Subash D'Souza is an Data Evangelist. He is the founder and organizer of Data Con LA formerly known as Big Data Day LA, a data conference based in Sunny Southern California. He is also the founder for Data 4 Good, a public entity using data to solve social causes. Subash's passions lies in building scalable and performant systems.
Ron Galperin is the 19th Controller of the City of Los Angeles, elected in 2013 and again in 2017. He serves as the watchdog for taxpayers at City Hall, making sure public dollars are spent efficiently and effectively. He is also the paymaster, auditor and chief accounting officer for the City of Los Angeles. Galperin oversees a team that conducts independent audits, manages the City’s payroll and spending, reports on the City’s finances, pursues fraud and waste, and works to create a more transparent, accountable and modern city for residents. Galperin launched ControlPanel LA, the City’s first open data portal, in 2013. It features details on the goods and services Los Angeles buys, along with information on assets and liabilities, employee compensation, operating indicators and much more. Because of his efforts, L.A. has been named the “No. 1 Digital City” by the U.S. City Open Data Census three years in a row. Government Technology Magazine put Controller Galperin on its list of the “Top 25 Doers, Dreamers and Drivers.” In 2019, Galperin received the Tyler Public Sector Excellence Award. Read more about him here.
Abbass is a professor of data science at USC Marshall School of Business, and he is the director of the MS in Business Analytics program. Professor Sharif specializes is in the field of statistical computing and data visualization and he has developed and published new multivariate visualization techniques for functional data, and currently he is developing visualization techniques to study brain activity data collected via the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology. Professor Sharif teaches statistics courses that range from introductory statistics to data analysis for decision-making through to advanced modern statistical learning techniques, statistical computing and data visualization. (Host)
Dr. Sengupta is an aerospace engineer, rocket scientist, pilot, and veteran of the space program. She worked for NASA for 16 years where her engineering projects included her PhD research on developing the ion propulsion system for the Dawn Mission (currently in the main asteroid belt), the supersonic parachute that landed the Curiosity rover on Mars, and the Cold Atom Laboratory an atomic physics facility now on board the International Space Station. After leaving NASA she led the development of the hyperloop as senior vice president of engineering systems at Virgin Hyperloop, a technology that can enable ground based travel in excess of airline speed. Her current venture is Co-Founder and Corporate Officer at Airspace Experience Technologies (ASX), an electrified autonomous VTOL urban aerial mobility technology company.
Jeff Carpenter is the Director of Developer Advocacy at DataStax, where he leverages his background in system architecture, microservices and Apache Cassandra to help empower developers and operations engineers to build distributed systems that are scalable, reliable, and secure. Jeff has worked on projects ranging from a complex battle planning system in an austere network environment, to a cloud-based hotel reservation system and is the author of Cassandra: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition. (Sponsored)
Mukund Kaushik is the Head of Digital at Southern California Edison (SCE) where he leads the Digital Accelerator team. In his role he is responsible for accelerating the development of digital products that reduces the risk and improve the effectiveness of our operations using new digital technologies such as mobile, advanced analytics, automation and new digital practices like agile, DevOps and Design Thinking. Prior to SCE, Mukund was at Kimberly Clark, where he was the Vice President, Digital and Innovation. He led a global IT team that to supported the digital transformation effort of the consumer value chain He also held several positions at Honda North America, that included consumer, vehicle, and field applications, enterprise architecture and information security. (Sponsored)
Sid Mohasseb is a serial entrepreneur, venture investor, professor and speaker. He has built and sold numerous global companies. He has consulted for hundreds of organizations from hyper-growth startups to Fortune 500's. He also teaches Data Science at the University of Southern California.
Elliot Brook is a senior executive with Accenture’s applied intelligence practice. He’s architected 20+ complex analytic transformations for the world’s largest organizations including Nestle, MillerCoors, Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health, WarnerMedia, and State Farm. (Sponsored)
Joe Devon is a serial entrepreneur with a strong focus on community and the bleeding edge of technology. Joe is CoFounder of Diamond, a leading Digital Agency that works with companies such as Fox, Disney & the NFL. He also CoFounded Global Accessibility Awareness Day aka #GAAD. It is now a viral event that the major tech companies publicly celebrate each May, with a Twitter reach of 165 Million unique users. Joe has founding roles in LA Media Lab, a new initiative in the mold of MIT and NY's Media Labs and Television Four, a Broadband TV Production Company backed by Warner Bros & Sky TV. He is an advisor at USC's IT Program, Cross Campus, Dock, Cloud CMS, Empowertech & LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce. He has served as Program Advisor for leading industry conferences such as DataConLA, Semtech Biz & Zendcon.
