Master of Science in Analytics
Instructors - MSc in Analytics
Upcoming Events and Deadlines
Shaddy Abado, PhD
Shaddy Abado is a Data Science Manager at Accenture Digital. Throughout his career his interests span various fields ranging from investigating light-fluid interactions for aero-optics applications to developing data analytics solutions for equipment predictive maintenance, condition based monitoring and Industrial Internet of Things. He is utilizing these skills at Accenture to assist companies throughout their digital transformation. He has more than 6 years of experience instructing in graduate professional studies courses. He serves on the board of the Data Science Conference. He has presented research at national conferences and published papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. He received his MSc and PhD in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
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Abid Ali, PhD
Abid Ali has worked in data and analytics for several years at some of the largest consulting firms. He has designed and delivered many large scale data transformations around the world in countries such as US, UK, EU, APAC, and in various industries such as banking, insurance, retail, telecom, travel, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing. He is currently working in Capgemini as portfolio manager in the global insights and data practice supporting financial services across banking and insurance industries. He leads several internal initiatives and capabilities, and works closely with c-suite executives to devise strategies for migration and transition to modern data platforms.
Abid believes in life-long learning and has acquired several advanced degrees and certifications over the years such as undergraduate in computer sciences, master's in computer sciences (business intelligence and data warehousing), another master's in information and knowledge strategy, an EMBA, a Ph.D. in organizational leadership, and several certifications from Teradata, Celonis, SAFe Agile, Azure, AWS. Ali believes in sharing and contributing knowledge and therefore teaches in top-tier universities in addition to his day job.
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Arnie Aronoff, PhD
Arnie Aronoff is formerly the senior director for human resources at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, Arnie Aronoff has brought his professional expertise to educational, nonprofit, social service, and other organizations as a consultant, coach, and trainer for over fifteen years. Mr. Aronoff is an experienced instructor who has been teaching for the Professional Development Program at SSA since 1996. He earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago and pursued advanced training in organizational development from the National Training Laboratories in Applied Behavioral Science (NTL) and the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland.
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Gizem Aydin, PhD
Dr. Aydin is a decision science professional with 15 years of experience in data science, business analytics, and operations research. She currently leads strategic analytics and technology projects at Caterpillar, Inc. in sales and operations planning: data solutions development, data strategy, and advanced analytics application development in supply chain field. Gizem received the Outstanding Achievement in Analytics award at Caterpillar for customer site maintenance scheduling solution in 2016. She utilizes her diverse background and experience to provide technical strategic leadership and analytics solutions to internal and external teams.
Dr. Aydin earned her MSc and PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, research focusing on network flow modeling in freight flow applications. She has dual degree in Industrial Engineering and Computer Engineering, published multiple papers, a book chapter, and presented her work at conferences. She teaches the Python for Analytics course since 2019 Winter quarter in the MSc. Analytics at the University of Chicago Graham School. Her interests include programming, statistics, machine learning, operations management, and supply chain management.
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Yuri Balasanov, PhD
Dr. Yuri Balasanov is a lecturer at the University of Chicago since 1997. He teaches at Graduate Program on Financial Mathematics (MSFM) and Graduate Program on Analytics (MScA). Dr. Balasanov teaches courses on linear and nonlinear statistical analysis, machine learning, Bayesian methods, artificial intelligence, robotics, fixed income derivatives, mathematical market microstructure. He is also founder and President of Research Software International, Inc. since 1991 and iLykei Teaching Tech Corp since 2015.
Dr. Balasanov earned his Master's degree in Applied Mathematics and Ph.D. in Probability Theory and Mathematical Statistics from the Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia, where he studied under Andrey Kolmogorov and leading members of his school. His primary expertise and research interests are in the area of stochastic modeling, machine learning and artificial intelligence, robotics with applications in various fields including trading, risk management, finance and economics, business analytics, marketing and medical studies. Dr. Balasanov has been a financial industry practitioner for more than 20 years, working at leading financial institutions as head quant, quantitative trader and risk manager. He has lead research teams working on analytical and data driven projects as well as development of software for analytics and quantitative trading.
