Registration for this webinar has closed. We look forward to seeing our registered attendees online Friday, March 3rd from 11:30am-1pm! Please check your email used for registration for the Zoom webinar link.
We may have seen or participated in creating avatars with the Lensa app, used Amazon to protest our holiday gift not arriving or heard about concerns of bias in algorithms or displacement of jobs in call centers and manufacturing plants. Yep, it's the arrival of AI to a phone or job near you.
Members and non-members of all backgrounds are invited to join us for this event to learn more about Artificial Intelligence, the hype, the facts, the fiction and the opportunities. Our panel is made up of some stellar women who are launching careers in AI and are experts on opportunities and impacts.
Additionally, we will be giving away several prizes at the end of the event--scroll down to learn more! This drawing will take place after the panel has finished their discussion, and you must be present on the webinar at the time of the drawing to win.
Panelists:
Jie Hu
Associate Laureate, Principal Data Science Manager, Industrial Biotechnology Data Science Lead
Corteva Agriscience
Jie earned her Ph.D. degree in Computational Chemistry from the University of Chicago. Her thesis studies focused on protein modeling and DNA repair. She was then trained as a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University where she studied metabolism of cancer cells and identified potential therapeutic targets.
Jie started her industrial career at Corteva Agriscience (then Dow AgroSciences) in 2014 to join the mission of delivering sustainable crop protection solutions to agriculture. She served as sole computational focal point for Corteva's microbial strain improvement team and contributed to significant increase in strain productivity for green chemistry pesticides. Since 2018, she initiated and led an award-winning R&D program that builds data analytical capabilities for Corteva’s next-generation natural product discovery platform. Jie was named Corteva R&D Associate Laureate in 2022.
Jie currently leads an Industrial Biotechnology Data Science group that focuses on delivering AI-guided analytics solutions for biologicals and natural products applications. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with her husband and daughter.
Jessica Marty
Research Informatics Project Manager
Eurofins Discovery
Jessica has been in the biotechnology industry for 17 years across agricultural, pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare organizations. Having spent the majority of her career supporting the laboratory, she is a scientist at heart, biologist by education, and microbiologist by training. Jessica is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt Project Leader, however she subscribes to a diverse range of project management philosophies and tools, because she has yet to meet a project that fits neatly into a box.
Currently, she is a global project manager at Eurofins Discovery exploring the strengths of artificial intelligence and other computational sciences to build a state-of-the-art portfolio of drug development artifacts. She provides strategic consultation and manage project life-cycles, in coordination with multiple stakeholders and subject matter experts involved in Research Informatics initiatives across the globe.
Ten years on a high throughput team with access to millions of data points led to her love for technology, applied statistics, data modeling, and DOE. Spending countless hours compiling decades of excel files, and working on an FDA-compliant, paper-based data system intensified her appreciation of more sophisticated data management strategies; which is what initially got her involved in informatics projects.
Additionally, over the last nine years she has held seats on leadership teams as both a people and project leader, so she is passionate about culture, DEI, transformational leadership, and building together, which are themes she carries into project management. Like many in early 2020, she had the “sink or swim” challenge of learning to transfer her skills to a completely virtual environment. She tries her best to use all the technology at her disposal to make “virtual” feel like “in person” and she is constantly learning of new and better ways to connect and engage with my virtual colleagues.
Jessica is located in the greater Indianapolis area. In her spare time she enjoys painting, gardening, hiking, and doing at-home science experiments with her daughter.
Renée Cummings
Data Science Professor of Practice
Data Activist in Residence
University of Virginia
Professor Renée Cummings is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) ethicist and the first Data Activist in Residence, at the School of Data Science, at the University of Virginia (UVA) where she was named Professor of Practice in Data Science. She is also a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a distinguished member of the World Economic Forum’s Data Equity Council. She is also a criminologist, criminal psychologist, therapeutic jurisprudence specialist and a Community Scholar at Columbia University. She also serves as co-director of the Public Interest Technology (PIT) University Network, at UVA, and is on the board of advisors of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
Committed to stretching the imagination of data science, reimagining the relationship between data and society, and redefining the data power structure, Renée works at the intersection of technology, power, and society. She examines the ethical implications of data on society, exploring the impact of AI on duty of care and due process, expanding our understanding of the ethical risks of AI and how to build ethically resilient, rewarding, responsible, sustainable, justice-oriented, and trauma-informed AI for the benefit of all.
