DataHack Radio Episode #2 – Exploring Deep Learning, Open Source Research and More with Tarry Singh

Pranav Dar 10 May, 2019 • 3 min read

Introduction

Tarry Singh is an AI neuroscience researcher and one of the more popular social media influencers in the data science and machine learning community. He has over 17 years of experience working with data and has advised CXOs of global organizations to setup data-driven organizations from scratch. He speaks regularly at global AI leadership summits worldwide and conducts workshops on a regular basis.

In the second episode of DataHack Radio, Kunal chats with him about his background, how he developed an interest in deep learning, his social media popularity, his deep learning research, among various other things.

Click the above link to listen to the full podcast! The podcast is also available on our Soundcloud page. Happy listening!

Below are the key highlights from the podcast. Happy listening!

 

Tarry’s background

After studying physics and astronomy, Tarry got into the neuroscience field about 26 years ago. In the late 90s he migrated to the Netherlands and eventually got involved in data transformation jobs (managing large data warehouses with Oracle) and other stuff like understanding how data behaves and acts in the infrastructure space.

Teaching at the university in Netherlands taught him how to learn neuroscience and also give back to the industry in equal measure at the same time.

 

His Foray into Deep Learning and Deepkapha

Interestingly enough, Tarry had a chance in the 90s to get into this field but decided the time wasn’t right. 10 years later, when things were picking up in this domain, the field caught Tarry’s interest. A couple of years later, he took his first steps in deep learning and here we are!

Deepkapha is Tarry’s start-up (started in January this year) which he has grand ambitions from. The company consists of 8 people currently. More on this in the next couple of sections.

 

How do CEOs and C-Suite People React to New Ideas/Services

Kunal mentioned a good point about CEOs taking a “high risk high reward” strategy when it comes to incorporating new ideas and services. Tarry concurred, saying he has seen all the executives having an openness but not a willingness to go down this path. He expects this to change in the coming months and years otherwise companies risk falling behind the curve.

 

Staying up to date with the Latest Research

Tarry’s start-up has it’s own beta research arm, called “Deep Remote Residency Program (DeepRRP)”. The program pulls in people with a strong ethic, both work and principle wise. Currently the program has 4 residents with over 150 applications pending to be reviewed.

The topics are diverse and there is no limit to what can be explored – from US policies to the automotive industry, all ideas are welcomed with equal enthusiasm.

 

Top Tips for CEOs looking to open their AI Labs

  1. Start training your engineers and researchers in the latest technologies like GANs, capsule networks, etc. Also, broaden your training to other employees – there may be hidden gems that have escaped your attention
  2. Educate YOURSELF. Go the extra mile, take that step to understand the practical use cases of where data science and machine learning are taking the industry
  3. Create awareness in your organization based on the industry trends

 

Open Sourcing ML and AI

Tarry is a strong believer of open source research. He cited examples of TensorFlow and how various algorithms and technologies are saving lives in healthcare. It’s changing the field in ML and makes it a much more involved and developed community.

 

How do you manage Social Media with your day-to-day role?

“It’s almost like living and breathing.”

Ensuring that his followers questions are answered is one of the most important things for Tarry, in terms of social media. It is important to give back to the community and social media is one way of doing that.

 

About being an Instructor and writing a book

It all started with a Quora post! Tarry answered a general data science question with his typical passionate self. He got a great response for that post and he started dabbling into some teaching assignment. This led to an invitation from Coursera to be a mentor for their ‘Deep Learning’ specialization track.

He is also writing a book about deep learning. It’s going slower than he had anticipated but he expects to be done with it in the coming months. We are looking forward to it!

 

End Notes

This episode is a great addition to the DataHack Radio series. Tarry’s passion for his work and his willingness and commitment to give back to the community is unparalleled.

 

There are a lot more words of wisdom from Tarry in the full podcast. Get listening!

Pranav Dar 10 May 2019

Senior Editor at Analytics Vidhya. Data visualization practitioner who loves reading and delving deeper into the data science and machine learning arts. Always looking for new ways to improve processes using ML and AI.

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Michael Larionov
Michael Larionov 18 Sep, 2018

There is no way to download the podcasts?