Keila is an inspirational inner city Los Angeles teenager that is an international speaker, programmer and entrepreneur. Probably best know for her viral Youtube video of her “Undefinable Me” Keynote speech at OSCON 2015 Portland wowing a crowd of 4000 she is more than just a one trick pony. At age 12 winning the Young Entrepreneur of the year award usually awarded to high school seniors she's shown her affinity to audiences of both tech and business. Check her inspirational videos here and here
Ani Okkasian is a communications professional who seeks to close the gap between consumer data and consumer behavior by leveraging an academic background in interdisciplinary research to gain strategic insights that inform brand building, communication planning and creative solutions. Currently, Ani leads the Los Angeles based innovation unit within OMD, the 2019 Global Media Agency of the Year (Adweek), where she focuses on research & development and experimental activations. Ani is also adjunct professor of Interdisciplinary Research Methods and Future Studies at Woodbury University.
Elizabeth Owen holds a PhD in Digital Media (School of Education, UW-Madison) focused in game-based learning analytics. Currently Director of Learning and Data Science at Age of Learning, she’s committed to leveraging machine learning to optimize adaptive, engaging learning systems. Previously a data scientist with GlassLab Games, LRNG, and Metacog, Elizabeth’s doctoral roots lie with Games+Learning+Society research and game development lab. Collaborators include EA, Zynga, and Popcap games, and Dr. Ryan Baker at UPenn in ongoing Educational Data Mining. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Owen was a K-12 educator for a decade, and founding teacher at an L.A. charter school (LAAAE.org).
Congratulations to our winners!!
1) Lexset
2) EVVEMI
3) Blue.Social
Prizes:
First Place – $1000 cash and a 1 one-on-one feedback and strategy session with a VC from TenOneTen Ventures.
Second Place – $500 cash.
Third Place – $250 cash.
Data Con LA Business Data Scholarship
The Data Con LA 2019 Startup Showcase and MountainTop Data are partnering to offer data scholarships to all qualifying startups. This scholarship is available for any startup that needs targeted account and contact information for marketing, or access to a large business data pool for product functionality, or has a product that monetizes business data. MountainTop Data maintains a database of tens of millions of business contacts and companies. Data Con LA’s partnership with MountainTop Data can give you access to this data, free. For more information and to apply for a data scholarship check here.
Aaron is the head of engineering at SPIDR Tech, building the world’s first automated customer service platform for law enforcement agencies and fire departments. SPIDR's platform is allowing police and others serve their communities better, every day. Among other things, Aaron cares about strong engineering culture, team building, and surfing.
Arvind is an entrepreneur with experience in brand building on social media. He is the founder of Ursa South, a digital agency that helps startups and established global brands connect with and craft brand stories that resonate via social media and in-person activations. He is an active startup advisor and early-stage investor with a focus on consumer wellness, personal care and the future of food. Arvind received his undergraduate degree from the UC Riverside and a Master of Science from Columbia University.
Dr Mangal teaches AI, Transportation and Program Management at UCLA. She also advises Higher Ed institutions including Pepperdine University to bring innovation into the curriculum in the digital era. In her previous role as ED of the Easton Center at UCLA Anderson, she played a key role in bringing technology into the curriculum and Anderson now ranks #4 in tech careers for MBAs. She has published four books, papers and articles and speaks at conferences and forums.
Ethen is a financial technologies innovator with more than ten years of experience in financial technologies. He has thirteen financial technologies related patents, and has co-founded several financial technology platforms, such as, Blast.com, a FinTech savings and investment platform; Armatic.io, a Software as a Service accounts receivables automation and management platform, and more. Ethen's expertise in finance is supported by degrees from Harvard University and Villanova University. He also has professional subject matter certifications from Oxford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard University. Ethen is also an investor and advisor at Blast, ATM.com and Givsum. Ethen is currently leading esports innovation efforts and agency digital transformation at Damage Esports in Los Angeles.
Michael is the Founding Director of the USC Marshall Venture Fund. The Venture Fund is an industry agnostic venture capital fund investing in early-stage startups created by USC students, alumni, faculty, and staff or that stem from intellectual property generated at the university. Michael is active in the Southern California ecosystem as a mentor with Backstage Accelerator, Quake Capital Accelerator, and Blackstone Launchpad Accelerator. Michael founded and managed an early-stage venture firm in Santa Monica prior to joining USC. Michael received his J.D. from the Pennsylvania State University School of Law and his B.A. from Georgetown University. He is a member of the Washington, D.C. Bar. He serves on the Board of the Jason E. Sabbag Memorial Scholarship Fund at Georgetown University.
