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Successful Data Science: Teams, Tools, Techniques - Networking and Panel Event

Student working on laptop

Join Loyola University Maryland in the Andrew White Student Center's Fourth Floor Program Room on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020, from 6-8:30 p.m., for Successful Data Science: Teams, Tools, Techniques, a networking and panel discussion event. The night begins with networking at 6 p.m. and culminates at 7 p.m. in the form of an expert panel discussion featuring data science professionals from across a variety of industries. 

This event is free and open to the public; registration is not required, but encouraged. For questions, please contact mcorkran@loyola.edu.

About the Panel

You may have heard the quote, “Data is the new oil!” Companies have recognized that harnessing and leveraging relevant data is key to gaining competitive advantage, growth, and profit. How are local companies successfully leveraging and building teams, and choosing the best tools and techniques to identify and solve their operational opportunities and challenges? How are they leveraging both people and machine learning to prescribe their road map for the future? We look to today’s panel of experts from local enterprises to answer these questions and offer insight on how they experience “Successful Data Science” in their industries.

Edward J. Fortunato - Managing Director/Chief Economist, Constellation Energy

Edward FortunatoEdward J. Fortunato is the managing director and chief economist at Exelon Corporation. Over the last 17 years at Exelon, Edward has managed the proprietary trading book and the short-term analytics group, has led the implementation of trading strategies in both the proprietary and hedging books, and has run the fundamental analysis group. Prior to working at Exelon, Edward served as the vice president of natural gas trading at Merrill Lynch Global Commodities and as a senior energy trader at Edison Mission Energy. Edward has an MBA with high honors in Finance from Boston University and a BBA from Baruch College. He is an active community member, involved with Our Daily Bread since first arriving in Baltimore. He is also on the Partners in Excellence board and is the chair for Loyola University Maryland’s data science board. Ed lives in Ellicott City, Md. with his wife and dog.

Neta Ezer, Ph.D. - Technical Fellow/Architect for Human-Machine Teaming, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems

Neta Ezer, Ph.D.Dr. Neta Ezer is a technical fellow and architect for human-machine teaming at Northrop Grumman Mission Systems. In this role, she oversees technology research and development in the area of collaboration between human and artificial intelligence (A.I.) agents. Dr. Ezer also serves as an A.I. architect in the Northrop Grumman corporate A.I. campaign, accelerating the adoption of A.I. technologies into programs, assessing strategic partnerships, and developing A.I. technology roadmaps. Dr. Ezer participates on the Loyola University data science industry advisory board. Prior to Northrop Grumman, Dr. Ezer served as assistant professor of industrial design at the Georgia Institute of Technology and as senior human engineering researcher at the Futron Corporation working on NASA Orion International Space Station and human-robot interaction research. She has over 15 years of experience in human factors and user experience research with over 40 published papers and proceedings in these areas. Dr. Ezer holds a B.S. in Industrial Design, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering Psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She lives in Columbia, Md. with her husband and three kids.

Benjamin Harvey, Ph.D. - Data Scientist/Solutions Architect, Databricks

Benjamin Harvey, Ph.D.Dr. Benjamin Harvey holds a B.S. in Pre-Medicine/Computer Science from Mississippi Valley State University, and a M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Bowie State University (BSU). Dr. Harvey conducted post-graduate research at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). Dr. Harvey was also a research informatics fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center within the department of clinical research informatics (DCRI). Dr. Harvey worked for over a decade at the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) National Security Agency (NSA) as a software engineer and data scientist. He was the chief of operations data science where he led a cadre of 40 data scientists and created the NSA’s Operations Data Science Hub. Dr. Harvey is a part-time faculty member at George Washington University, teaching big data analytics and data science courses, and currently holds a position with Databricks as a solutions architect and data scientist.

Adam Mariano - Vice President of Healthcare Innovation, HighPoint Solutions

Adam MarianoAdam Mariano is vice president of healthcare innovation at HighPoint Solutions (an IQVIA Company), helping healthcare companies build better analytics, achieve insights, and leverage data as an investment and asset. He brings an extensive clinical background as a nurse, and 20+ years of I.T. experience in the data management, integration, and analytics space.

Adam has a bachelor’s degree in computer science, a master’s degree in population health from Jefferson University, and is a practicing attorney. He specializes in intellectual property and contract law and engages in pro bono/volunteer work in civil rights and immigration law with undeserved communities. Adam resides in the Philadelphia area.

Christopher Morris, Ph.D. - Senior Principal Data Scientist, Jacobs

Christopher Morris, Ph.D.Dr. Christopher Morris is a senior principal data scientist at Jacobs, where he works on applications of cloud-scale machine learning in cybersecurity. Over the past five years, he has worked on multiple U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) programs aimed at discovering malicious activity in enterprise and internet-scale networks. He is currently principal investigator for a DARPA-sponsored program leveraging machine learning to detect botnets. Prior to his time at Jacobs, Chris worked at Johns Hopkins researching exotic quantum materials using terahertz spectroscopic techniques. He earned his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics at U.C. Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University. In his spare time, Chris enjoys traveling and hiking with his family. Chris can be found on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/morrischrism/.

Onur Savas, Ph.D. - Senior Data Scientist/Data Science Lead, Accenture Federal Services

Onur Savas, Ph.D.Dr. Onur Savas is a senior data scientist at Accenture Federal Services and the data science lead at the discovery lab at the digital studio. Previously, he was with Intelligent Automation, Inc. (IAI), in Rockville, Md., as a senior data scientist. He has more than 15 years of R&D experience in the areas of data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, networks and security, social media, distributed algorithms, sensors, and statistics. Dr. Savas has a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Boston University, Boston, Mass., and is the author of numerous publications in leading journals and conferences. During his career, he has been the recipient of various R&D grants and contracts from DARPA, ONR, ARL, AFRL, CTTSO, NASA, and other federal agencies. His work at IAI has contributed to the development and commercialization of IAI’s social media analytics tool Scraawl® (www.scraawl.com) and he co-edited the book Big Data Analytics in Cybersecurity, CRC Press, 2017.