Open Mind Hub #2 Spring Edition

Data, mind your gap: How we changed the vision of a business, people, or environment by using data differently and smartly.

ZINNYA DEL VILLAR

Zinnya del Villar is an Actuary from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and holds a MSc. degree in Mathematical Sciences from the same university and a Master degree in Applied Mathematics from the Université de Rennes in France. She obtained an MBA from the Rennes School of Business in 2019. Currently, she is Data Science Research Director at Data-Pop Alliance, a non-profit organization, where she conducts research on the use of data and computational methods for gender equality and minority rights, poverty and inequalities, violence and migration and other human development topics related to space and time, as well as research on the ethical, decolonializing and inclusive use of data, mainly in the design and creation of artificial intelligence systems. Her research topics of interest mainly focus on the democratization of data-driven technologies, data literacy and the use of data with a decolonizing and gender perspective. She was co-founder of the Breizh-data research network in Brittany and a fellow of the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) in Mexico and of the French-Tech in France. Her work has been awarded by García Robles Foundation and the ESRC Impact Acceleration Accounts of the University of Surrey in the UK. She has worked with different UN agencies and international development agencies such as AECID, AFD, and GIZ, mainly in the LATAM, Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East regions.

The increasing use of machine learning in social impact and public policy-making has shown negative equity implications, especially for minority and vulnerable groups. In this talk, we will discuss sources of potential bias in the modeling process, as well as some of the ways in which biases introduced by a model can be measured. We will also look at some real-world fairness-accuracy practices to understand how these limits and methods translate into policy decisions and their impact on society, as well as the trade-offs involved in implementing them.

MARTA RIVERA

Data Scientist at INDITEX, Marta is an empowering leader, instructor and mentor, driven by excellence, mathematical rigour and bold creativity. Marta has 15 years of international experience working as a data scientist in industry and academia with a multidisciplinary background: Data science, retail, physics, neuroscience, finance, machine learning, economics. I believe and practice agile data science, continuous delivery and continuous improvement. Marta teaches data science, statistics and programming to undergrads and master students.

Leveraging artificial intelligence advances towards business success requires some technological knowledge and a lot of long term vision. In this talk we would go through some successful stories when algorithms made a difference automating tasks, supporting decisions or improving processes.

ELINOR SAMUELSSON

Elinor is a senior UX designer and founder of BrightAct – a global safety-net to break the cycle of domestic violence in a data-driven way. She has a background in designing digital interfaces for preventative mental health. Passionate about understanding the true nature of reality with systems design, biomimicry, and consciousness. Elinor leads a national innovation project in the public sector to train leaders from 13 municipalities in innovation strategy. For her work with BrightAct, she was nominated as “Rising Star of the Year” by Nordic Women in Tech Awards, as well as ‘Digital Inspiration’ by IDG and Accenture, ‘Young Idea of the Year’ by Företagarna and ‘Social Innovators’ by Göran Bredinger.

Everything started with a Hackathon in 2020, a technical competition in product development: From an idea to build on insights into what is missing in the way organizations collaborate and to address the absence of data-driven solutions within the public sector. Together with hundreds of organizations and individuals, the result was BrightAct: The first data-driven global safety net for domestic violence. BrightAct exists today because we act on what society actually needs. People have a right to support when breaking the cycle of violence in their lives - we give them a chance to find it. We make the existing societal support more accessible and help people find support when they need it.

NATALIA DE ESTEVAN UBEDA

Natalia is Director of Astara Intelligence Advisory. Prior to joining Astara, Natalia spent 22 years in the UK and held senior positions in Transport for London as Head of Innovation, Head of ITS Strategy and Policy and Head of Technology for Surface Transport. Natalia was appointed High Level Advisor to the European Commission on Cooperative Systems and has been a member of the European Commission Horizon2020 Transport Advisory Group, dealing with priority setting for the EC 80 billion Euro investment programme on Green Transport. She has served in the Advisory Board of ERTICO in Brussels and taken part in the EU USA Japan trilateral working group for the development of automated vehicles. Natalia holds a Masters Degree from Oxford Brookes University (UK) in Coaching. Her research in the field of psychology has been published in international journals. Her most recent research is on the ethics behind the development of AI algorithms applied to psychology.