Minnie is a long-time Silicon Valley product leader and operations executive with experience building and scaling impact through elegant technical solutions and great teams. She recently moved back to LA after 20+ years in the Bay Area and is excited to be a part of the growing tech ecosystem of Southern California as an early-stage tech investor. Minnie started her career as an early product manager at Google where she co-founded the Access team; a cross-functional product, policy, and engineering team that spun off Google Fiber. After 11+ years, she left Google to begin her own entrepreneurial journey as the co-founder and COO of Shift, an online marketplace for used cars. Minnie learned a lot of lessons hiring hundreds of employees and scaling a $100M+ business. She is an active mentor and non-profit board member. In her spare time she volunteers for local government, surfs baby waves, and raises baby people. She recently moved back to LA after 20+ years in the Bay Area and is excited to be a part of the growing tech ecosystem of Southern California as an early-stage tech investor and host of LA Venture podcast
As a thought leader in the BigData world, PI has pursued his several roles and responsibilities with a passion for analytics, business strategy, and engineering. Punnoose was previously Head of Analytics & Data Services, Edmunds.com
Panels
IoT
The panel will start by talking about how the city and county are evolving toward being a data driven organization, what that means, and the challenges such a transformation means. The panel will look at what it means for success when it requires government to move from treating data like a tactical resource to being a strategic resource. For this to happen, data has to transcend organizational boundaries within the government. And, as we make progress on this front, we have to also start working to ways where data transcends government boundaries so that neighboring cities and county/city are sharing operational data. This is a far cry from where we are at today but we look at this as a journey, something to progress toward over time. Over the course of that journey, policies, politics, and needs will change so we a key need is not just to solve specific problems, but to lay a foundation for evolution.
Big Data
Overview: Join us and data science thought-leaders for a screening of excerpts from the documentary “Big Data: Unlocking Success.” Learn about ___. This film profiles trailblazing experts from MGM Resorts International, Toyota Financial Services and other innovative companies. We’ll discuss the power, pitfalls, and potential in harnessing and interpreting data. Our panelists will reveal how today’s wealth of data drives strategic decisions across industries and share their visions for the future.
Why It Matters: According to a Forbes article, “Whether gathering data on the front end or making big decisions in the C-Suite, every single person in your organization must buy into the value [data] analytics brings”.
What You’ll Take Away: Learn how you can leverage data in your role—no matter the industry. The demand for data science talent will only increase in our economy as data affects all aspects of our lives. Discuss and network with our guest experts to learn about exciting career and business opportunities.
Women Leading Data
From AI and machine learning to data discovery and real-time analytics, women are leading the advancement of data technologies. In this session, Stacey Broadwell, Brand Ambassador, Linkedin Local – Los Angeles, will interview five women leading data at prominent brands. This is a must-see session for anyone interested in catapulting there careers to the next level. We will discuss career paths, overcoming obstacles, blind spots and leading as a woman. But must importantly, we will discuss how we can raise the boats of every woman through kindness, words and action. Join us! Men welcomed and encouraged to attend.
DataScience
Data Science tutorial is designed for people who are new to Data Science. This is beginner level session so no prior coding or technical knowledge is required. Just bring your laptop with WiFi capability. The session starts with a review of what is data science, the amount of data we generate and how companies are using that data to get insight. We will pick a business use case, define the data science process, followed by hands-on lab using python and Jupyter notebook. During the hands-on portion we will work with pandas, numpy, matplotlib and sklearn modules and use a machine learning algorithm to approach the business use case.
BlockChain
Blockchains permeate society and have cultivated followings ranking in the tens of millions. Many have hailed bitcoin, the progenitor of all blockchains, digital gold and one of the most important technologies to date. By design, they are trust-less, permanent, and censorship resistant. This tutorial will help you understand some of the important design decisions that go into building a blockchain and get you started writing your own. The session will be broken down into 4 parts with activities in-between:Introduction To Blockchains: A brief description of what this technology is and some history about how it got started.A High Level Architecture: The different components of blockchains including: networking, block validation, consensus, state management, etc.In-Depth On Validation: A deep dive on blockchain validation including: consensus, fault tolerance, and consistency.In-Depth On Networking: A deep dive into blockchain networking including: gossip and synchronization.Since there are so many different kinds of blockchains and technologies involved in constructing them, this tutorial will be focused on developing an example blockchain.
