What’s the difference between Data Analysis and Data Science? How does Data Engineering differ from Software Development?

Join us for this kickoff session, where we will be discussing the wide range of data roles and titles being used today, with our panel of experienced local data professionals.

OVERVIEW

With the continued growth of data technologies and applications being implemented today, data practitioners are focusing their careers to excel at more specific points of the data pipeline. Beyond this, teams outside IT that were traditionally uninvolved with data, are adopting data-driven strategies and fostering even more of these specialized roles.

In this session, sponsored by a local fintech startup Quandl, we will be stepping through their data pipeline and highlighting the teams and roles that are critical in providing reliable data products. Then, we will turn it over to our panel speakers to lead the discussion on how they view data roles today, and where they might be going.

PANEL SPEAKERS

We are excited to have Alessandra Fraquelli, Vanessa Feng and Joanna Yu join us for the panel discussion!

Alessandra is currently a Senior Consultant in the Financial Risk Management Advisory practice of KPMG. She helps financial institution clients develop credit, market, and operational risk models. Prior to KPMG, she was a Quantitative Analyst on a Credit Risk Modeling team at CIBC, where she developed and validated various models for the bank’s retail credit card portfolio (including adjudication, default, and fraud models). Alessandra holds a Bachelor degree in Actuarial Mathematics and Finance from Concordia University, and a Master’s degree in Statistics from the University of Toronto.

Vanessa is a Machine Learning Scientist at AdeptMind. She has over 8 years of industry experience harnessing data science for applications in natural language processing, text mining, and general artificial intelligence problems. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto, with a research focus on Computational Linguistic. Prior to her current position at AdeptMind, Vanessa held multiple roles as the Lead Data Scientist at the Globe and Mail and Workopolis, where she coached her team on data science implementation based on Python, Web Analytics, SEO/SEM and DevOps.

Joanna leads the Neuroinformatics Team for CAN-BIND, a national depression research and education network dedicated to improving depression care. Through linkages with the Ontario Brain Institute and the BrainCODE platform, Joanna’s team supports all aspects of data management including harmonization, quality control, and curation. CAN-BIND’s research approach involves standardized collection of multidimensional data ranging from clinical questionnaires, brain scans, and molecular assays coupled with integrative analytic methods to advance biomarker discovery and accelerate the development of new treatments for depression. Joanna holds a PhD in Molecular Genetics from the University of Toronto.

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