Episode 4: Machine Learning at T-Mobile

Vanishing Gradients

Hugo speaks with Heather Nolis, Principal Machine Learning engineer at T-mobile, about what data science, machine learning, and AI look like at T-mobile, along with Heather’s path from a software development intern there to principal ML engineer running a team of 15.

They talk about: how to build a DS culture from scratch and what executive-level support looks like, as well as how to demonstrate machine learning value early on from a shark tank style pitch night to the initial investment through to the POC and building out the function; all the great work they do with R and the Tidyverse in production; what it’s like to be a lesbian in tech, and about what it was like to discover she was autistic and how that impacted her work; how to measure and demonstrate success and ROI for the org; some massive data science fails!; how to deal with execs wanting you to use the latest GPT-X – in a fragmented tooling landscape; how to use the simplest technology to deliver the most value.

Finally, the team just hired their first FT ethicist and they speak about how ethics can be embedded in a team and across an institution.

Links

• Put R in prod: Tools and guides to put R models into production
• Enterprise Web Services with Neural Networks Using R and TensorFlow
• Heather on twitter

• T-Mobile is hiring!

• Hugo's upcoming fireside chat and AMA with Hilary Parker about how to actually produce sustainable business value using machine learning and product management for ML!