Courses
Master of Science in Analytics:
- MSCA 31007: Statistical Analysis
- MSCA 31009: Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics
- MSCA 31010: Linear and Nonlinear Models for Business Applications
- MSCA 32001: Financial Analytics
- MSCA 32005: Real Time Analytics
- MSCA 32014: Bayesian Methods
- MSCA 32017: Advanced Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
Gregory Bernstein, MS
Gregory Bernstein works as a data scientist for Kinexon Sports & Media, a small branch of a German based company working with teams in the NBA, NFL and other professional leagues to monitor athletes' movement and exertion, provide consultation regarding load management, and optimize in game performance. Greg enjoys working in the startup environment and engages in analytical modeling, reporting and visualization, and product development among other tasks on a day to day basis. He earned a BA from Lafayette College in creative writing and economics in 2012 and graduated from the University of Chicago MS Analytics program in 2019. In addition to sports, Greg has a passion for teaching and education and has previously worked with the Princeton Review and as a TA for both the MS Analytics program and the Booth School of Business.
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Shree Bharadwaj, MS
Shreenidhi Bharadwaj is an educator, data enthusiast and an analytics practitioner. Currently, as M&A COE lead, he advises Private Equity/Venture Capital firms and C-level Executives on value creation, post-close synergies along with data & analytics(BI/AI) strategies focused on business outcomes. In his previous executive leadership role at Syndigo, he led the data strategy, data science, next-gen platform and M&A integrations. His expertise revolves around driving innovation, standardization, development & operationalizing machine learning models, data engineering at scale using on premise & cloud platforms, effective data visualizations, model-driven design & algorithmic thinking. He was elected to the Global Standards Architecture Board at GS1, where he worked with global industry leaders to develop standards, road maps, governance & compliance requirements relating to food services, healthcare, retail, supply chain & CPG/FMCG verticals. His experience spans multiple verticals such as Healthcare, Retail, MarTech, AdTech, EdTech, FinTech, Telecom and public safety with companies operating as startups to fortune 100.
Shreenidhi is a graduate of the MS Analytics program from The University of Chicago and BE, Electronics and Communications from Manipal Institute of Technology, India. His interests include Data Engineering, Intelligent Systems and Robotics, Machine Learning at scale, Data Visualization & Knowledge Engineering.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssbharadwaj
Email: sbharadwaj@uchicago.edu
Courses
Master of Science in Analytics:
Certificate in Data Analytics for Business Professionals:
This instructor teaches for multiple programs. If you’re interested in a course from another program, please visit that program page to learn more about applying. Students may register for one certificate course before applying to a certificate program.
Arnab Bose, PhD
Dr. Arnab Bose is Chief Scientific Officer at Abzooba, a data analytics company. He is a 20-year industry veteran focused on machine learning and deep learning models for unstructured and structured data. Arnab has extensive industry experience in using data to influence behavioral outcomes in healthcare, retail, finance and automated vehicle control.
Arnab is an avid writer and has published numerous conference & journal papers and book chapters. He enjoys public speaking and has given talks on data analytics at universities and industry conferences in US, Australia, and India. He serves on the board of the financial engineering graduate program at University of Southern California. Arnab holds MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from University of Southern California, and a BS in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India.
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Anil Chaturvedi, PhD
Dr. Chaturvedi has over 25 years of professional experience at companies such as AT&T Bell Labs, Kraft Foods, Capital One, and Accenture. He has provided consulting services to Bank of America, Fannie Mae, Johnson & Johnson, and Proctor & Gamble. His general research interests include the areas of multivariate analysis methods for Big Data – multi-linear models, information mining, and business insights. He has co-authored a book "Mathematical Tools for Applied Multivariate Analysis" with the Late Professor Paul Green (University of Pennsylvania) and Professor J. Douglas Carroll (Rutgers University). He has patented and published analytical methods for Direct Marketing and Information Mining, Market Segmentation, New Product Development, Product Positioning, Customer Loyalty, Consumer Promotion Mix optimization, and Brand Strategy. He completed his PhD from Rutgers University, and PGDM from IIM Ahmedabad, India.
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Shahbaz Chaudhary, MS
Shahbaz received his BSc in Computer Science from the University of Michigan. He worked for a decade and a half as a software engineer in New York and Chicago financial markets. He graduated from the University of Chicago's Master of Science in Analytics program, where his team won the top honors of "Best in Show" prize for their capstone project.
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Brian Craft, MS
Brian Craft is a seasoned data scientist with 8 years of industry experience. He is currently a Data scientist at Conagra Brands, where he is focused on scaling their machine learning capabilities and developing models to understand consumer purchase behavior and identify emerging ingredient and flavor trends. Previously he worked on the Data Science team at Cars.com where he helped develop a pipeline to deploy machine learning models to production for use on their web and mobile properties, while also developing models around vehicle churn, pricing and search order. Prior to that he worked in political consulting, analyzing demographic and media spend data for senatorial and congressional campaigns. He holds a BA in Economics and a MS in Data Science with a focus on Computational Methods from DePaul University.
