Rajeshwari Ganesan is a Distinguished Technologist in ML & AI and a Field CTO based in Washington State, with 25 years of experience in the IT industry. Highly regarded for her expertise in AI, Software Resiliency, Product Engineering, and Cloud dependability, Rajeshwari works closely with CXO client leaders globally, advising on innovation and transformation. With 14 US patents, 30 international technical publications, and multiple innovator of the year awards, she is recognized for exceptional contributions.

Operationalizing Explainable AI in Enterprises.

The focus of this presentation will be explainability Large Language Models (LLMs). We will begin by exploring the current state-of-the-art practice and delve into the advanced evaluation metrics that make up this ever-evolving landscape. We explore how LLM-guided evaluation, where the interplay of language models serves as a guide towards a deeper understanding. We will also delve into reasoning frameworks such as Chain of Thought, which illuminate the path towards explainability. Attendees can expect to gain valuable insights into the current state of LLMs, as well as a clear understanding of the latest trends and techniques in the field of model explainability. This talk will provide actionable information for both researchers and practitioners looking to stay at the forefront of LLM development and implementation.

Mike is a visionary technology strategist and digital transformation expert with over 23 years of experience. He excels in leveraging his expertise in software development, Innovation, and both technology and experience strategy to create innovative solutions that empower clients to thrive in the digital era. His unwavering commitment to innovation and his deep understanding of digital trends have positioned him as a thought leader in the industry, where he takes pride in identifying and implementing cutting-edge technologies to help clients maximize their potential and deliver impactful experiences.
He now focuses on helping clients devise and execute their digital transformation strategies and helping them implement innovation programs.
He is a global speaker and has covered many topics such as web3, metaverse, GENAI, loyalty programs, digital transformation, product led transformation and design thinking.
His extensive work across industries includes collaborations with renowned clients such as P&G, Chick-Fil-A, BMW, Under Armour, J&J and many others.

AI is Changing Everything: See How Before It's Too Late!”

Explore the groundbreaking potential of GenAI. Ponder its disruptive capabilities and the vast opportunities it presents. Consider its ethical implications and envision a future where uncertainty casts a shadow over a GenAI-powered world.

Aamer Charania is a senior executive leader with consistent success driving vision, strategy, and development of AI products in multiple industry domains including Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare, Technology, Telecom, and Airlines.
He is currently the Head of Applied Machine Learning at Best Buy, the world’s largest consumer electronics retailer, addressing key human needs across a variety of areas including entertainment, productivity, communications, security, nutrition and healthcare. Prior to Best Buy, Aamer was the Regional Head of Center for Machine Learning at Capital One, providing machine learning solutions across the company. Before Capital One, Aamer led the development of big data and machine learning products at Humana and Verizon. He started his career as a research assistant at MIT helping airlines implement machine learning algorithms.
Aamer enjoys giving back to the community. He is the President and Founder of Dallas AI, the largest nonprofit AI forum in North Texas, with over 5,000 members. Aamer is also a board member of the Southern Methodist University (SMU) Big Data Advisory, the governing body co-chair for Dallas Evanta Chief Data & Analytics Officer (CDAO) community, an MIT Alumni Career Advisor, MIT Educational Counselor, and former President of the MIT Alumni Club of Dallas & Fort Worth.
Aamer has been awarded over 10 patents. He holds a Masters in Engineering from MIT, a Masters in Computer Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MBA from Southern Methodist University. He lives in Flower Mound, TX with his wife and two daughters. In their free time, they love exploring nature and hiking.

Best Practices to embark on the GenAI journey.

GenAI is changing the way individuals and enterprises are creating content, building intelligent use cases and has the hope of driving the next major technological step forward for society and industry. How are you preparing to take this step forward? This session will address selecting the best bets while balancing the benefits, the cost and the risks. Best practices will be explored such as structuring the development effort, addressing the uncertainty of the benefits and costs, and ensuring that enterprises remain in compliance with legal requirements.

