may be concerned that a virtual event may not allow them to connect with others as they normally would. However, the ODSC West 2020 Virtual Conference will have a virtual lounge where you can connect with people from all over the world. Whereas an in-person event allows you to meet someone local, a virtual event will give you the opportunity to meet people that you may never meet otherwise.

To quote an attendee, Michael T., “Folks at ODSC making this year’s #ODSCVirtual event feel almost…not virtual.”

By connecting with other data scientists from around the world, you get the chance to explore how different cultures, universities, and organizations work with AI. What does an AI lab in Europe do differently from one on the West Coast? How does an English business implement AI differently from one in China? The connections formed at a virtual event will create an eye-opening experience for those who attend.

Other Events

Ai x: In the Virtual AI Expo, the Ai x West Summit, you’ll be able to visit 20+ booths to learn the latest solutions in AI for your organization. Hear more about the topics you need to get ahead like AutoML, data labeling, DevOps, DataOps, Deep Learning, BI Platforms, and more. Watch demo sessions on these hot topics and find out what’s the best fit for you. This is a full day-long event on October 28th designed for decision-makers and executives to help push their business to the next level!

Career Expo: The Virtual AI Career Expo will be the best place to find a career in data science with our hiring partners, get advice on how to plan your career through our Mentor & Career Talks, and see what your life could be like as a data scientist in another city — or even country.

Contests: We encourage participation! By watching talks & workshops, interacting in our chats, posting on social, and checking out partner booths, you’ll be automatically entered in a chance to win awesome prizes.

Women’s Ignite Session: This session comprises multiple 5–7 minute lightning talks by women in data science on technical topics, such as highlighting research, describing an important tool, or showcasing a unique case study.

Register now for 60% off

The ODSC West 2020 Virtual Conference will be coming up this October, and that’s a lot closer than you may realize. If you’re hungry for data science training right now, then you’re in luck: All Access and Bootcamp passes come with access to a series of talks from the ODSC East 2020 Virtual Conference. Every other week up until ODSC West, you’ll get access to different courses, such as a series on MLOps or ML for Beginners.

Ready to sign up for the biggest virtual data science conference yet? Register here for 60% off!