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Sebastien Donadio, PhD
Shaddy Abado is currently a Senior Data Scientist at Ulta Beauty where he focuses on developing machine learning models to optimize marketing strategies and enhance personalized experiences. With a background in engineering, throughout his career, Shaddy's interests span various fields ranging from researching light-fluid interactions for aero-optics applications, developing data driven solutions for equipment predictive maintenance, to consulting companies throughout their digital transformation.
Shaddy is passionate about teaching and engaging students in insightful education. Since 2012, he has been instructing graduate level courses in various academic programs. Currently, Shaddy is an instructor at the University of Chicago Master of Science in Analytics. He holds two US patents, has presented his research at national conferences, and has published papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Shaddy holds a PhD in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.
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Kevin Hartman, MBA, MPP
Kevin Hartman is a devoted and artistic practitioner of data. He believes data must do more than simply provide insights that motivate creative thought. Rather, data must express insights in ways that are just as creative as the ideas they inspire.
As Head of Industry at Google, Kevin and his team partner with major advertisers, creative agencies, and media companies to develop digital solutions that build businesses and brands. His approach mixes science and art to deliver inventive, fact-based strategies that reduce uncertainty and increase effectiveness in the marketing and advertising programs they create.
Kevin’s roster of client work is long and varied, and includes brand names such as Nestle, General Mills, Kellogg's, Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, Motorola, the United States Postal Service, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Del Monte, Boeing, Qualcomm, Wagner USA, ABN Amro, Bank of America, and the Chicago Board of Trade, among others.
Kevin holds a BA from the University of Notre Dame, a MPP from the University of Chicago's Harris School, and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He teaches extensively on topics related to marketing, digital analytics, and data management and is on the adjunct teaching staffs at the University of Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Illinois.
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Nick Kadochnikov, MS
Nick Kadochnikov is a Distinguished Engineer and Director within IBM Global Business Services, where he is focusing on applying AI solutions to transform business processes. These AI solutions combine the power of Machine Learning, Advanced Analytics and Big Data with Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision to enable intelligent, data-driven decision making based on the multitude of both structured and unstructured data sources. Nick has successfully created AI solutions, covering the majority of enterprise operations, including supply-chain, sales, marketing, finance, procurement and legal functions. Currently, Nick is primarily focused on applying AI to solve Healthcare problems, leading to better patients' outcomes, improving population health and improving the efficiencies of clinical trials.
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Wendy Klusendorf, MS
Wendy Klusendorf has over 20 years of experience in Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Procurement. She graduated from the University of Chicago MS Analytics program in 2016 and has been working for the university since 2017. She currently works at Pregis, LLC as the Procurement Manager.
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Ming-Long Lam, PhD
Dr. Lam is a statistical researcher and developer. He has more than twenty-five years of applying data science in software development, property and casualty insurance, and retail financial service industries. He has strong expertise in developing statistical algorithms, analyzing person data, and educating data scientists. He is currently a Principal Research Statistician Developer at the SAS Institute and on the faculty of the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology. Prior to joining SAS, he directed the software development at SPSS; sophisticated Allstate's insurance rating plans and help discover their most valuable customers and developed new performance assessment models for recruiting and retaining retail financial staff at the Chase Bank. He has co-published the book Using Data Analysis to Improve Student Learning: Toward 100% Proficiency. He holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Chicago.
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Roger Moore, MBA
Roger is the CEO and Managing Director at NLITX. NLITX uses data and analytics to solve strategic problems. Roger also currently is a Lecturer at the University of Chicago. He teaches Leadership Skills in the Master of Science in Analytics Program. Previously Roger was VP, Analytics and Customer Operations at Entytle. Entytle provides a SaaS tool supporting customer installed base automated sales with AI and machine learning. Roger has also worked at Gartner, Sagence, Booz & Co, PwC, Diamond Management & Technology Partners and the Boston Consulting Group. Roger is active in the data, analytics and technology communities in the Chicago area. He attends many MeetUps, roundtables and industry events. Roger founded and chairs the Chicago Booth Big Data & Analytics Roundtable and is a board member of the Chicago City Data User Group. Roger is on the Industry Advisory Board of the Chicago Analytics Consortium, formed by the major universities in Chicago that provide analytics educations.
