Past Webinars

Machine Learning in Retail

Event Info

April 14, 2022

4:00pm EST

Duration: 1 hour

Speaker

Dr. Kanchana Padmanabhan
Director of Machine Learning Solutions at Kinaxis

Kanchana Padmanabhan is the Director of Machine Learning Solutions at Kinaxis, a global enterprise supply chain management software company. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from NC State University, and teaches at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. Kanchana is passionate about building productized ML solutions.

About this event

In this talk, we will provide a view into real world application of machine learning in the retail industry. We will go over the entire lifecycle of ML starting with a use-case, from data to the final ML solution that can be used in real-time with considerations for speed and accuracy. Along the way we will include some of our learnings, having built ML solutions since 2013 using real data. Finally, we will talk about how our ML philosophy has opened doors to exploring some important optimization problems in this field.

View recoding of the webinar here

Data Visualization

Event Info

July 15, 2021

5:00pm EST

Duration: 1 hour

Speaker

Rebecca Pop
Founder of Vizlogue

Rebeca Pop is the founder of Vizlogue, a Data Visualization and Storytelling Lab that offers training and consulting services. Vizlogue's mission is to help companies and organizations communicate more effectively with data. To date, Rebeca has delivered presentations to over 2,500 participants all around the world. Her workshops are grounded in a deep understanding of adult learning strategies and combine hands-on exercises with feedback sessions and real-life examples. Rebeca also teaches data visualization at the University of Chicago and at Northwestern University. When she's not working on a data visualization project, Rebeca enjoys biking, hiking, and traveling. Fun fact: to date, she's visited over 25 countries.

The Chicago Chapter of INFORMS is proud to present Rebeca Pop for a free webinar on Data Visualization.

As an analytics or data science professional, you are likely creating reports and data visualizations. But have you ever paused to design a framework that you could use when visualizing data? A framework would make your work more strategic and save you time and energy. You will identify the steps that you should take to avoid data pitfalls, make thoughtful design choices, and incorporate storytelling elements. Participants will be exposed to real-world examples and exercises. Join Rebeca Pop for a tour of Data Visualization and how to leverage best practices and technology to become effective data storytellers.

View recording here!

Data Analysis in The New Normal

Event Info

March 5, 2021

2:30pm CDT

Duration: 2 hours

Speaker

Kevin Hartman
Global Head of Analyst Development
Google

Kevin Hartman is a devoted and artistic practitioner of data. He believes data must do more than simply supply insights that motivate creative thought. Rather, data must be used to express insights in ways that are just as creative as the ideas they inspire. He is a 6-time winner of the Advertising Research Foundation's Ogilvy Award and oversaw the design of marketing insights and strategies behind campaigns that earned 5 Cannes Lions, 5 Effies, and over 50 Tempos.

As Global Head of Analyst Development at Google, Kevin is responsible for leading the design, implementation, and evolution of a program to recruit, onboard, and develop 3,000+ data analysts working across Google's global network.

In addition to his role at Google, Kevin teaches graduate-level courses in analytics at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois. He is the author of "Digital Marketing Analytics: In Theory And In Practice."

Recruiting Best Practices in the Current Job Market

Event Info

June 12, 2020

4pm CDT

Duration: 2 hours

Speaker

Katie Ferguson
Analytics & Data Science Recruiter at Burtch Works

Recruiting specialist focused on the placement of data scientists and predictive analytics professionals nationwide.

The event started with a keynote presentation on recruiting best practices in the current job market and impact due to Covid-19 by Katie Ferguson.

Next, a pre-selected group of students broke out into sessions. In each session, a senior member from the INFORMS Chicago Chapter offered a 1-on-1 review of their resumes and answer their questions.

This webinar wass hosted by INFORMS Chicago Chapter in collaboration with UIC and NIU.

COVID-19 Webinar Series: Modeling Supply Chain Decisions for Resource Sharing with an Application to Ventilator Allocation to Combat COVID-19

Event Info

June 18, 2020

4pm CDT

Duration: 1 hour

Speaker

Dr. Sanjay Mehrotra
Director, Center for Engineering and Health
Professor, Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences
McCormick School of Engineering

Professor (courtesy), Department of Medical Social Sciences
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University

Sanjay Mehrotra is the director of Center for Engineering at Health at Northwestern University. He is widely known for his methodological contributions to research in mathematical optimization that has spanned from linear, mixed integer, stochastic, multi-objective, and risk adjusted robust optimization. His healthcare research includes topics in predictive modeling, budgeting, hospital operations, and policy modeling using modern operations research tools. He has been the chair of the INFORMS Optimization Society, and has also served on INFORMS board of directors. He is a Fellow of INFORMS.

We presented a stochastic optimization model for allocating and sharing a critical resource in the case of a pandemic. The demand for different entities peaks at different times and an initial inventory for a central agency is to be allocated. The entities (states) may share the critical resource with a different state under a risk‐averse condition. The model was applied to study the allocation of ventilator inventory in the COVID‐19 pandemic by FEMA to different U.S. states. Results were generated and reported for different demand scenarios (average, above average, etc), including a worst‐case where the demand is at the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval of state needs prediction from a prominent model. An important finding of this study is that a central agency (FEMA) can act as a coordinator for sharing critical resources that are in short supply over time to add efficiency in the system. Moreover, through properly managing risk‐aversion of different entities (states) additional efficiency can be gained. An additional implication is that ramping up production early in the planning cycle allows reducing shortfall significantly. The optimal timing of this production ramp‐up consideration can be based on a cost‐benefit analysis.

View recoding of the webinar here

COVID-19 Webinar Series: Risk-Based Thinking in a COVID-19 World

Event Info

June 26, 2020

11am CDT

Duration: 1 hour

Speaker

Dr. Sheldon Jacobson
Founder Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois

201 North Goodwin Avenue (MC-258), Urbana, IL 61801-2302
(217) 244-7275 (office)
shj@illinois.edu
http://shj.cs.illinois.edu
Twitter: @shjanalytics

Sheldon H. Jacobson is a Founder Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois. He has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. (both in Mathematics) from McGill University, and a M.S. and Ph.D. (both in Operations Research) from Cornell University. From 2012-2014, he was on leave from the University of Illinois, serving as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. His research interests span theory and practice, covering decision-making under uncertainty and optimization-based artificial intelligence, with applications in aviation security, public policy, public health, and sports. He has been recognized by numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the IISE David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award, and the INFORMS Impact Prize. He is a fellow of AAAS, IISE and INFORMS. He serves as the Founding Director for the Institute for Computational Redistricting (ICOR), http://redistricting.cs.illinois.edu.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic has impacted every facet of our lives. This talk focuses on risk-based concepts that can help us mitigate risk associated with the pandemic. Examples using aviation security and community reopening are discussed to illustrate these points.

View recoding of the webinar here