At the School of Data Science, her research focus has been data justice, data trauma, algorithmic policing, surveillance technology, and AI for criminal justice reform; using data to enhance police accountability and transparency and improve police practices, fairness, and decision-making accuracy through community engagement and public interest technology. Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are critical aspects of her work as she promotes inclusive innovation and ethical AI.
Her work extends to include data, democracy, representation, identity, and governance, critically examining data rights, algorithmic justice, social justice, and design justice through a criminal justice lens. Renée also specializes in AI leadership, AI policy development, AI governance, public sector AI, AI risk management, AI crisis communication, building ethical AI and using AI to save lives. Renée is committed to using AI to empower and transform, helping governments and organizations navigate the AI landscape and develop future AI leaders.
Committed to justice, equality, empowerment, and democracy, Renée is a champion for the voices of the historically underrepresented in STEM and technological advancement and increases the visibility and amplifies the voices of vulnerable communities in AI and new and emerging technologies, forcing us to stretch the ethical imagination of AI. Through her activism and research, Renée is creating space for people without power to participate meaningfully in the process of designing, developing, deploying, and adopting AI.
Through rigorous thinking, meaningful participation, and scholarship, Renée advocates for AI we can trust. Renée is on the frontline of ethical AI, generating real time justice-oriented solutions to the consequences of AI and the impacts of data and technology on society. A thought-leader, motivational speaker, and mentor, Renée has given a multitude of talks to conferences, groups, and policymakers, and is a recognized expert who lectures, nationally and internationally on ethical data science and ethical AI. Renée has mastered the art of creative storytelling, science communication and deconstructing complex topics into critical everyday conversations that inform and inspire.
Moderator: Linda Calvin
Chief Impact Officer
Reboot Representation
Linda Calvin is a 20-year veteran of the private IT sector with strengths in communication, law, digital and application development, and global tech leadership. Linda graduated cum laude with her BA in Journalism from Butler University. Linda also earned a Juris Doctor from Indiana University and is licensed to practice law in the Northern and Southern Districts of Indiana.
Linda is currently the Chief Impact Officer for Reboot Representation, an organization dedicated to doubling the number of Black, Latina and Native American (BLNA) women graduating with computing degrees by 2025. In her role, Linda collaborates with Reboot tech coalition partners to help create cultures that attract and retain BLNA women in tech. Linda also facilitates panels on emerging tech and the talent gap, and as a speaker for Transcend Consulting, regularly talks on topics of tech equity, mapping passion to tech, designing diverse tech talent pipelines, and women’s empowerment.
Prior to her role at Reboot Representation, Linda was the IT Sector Vice President for School of Information Technology at Ivy Tech Community College, the largest singularly accredited community college in the US. In that role, she provided guidance in designing curriculum to meet market demand and reflect emerging tech trends, led thought leadership for the school of IT, partnered with employers and career leaders to design talent pipelines and raised awareness of programs within the school of IT in communities across the state of Indiana, among many other duties. Other previous job titles include Global Digital IT Leader for Stanley Black & Decker, Global Digital Product and Marketing Leader for the Dow Chemical Agribusiness and Assistant City Prosecutor for the City of Indianapolis.
She holds many board and volunteer positions including Executive Women’s Forum Director for Women & Hi Tech, volunteer Guardian ad Litem and board member for Kids’ Voice of Indiana, the Indiana Technology and Innovation Association (ITIA), and serves as an advisory board member for The Guarden LLC, the Six Sigma Racial Equity Institute in Indianapolis and the Digital Fluency Council for Franklin College. Linda most recently joined the board of Rooted Schools Indy, a technology charter school serving students in underserved communities in Indianapolis, and the Indiana Executive Council on Cybersecurity.
As a woman of color in tech, she is committed to diversity and being visible to young people in the community as she believes, “When you See Us, You can Be Us.” Thus Linda regularly volunteers to speak with girls at Girls Inc of Greater Indianapolis, at STEM camps and with organizations like Brown Girls Code.
Door Prizes
Prize drawings will take place after the panel has finished their discussion, and you must be present on the webinar at the time of the drawing to win.
Two of our lucky attendees will receive books relevant to our topic and companion notebooks to document your thoughts while reading.
Prize 1: Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Dr. Safiya Umoja Noble, with a companion notebook featuring artwork of Dr. Noble by Indiana artist Shaunt'e Lewis.
Prize 2: The Age of AI: And Our Human Future by Daniel Huttenlocher, Eric Schmidt, and Henry Kissinger with a companion notebook featuring our artwork for this Executive Women's Forum.
Grand Prize
One attendee will receive a Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals Certification exam voucher ($99 value).
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