Roger has experience speaking in many venues, including providing the opening address at the Predictive Analytics & Business Insights 2015 Conference in Chicago. He has also spoken at the Executives Club of Chicago Leadership Circle, the Chicago Booth Innovation Roundtable, DePaul Predictive Analytics Club, UIC Center for Research in Information Management (CRIM) Speaker Series, Indiana University Informatics and Computing Student Association Catalyst Conference and UIUC Speaker Series. He also was a panel moderator for University of Chicago GradUCon on Careers in Data Science, UIC's CRIM Analytics Symposium on Academic-Industry Analytics Partnerships and at General Assembly on Intro to Data Science. Roger holds an MBA with focus in Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He also received a BS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
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Mei Najim, MS
Mrs. Mei Najim has been providing advanced analytics consulting services to the P&C insurance industry since 2018. She has over 15 years hands-on analytics experience in the P&C Insurance Industry. Since 2007, she has been mainly leading and working on various predictive analytics and data science projects to develop advanced analytics capability. She also has extensive statistics, machine learning, and data mining experience dealing with large and complex data sets.
She has been a frequent speaker at various industry conferences to share her expertise in predictive analytics, machine learning, and data science. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Actuarial Science from Hunan University and two Master of Science degrees, in Applied Mathematics and in Statistics, from Washington State University. Mei is a member of the American Statistical Association and a Certified Specialist in Predictive Analytics (CSPA) of the Casualty Actuarial Society.
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Danny Ng, PhD
Bio information coming soon.
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Utku Pamuksuz, PhD
Dr. Utku Pamuksuz is a data analytics researcher with expertise in data science, business analytics, applied mathematics, and machine/deep learning. He has been teaching analytics courses at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC). He has been an invited speaker including keynote sessions in academic and professional seminars in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.A. for application and development of data analytics in the areas of Management, Finance, Strategy, Healthcare, E-Commerce and Quantitative Marketing. He holds PhD from UIUC and MSc in Computer Science from Northwestern University. Dr. Pamuksuz has led data science teams in several fortune companies. He co-founded Inference Analytics in 2018 and currently serve as a Chief Scientist. PhD in Theoretical Physics, MS in Computer Science. Currently I work as a Computational Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Previously I worked as a scientist for LIGO project and participated in the data analysis that resulted in the discovery of gravitational waves.
Courses
Master of Science in Analytics:
- MSCA 31008: Data Mining Principles
- MSCA 34000: Capstone Project Implementation
- MSCA 34001: Capstone Project Writing
- MSCA 37010: Programming for Analytics
Don Patchell, MBA
Over more than 30 years, Don has served in a variety of assignments that utilize research and data analysis to provide impact to major CPG, Retail and Foodservice companies. Don currently serves as an independent consultant and Lecturer at the University of Chicago, Board President of Chicago Chapter of the American Statistical Association and as Adjunct Professor in Business Analytics at DePaul University. As Senior VP, Analytics for HAVI Group, Don helped pioneer new analytics implementations for McDonald's and Coca-Cola. Prior to joining HAVI Group, Don was Director of Advertising Analytics for Sears, Roebuck & Co. - bringing cutting edge analytics of Sears' media (tv, radio, print) support to drive ROI based decision making. Don has also managed research and analytics for several major brands for Kraft Foods and site location analytics and modeling for Hallmark Cards. Additionally, Don was an active duty U.S. Army officer for 11 years - serving in troop leadership positions in South Korea, Germany and the U.S. Don graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in Engineering. Additionally, he has an MSE in Operations Research from The University of Texas at Austin and MBA from the University of Kansas.
CourseS
Master of Science in Analytics:
- MSCA 31015: Data Science for Consulting
- MSCA 34000: Capstone Project Implementation
Nalini Polavarapu, PhD
Dr. Nalini Polavarapu has been with Bayer for over ten years and leads data science strategy for a global team of analytical and IT professionals, specialized in machine learning, operations research and cloud analytics to deliver better products to market faster through data science. Data science activities range from inventing cognitive systems to enhance decision making, predictive and prescriptive analytics to automate/augment decisions, geo-spatial and image analytics to realize precision farming, and analytics to increase operational efficiency.
Nalini also serves as the senior leader on the Data Science Center of Excellence Council partnering with other senior leaders enterprise wide to drive the efforts to realize the vision of transforming into a digital company through data science. Activities include cross-functional digital strategy and projects, enterprise wide talent and community development, scalable technology platforms, best practices for development and deployment of analytical solutions and portfolio management.
