Jesse Langford spent the first half of his career as a golf instructor before pivoting to software engineering. Today on the show, Ben interviews Jesse to learn why and how he made this pivot, plus relevant career advice for all developers. Specific topics include taking ownership of your work, being comfortable making mistakes, and how to stretch yourself every day.

When developing ML models, defining and selecting the model architecture will be fundamental to ensure the best possible outcomes. Parameters that define the model architecture are referred to as hyperparameters and the process of searching for the ideal model architecture is referred to as hyperparameter tuning. Today on the show, Ben and Michael discuss hyperparameter tuning and how to implement this into your ML modeling.

Enjoy this engaging AMA conversation with Michael Berk asking Ben Wilson various questions related to industry, strategy, and approaches in data science and ML engineering.

Ben and Michael interview Maciej Balawejder, a mechanical engineering student passionate about AI, ML, and robotics. As an active contributor on Medium.com, Maciej has already made significant contributions to the AI and ML communities. On the show, they discuss Maciej’s recent article about optimizers in Machine Learning, plus their personal philosophies and approaches to deep learning.

After ensuring your data has surpassed the hyper parameter tuning phase, what is the next step in your EDA protocol? Today on the show, Ben and Michael continue the discussion on EDA methodology within Machine Learning and discuss linear regression with OLS, decision trees, and common visualization tools for data scientists.

EDA is primarily used in machine learning to see what data can reveal beyond the formal modeling or hypothesis testing task and provides a better understanding of data set variables and the relationships between them. It can also help determine if the statistical techniques you are considering for data analysis are appropriate. Today on the show, Ben and Michael discuss how to use EDA in machine learning models.

MLlib is Apache Spark's scalable machine learning library. Today, Ben and Michael discuss the ease of use, performance, algorithms, and utilities included in this library and how to execute the best ML workflow with MLlib.

Apache Spark is a lightning-fast unified analytics engine for large-scale data processing and machine learning. In this episode, Ben and Michael unpack Spark by ping-ponging questions and answers, supplemented by various examples applicable to machine learning workflows.

Ben and Michael walk through two different cases studies relative to production ML infrastructure and recommendation engines. The first is about a free on-line tutoring service for underserved communities called “Learn to Be”, and the second centers around the online course provider “Coursera”. Ben and Michael set up the case studies with fundamental problem statements, followed by their various approaches to executing the objectives to achieve the desired process outcomes.

Ben interviews Michael Griffiths, Director of Data Science at ASAPP, a company leveraging AI and ML to augment and automate human work, improve operational efficiencies and customer experiences, and ultimately empower people to be their best. Michael shares specific examples of how this can be done for human agent productivity within contact centers. They also discuss fully human controlled vs automated systems, delivering value with AI and ML, and the future of AI driven technology.

AutoML (automated machine learning) has become a hot topic over the past few years. Abid Ali Awan joins the show to share his approach to AutoML, when and how to utilize it compared to classic approaches. Ben and Abid also discuss open-source vs. proprietary platforms.

Video is considered the most complicated data to process and the volumes of video production are growing from day to day. Ben and Michael talk with Oleg and Anastasiya about how to leverage robotics and advanced cognitive computing-based video processing algorithms to automate the most routine parts of editing and post-production. Specifically, they discuss American sports such as the NFL, NBA, and NHL, and how to use AI to automate sports highlight reels can automate content post-processing video analytics to save time and streamline employee workflows. This is an exciting video you won’t want to miss!

Michael and Ben talk about how to pick extra projects to build up your resume and become recognized as more of an expert. They discuss the specific ways to contribute within the community and who to interact with to strengthen your resume if you're new.

Machine learning is getting bigger by the second, so it’s good to know how to leverage it. In this episode, Michael asks Ben hypothetical questions around how to effectively deploy machine learning in multiple fields, including the stock market.

What happens when you teach ML and data science to kids? You learn a whole lot, too. In this episode, Ben and Michael sit down with Kathryn, a prolific writer and author who simplifies advanced concepts for kids to foster their passion for science.