Highlights and Pictures from ODSC West 2022

We’re a few weeks removed from ODSC West 2022 and we couldn’t have left on a better note. The week was filled with engaging sessions on top topics in data science, innovation in AI, and smiling faces that we haven’t seen in a while. Here are some highlights from ODSC West 2022, including some pictures of speakers and attendees, popular talks, and a summary of what kept people busy.

Top Sessions

With sessions both online and in-person in San Francisco, there was something for everyone. We had bigger sessions on getting started with machine learning or SQL, up to advanced topics in NLP, and how to make deepfakes.

Some of our most popular in-person sessions were:

• Human-Friendly, Production-Ready Data Science with Metaflow: Ville Tuulos | Co-founder & CEO | Outerbounds
• Machine Learning with XGBoost: Matt Harrison | Python & Data Science Corporate Trainer, Consultant | MetaSnake
• Enhance Trust with Machine Learning Model Error Analysis: Serg Masis | Climate & Agronomic Data Scientist | Syngenta
• Detecting Changes Over Time with Bayesian Change Point Analysis in R: Aric LaBarr, PhD | Associate Professor of Analytics | Institute for Advanced Analytics at NC State University
• Creating An Ethical AI Environment: Sadie St Lawrence | Founder and CEO | Women in Data
• 5 Things We Have Learned From Continuous Explore Exploit Applications at Netflix: Sophia Liu, PhD | Senior Data Scientist | Netflix

Popular virtual sessions:

• Introduction to Python for Data Analysis: Leonidas Souliotis, PhD | Senior Data Scientist | AstraZeneca
• Any Way You Want It: Integrating Complex Business Requirements into ML Forecasting Systems: David Koll | Senior Data Scientist | Continental AG
• Introduction to Machine Learning: Julia Lintern | Data Science Instructor | Metis
• AI in a Minefield: Learning from Poisoned Data: Johnathan Roy Azaria | Data Scientist Tech Lead | Imperva
• An Intuition-Based Approach to Reinforcement Learning: Oswald Campesato | Founder,| AI Adjunct Instructor | iQuarkt, UCSC
• Big Data Analytics and Visualization with R: Ysis Wilson-Tarter | Staff Data Engineer | Absci

Keynotes

Both in-person and virtually, we had some amazing keynote speakers that told the audience about their research, expertise, use cases, or state-of-the-art developments.

On the virtual side, we had sessions from Jun Zeng, PhD, Di Distinguished Technologist and Founding Manager of the 3D Digital Twin Group at HP where he discussed HP’s 3D digital twin and synthesizing data to improve manufacturing, and Mario Inchiosa, PhD, Principal Data Scientist Manager at Microsoft, where he discussed the Feathr scalable feature store. You can also read our recaps of the keynote talks with Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI & Machine Learning at the World Economic Forum here and our recap of the keynote with Graham Neubig, PhD, Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University here.

In-person in San Francisco, a bunch of awesome speakers graced the main stage during the week.

On Wednesday, Ion Stoica, PhD, Professor at the University of California, Berkeley and director at RISELab spoke about scaling machine learning with ease. After that, Mario Ichiosa returned with an in-person keynote about Feathr.

On Thursday, Michael I. Jordan, PhD, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Berkeley spoke about learning-aware mechanism design and how it can improve business functions. Later on, Monica S. Lam, PhD, professor at Stanford and Faculty Director at the Open Virtual Assistant Lab spoke about taming large language models into trustworthy conversational virtual assistants.

Networking

It wouldn’t be a conference without some fun after a hard day’s work of data science training! Speakers, partners, and attendees all gathered for separate networking events Tuesday and Wednesday nights to share some drinks, talk shop, and make new friends after a long day.

Extra Events

ODSC events are more than just data science training and networking events.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had our AI Expo & Demo Hall where over 20 of our partners set up to showcase their latest developments, tools, frameworks, and other offerings. Shoutout to Microsoft Azure, Z by HP, iguazio, Red Hat, SaturnCloud, and everyone else who helped make the expo hall a success!

Aside from that, we had our in-person AI Career Expo on Thursday, book signings with Jon Krohn and Stefanie Molin, the Women’s Ignite session, and the AI Startup Showcase on Tuesday, sponsored by Cortical Ventures.

Conclusion

That’s it for our ODSC West 2022 highlights! Thank you to everyone who attended for making this event possible, and showing once again why we do what we do — connecting the greater data science community together to push the industry forward. As a reminder, ODSC East 2023 is coming up May 9–11 and is currently 75% off for all ticket types. Don’t regret it later on when tickets aren’t as discounted!