Over the course of her career, Nalini held positions of increasing levels of leadership responsibilities managing teams operating across geographies in Americas, EMEA, Asia and Africa, and has successfully established and led an off-shore center in India. She also initiated multiple external partnerships and collaborations with start-ups, large corporations and universities. Being the first data scientist at Monsanto, Nalini played a key role in building a world-class global data science organization which is now at 300+ and growing through hiring and development of data scientists, data science leaders, as well as positions of seniority within the groups.
Nalini has a PhD and dual Masters in Computer Science and Bioinformatics from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Nalini has authored and co-authored several analytical patents, research articles in leading scientific journals and co-authored book chapters on high throughput data analysis and applications.
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Ashish Pujari, MS
Ashish Pujari is a leader in data and analytics, IT strategy and technology consulting. As a Director of Analytics at GLG, Ashish leads the design and implementation of business intelligence, predictive analytics and visualization. Prior to joining GLG, Ashish served as an AVP of Analytics Architecture for CNA Insurance where he was responsible for insurance analytics platforms and data strategy.
Ashish specializes in big-data analytics, cloud computing, algorithm development, application and database design, decision management and visualization technologies. Ashish has been involved in technology consulting in finance, banking, insurance and communications domains for clients in Europe, North America and Asia.
Ashish earned a Master of Science in Analytics from the University of Chicago, and Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. His research interests include parallel and distributed systems and machine learning. Read an interview with Ashish Pujari on the importance of data today ›
Contact: apujari@uchicago.edu
Courses
Master of Science in Analytics:
- MSCA 31012: Data Engineering Platforms for Analytics
- MSCA 31013: Big Data Platforms
- MSCA 37011: Deep Learning and Image Recognition
Certificate in Data Analytics for Business Professionals:
This instructor teaches for multiple programs. If you’re interested in a course from another program, please visit that program page to learn more about applying. Students may register for one certificate course before applying to a certificate program.
David Staszak, PhD
David Staszak is a data scientist at Atomo, a healthcare AI company, where he leads the machine learning modeling and advanced analytics efforts. He is a published researcher in peer-reviewed journals from multiple fields, including particle physics, astronomy, and medicine. Prior to working in healthcare, he earned a PhD in particle physics from UCLA and worked as astrophysics research staff at McGill University and the University of Chicago.
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Rafael Vescovi, PhD
Dr. Rafael Vescovi currently works at Argonne National Laboratory on the Aurora 2021 exascale computer. He is responsible the implementation of the Connectome project. He has a wide variety of professional experience, starting by his formation in physics and masters and phd on applied physics. Raf has taught various physics and computer science courses for the past ten years. On a different side, Raf is also responsible to train Scuba diving Instructors on his spare time and hold different leadership positions at other institutions.
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Jonathan Williams, MS
Jonathan Williams has been working in statistical consulting for ten years, and currently manages data science teams at Civis Analytics, working on behalf of public sector clients. Previously he worked as a Vice President at Compass Lexecon, providing and supporting expert reports and expert testimony for litigation. Jonathan earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Statistics from the University of Chicago ('07, '08) and is also a recent alumni of the MSCA program ('16). He also co-instructs courses for the Graham School certificate programs along with Professor Yuri Balasanov. Jonathan's focuses include data visualization, technical writing, financial valuation, mortgage portfolio modeling, and damages estimation.
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Michael Xiao, MBA
As Divisional Vice President, Michael Xiao currently leads the Enterprise Data Science organization at Health Care Service Corporation, which operates the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. Since joining HCSC in 2016, Michael has built and scaled multiple large data science teams. His current team creates and drives the company's overall machine learning and AI strategy and roadmap, serves as the center of excellence for advanced analytics, and develops cutting edge AI products and solutions, including natural language processing and computer vision. His teams have improved the health and wellbeing of HCSC's more than 16 million members by making health care more affordable, improving the quality of care, and enhancing overall member experience by delivering tens of millions in value for its members and communities. He has previously worked at large payers in various roles including data science, financial forecasting, pricing, product management, and project management.
He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics and Film Modified with Computer Science from Dartmouth College, and completed his MBA with honors at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Areas of interest for him include product management and AI adoption and change management, computer vision, and model interpretability and explainability.
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Igor Yakushin, PhD
Igor holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics and a MS in Computer Science. Igor currently works as a Computational Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. Previously, Igor worked as a scientist for LIGO project and participated in the data analysis that resulted in the discovery of gravitational waves.