Babar is a Principal Data and AI Customer Success Manager at IBM. He is co-founder and Executive VP of Dallas AI, a meetup group of over 4800 AI professionals. He is a hands-on practitioner of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and holds certifications for cloud, data and machine learning technologies. Babar writes a blog about practical applications of AI on Medium.
Before his current role, Babar was Head of Product at Zapata Computing, a Quantum computing company. Before that, Babar was Principal, Product Management at CoreLogic, a provider of real-estate data and analytics. At CoreLogic, he led product strategy, development and commercialization of machine learning products for the real-estate industry.
Babar has spoken about AI and technology at Harvard Club of Dallas, Google, DFW Executive Connection, University of Texas at Dallas, MIT Club of DFW and Financial Executives International (FEI). Babar served as tri-chair of Tech Titans AI Forum, a leading industry organization in Dallas Fort Worth.
Babar was co-founder and CEO of MutualMind, a social media analytics company that served global brands such as IBM, American Airlines, Nestle, and Hilton. Babar also held various technical and management positions at Verizon Communications and won 3 innovation and excellence awards.
He has also served as chairman, MIT Enterprise Forum of Dallas Fort Worth. He was author of a chapter in the book Cyber Security Standards, Practices and Industrial Applications.
Babar holds a dual MS from MIT in Civil and Environmental Engineering and Technology and Policy

Steve Roemerman is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Lone Star Analysis headquartered in North Texas. He has over 30 years of experience leading international organizations in strategic decision-making. Lone Star Analysis serves clients in government and industry including aerospace, defense, energy, and other sectors where analytics and artificial intelligence provide significant benefits.
 
Mr. Roemerman is an AI, analytics, and modeling expert. He led a multiyear international study to define the best practices in AI, modeling, simulation, and analysis. He orchestrated contributions from six industry and professional societies with more than 200,000 members. This peer reviewed work is accepted as a definitive standard.
 
He has supported many policy and strategy studies internationally, for the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Defense, senior military officials, service study boards, and for the U.S. Congress.
  
Mr. Roemerman was CEO at Crosspan Technologies, a subsidiary of Raytheon. He served as Chair or CEO of other firms and continues to serve on a number of boards. While at Texas Instruments and Raytheon, he reported to the Chair.
 
Mr. Roemerman attended graduate school at the doctoral level in Applied Mathematics from Southern Methodist University. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Missouri University of Science and Technology (Magna Cum Laude).
 
He and his wife Colleen live in Highland Village, Texas. They have two children, five grandchildren, and enjoy spending time at their ranch looking over the Red River Valley.

Can we trust the future, and can we eliminate manipulation from an AI driven society?

We are evolving to a world where decisions will be heavily impacted by AI. Will the future be formed through manipulated information? Will predictions be architected and delivered through AI driven sources? Can we protect ourselves and society?

Matthew Bowers is President and Chief Operations Officer for Lone Star Analysis and has served in this role since 2018. He is responsible for leading Lone Star’s three lines of business and international operations. Immediately prior to the President and COO role, Matthew headed new business development including formulating and executing long-term sales strategies and roadmaps, and leading interaction with clients. He serves on Lone Star’s Board of Directors and is a member of Lone Star's Strategy and Compensation Committees.

Previous executive roles have included Chief Development Officer at Incucomm, Inc., a business and technology incubator that led to the successful launch of several companies and the development of over three dozen patents; President of HCI Integrated Solutions, a high growth consulting, technology and staffing solutions firm, and Vice President at Crown Financial, a boutique investment bank.

Over Mr. Bowers 30 plus year career in the defense, finance and consulting industries he has started and led the growth and turn-around of multiple companies. As a consultant, Matthew has supported Global 1000 and Government customers with high value strategy, operations, and technology advisory support. Additionally he has served as a Board and advisory member to a variety of companies in both the United States and United Kingdom.

He grew up in Morgan Hill, California, in the Bay Area, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Arizona State University. He and his wife, