Keynote Speaker
Knowledge and Reasoning in Cognitive Computing
Alfio M. Gliozzo
Research Manager, Knowledge Induction IBM T.J. Watson
Alfio Gliozzo is research leader at IBM T.J. Watson and adjunct professor at Columbia University, where he teaches cognitive computing. He was part of the research team that built Watson, the Question and Answering system that defeated the Jeopardy! grand champions of all times. His research focuses on Knowledge Induction from text using Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Web and Reasoning techniques.
IBM Watson is arguably one of the most advanced form of AI in the cognitive computing marketplace, as demonstrated by the historic exhibition match on the television quiz show Jeopardy!. Since then, cognitive technology is becoming pervasive in information systems. A wide range of cognitive capabilities, ranging from machine translation to image recognition have been made available on cloud to any developer, opening a new market for cognitive computing. However, perception is just one of the many fundamental abilities that characterize cognition. The new challenge for IBM Watson and for the whole industry will be to help human professionals doing better decisions in their own areas of interest. The next generation AI systems will show professional level of competence, leveraging deep domain knowledge accumulated over decades. To this aim, deep learning based solutions will be just one of many ingredients, knowledge representation and reasoning being the other two pillars. In this talk I’ll describe progress made by my team at IBM Research and envision new research directions.
Computation and analytics driving innovation across disciplines.
Panelist
Adam Kanouse
Chief Technology Officer, Narrative Science
As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Narrative Science, Adam leads the engineering teams at Narrative Science. He is responsible for the technology vision, building exceptional software products and supporting our customers from a systems perspective. From 2011-2014, Adam was the CTO and eventually the CEO of OpTier Inc. Prior to joining OpTier, Adam spent 13 years at Accenture where he ultimately held the position of Managing Director. Adam has his MS in Geosciences from Northwestern University.
Panelist
Scarlett Swerdlow
Applied Data Science Manager, Civis Analytics
As Applied Data Science Manager at Civis Analytics, Scarlett leads a team of applied data scientists who develop data-driven, computational solutions to pressing problems in the public sector. She has helped organizations increase participation in anti-poverty programs, expand the use of college savings accounts, and connect middle-skill workers with training and jobs. Her portfolio includes clients such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Illinois State Treasurer, the Fire Department of New York City, and Robin Hood Foundation.
Prior to Civis, Scarlett spent ten years in the nonprofit sector fighting for causes including drug policy reform and arts in education. More recently, she worked for the Chicago Sun-Times writing data-driven stories on politics and policy. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School and a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley.
Panelist
Michael Franklin
Liew Family Chair of Computer Science, Senior Adviser to Provost on Computation and Data Science
Franklin is the inaugural holder of the Liew Family Chair of Computer Science. An authority on databases, data analytics, data management and distributed systems, he also serves as senior adviser to the provost on computation and data science.
Franklin most recently was the Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Computer Science Division of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, where he currently is an Adjunct Professor. He co-founded and directs Berkeley’s Algorithms, Machines and People Laboratory (AMPLab), a leading academic big data analytics research center, The AMPLab won a National Science Foundation CISE "Expeditions in Computing" award, which was announced as part of the White House Big Data Research initiative in March 2012, and has received support from over 30 industrial sponsors. AMPLab has created industry-changing open source Big Data software including Apache Spark and BDAS, the Berkeley Data Analytics Stack. At Berkeley he also served as an executive committee member for the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, a campus-wide initiative to advance data science environments.
