Agenda 2022
| 8:00 – 8:45am Pre-function space | Registration & Networking |
| 8:45 – 9:00am Crown Room | Welcome Remarks & WiDS Video Madlen Ivanova, Senior Manager, Data Science at Lowe’s; WiDS Ambassador |
| 9:05 – 10:05am Crown Room | KEYNOTE: SEEMANTINI GODBOLE, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer at Lowe’s Title: “Opportunities in Data Science – Creating New Possibilities for the Future of Commerce, Connectivity and Our Own Careers” |
| 10:05 – 10:30am Foyer | Networking and Recruitment Fair |
| 10:30 – 11:35am Crown Room | PANEL DISCUSSION: “Everything You Need to Know as a New Woman in Data Science” Moderator: Jessica Dunn, Senior Vice President, Senior Data Scientist at Bank of America Panelists: Lilyanne Zhang, Data Scientist at Bank of America; Ria Mahajan, Software Engineer II at Bank of America; Maggie Hakas, Data Scientist at The Hartford; Elizabeth Johnson, Senior Data Scientist at Lowe’s |
| 11:40am-12:00pm Crown Room | Provost & Vice Chancellor’s Welcome to WiDS Provost & Vice Chancellor Joan L. Lorden, UNC Charlotte |
| 12:00 – 1:10pm Crown Room & Foyer | Lunch & Networking Recruitment Fair |
| 1:15 – 2:00pm Crown Room, Toby Creek, Sugar Creek, & Reedy Creek | Breakout Sessions “Women at Microsoft Charlotte: A Case Study” Moderator: Chemere Davis, Analytical Strategist & Community Builder at Microsoft Panelists: Natalie Turner, Chief Digital Officer, Chief of Staff at Microsoft, Prathima Reddi, Senior Software Engineering Manager at Microsoft, Funmi Omoliki, Cloud Strategist at Microsoft, and Ruth Magyar, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft “From Academia to the Corporate World” Melissa G. Ngamini, Senior Data Scientist at ADP“ Severe Weather Response” Tia Wei, Senior Manager at Lowe’s and Haiman Tian, Senior Data Scientist at Lowe’s “Challenges in Analytics in Industries – How to Overcome” Kabita Paul, Lead Data Analyst at Genpact “#BreakTheBias in Human & Artificial Intelligence through Mindful Processing” Booshra Ahmed, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Digital Marketing at Bank of America “Automating and Scaling Processes Using NLP” Martha Sheridan, Data Scientist at Red Ventures; Phoebe Klett, Data Scientist at Red Ventures; Katherine Heighington, Sr. Data Scientist at Red Ventures |
| 2:05 – 2:50pm Crown Room, Toby Creek, Sugar Creek, & Reedy Creek | Breakout Sessions “Mentorship: Putting Yourself in The Driver’s Seat” Riddhi Gupta, Head of Digital Transformation and Delivery at Syntelli Solutions, Inc. “Explainable AI for Natural Language Processing” Jean-Leigh Njoroge, Director, Conversational AI at Lowe’s “Understanding Leaders’ Most Pressing Challenges: Using Natural Language Processing to Develop a Leadership Challenge Ladder” Ramya Balakrishnan, Data Scientist at Center for Creative Leadership “Reimagining the Elevator Pitch” Anna Clark, Senior Joint Ventures Analyst at Duke Energy “AI and Machine Learning in the Cloud”Rittika Mitra, Senior Data Engineer at Synapsis Inc. and Afsana Akther Asha, Program Analyst at Wells Fargo “Data Literacy for Leaders: Translating Data into Decision-Making and People Analytics” Sia Partners: Marci Marra, Partner; Zoya Ashirov, Associate Partner; Lipsa Jha, Managing Director; Liz Sykes, Senior Manager; Kavya Mohan, Senior Consultant; Amanda Ambrosio, Senior Manager |
2:50 – 3:05pm Foyer | Break: Networking and Recruitment Fair |
| 3:05 – 4:00pm Crown Room | PANEL DISCUSSION: “Demystifying the Mystery Behind Running Successful ML Projects, and What the Future of Data Science Looks Like” Moderator: Madlen Ivanova, Senior Manager, Data Science at Lowe’s; WiDS Ambassador Panelists: Ilieva Ageenko, Managing Director of Innovation and Analytics, Truist Audit Services; Ethel Anderson, Head of Data Analytics for Strategic Retail Digital Transformation Initiatives at Google; Anita Sarkar, Director, Conversational AI & ML Engineering at Ally Financial |
| 4:05 – 4:50pm Crown Room | KEYNOTE: SHIKHA KASHYAP, Chief Executive Officer at Syntelli Solutions, Inc Title: My Journey as a Data Science Entrepreneur and Lessons Learned |
| 4:50-5:00 PM Crown Room | Closing Remarks: Dean Fatma Mili |
| 5:00-6:15 PM Prefunction room | Networking Reception & Recruitment Fair |