TED-style Talks: Innovation in Data Science Across Industry

Dr. Bethany Deshpande is a highly motivated, big-picture thinker who has more than a decade of experience in science and entrepreneurship. Dr. Deshpande was a Schmeelk Canada Fellow, has won the Leadership and Sustainability Scholarship, and the Student Services Award for Leadership Excellence. She completed a PhD in Biology at Université Laval throughout which she studied microbial activity in northern ecosystems, and gained experience using sensor technology in remote, extreme environments.

SomaDetect is an in-line sensor that measures every critical indicator of dairy quality (fat, protein, somatic cell counts, progesterone, and antibiotics) from every cow at every milking. It uses no consumables (no chemicals, no cartridges, no lost milk), is extremely quick (results in seconds, not minutes), and accurate.

SomaDetect is working with farmers to provide them with the information they want and need, in formats they can use. Using SomaDetect’s technology dairy farmers gain access to real-time analytics of milk quality and herd health indicators from every cow at every milking. This is human-centred-design with cows and their caretakers in mind. This is better data for farmers to make informed decisions. This is better milk for consumers who demand healthy and nutritious foods. This is better lives for cows who rely on farmers to keep them healthy and free of diseases. This is the future of dairy.

Jason Jankowiak has over 17 years of experience in the healthcare field, with a strong emphasis on hospital operations, clinical program management, physician enterprise leadership and quality improvement. Mr. Jankowiak helped co-found Socially Determined, where he serves as a Partner focused on project work with hospitals and insurance companies. Socially Determined is an analytics and services platform focused on helping hospitals, health insurance and pharmaceutical companies identify and solve for Social Determinant of Health Barriers in the populations they serve.

Socially Determined fuses clinical and claims data with outside contextual data to build holistic models of people, the communities they live in, and their interactions with the healthcare system. Their analytics go well beyond gathering data about people, as they seek to understand the most important questions in healthcare:

• Why do some adhere to clinical instructions and others don’t?
• What barriers (healthy food, transportation, access to facilities) do people in the community face?
• What unique conditions exist in neighborhoods that are driving healthcare outcomes?

They deliver analytics through our secure, cloud-based platform. They provide native advanced visualizations and reporting which is then integrated into our customers’ enterprise systems and clinical workflows.

As Vice President of Data Science & Engineering at Sentient Science, Dr. Vijayant Kumar and his team are responsible for drivetrain life extension of a 30000+ global fleet of wind turbines through a cloud-based SaaS platform. Dr. Kumar has served in variety of leadership roles in the wind energy industry working for and advising world’s largest wind energy producers, financiers, operators and consumers.

Since 2001, Sentient Science has been devoted to extending remaining useful life of fielded assets and optimizing new product design and testing. It is this mission that has led to more than 10 years of research and over $25 million of competitive research and development funding for research and to validate their DigitalClone technology.

Dr. Peruvemba Satish oversees the firm's comprehensive risk management program. He also works with the company's investment management and product development teams on engineering new investment strategies. Dr. Satish was previously at Allstate Corporation, where he served as a senior managing director and portfolio manager for the performance-based strategies group. He has much notable experience in investment management prior to American Century Investments.

American Century Investments® is a leading asset manager focused on delivering investment results and building long-term client relationships while supporting research that can improve human health and save lives.

• Performance Focused for 60 Years
  • Founded in 1958 by Jim Stowers Jr., their investment professionals aim to outperform relevant benchmarks and peer groups using a highly defined, disciplined and repeatable process that emphasizes independent thinking.
  • They take an active, team-based and risk-adjusted approach to managing equity, fixed income and alternative investments.
  • With a global presence, they help clients around the world achieve their goals.
•  Pure-Play Business Model
  • Investment management is their sole focus, which empowers us to align their decisions with client expectations.
  • No ancillary businesses compete with their clients or dilute their resources to serve them.
• Privately Controlled and Independent
  • Their ownership structure allows them to maintain a long-term view in the best interest of their clients—they're not beholden to quarterly earnings pressure.
  • They take an independent view, guided by their commitment to do the right thing for our clients. This focus on integrity has earned the trust of their clients for 60 years
• Prosper With Purpose®
  • Every day, people focus on making the world a better place for themselves, their families and their organizations. You can give back something more valuable than money.
  • By investing with them, you also invest in the future of others and potentially impact the lives of millions. That's possible because of the distinct relationship with our primary owner, the Stowers Institute for Medical Research.
  • Their dividend payments support the Institute's work of uncovering the causes, treatments and prevention of life-threatening diseases, like cancer. It's how they and their clients together redefine prosperity.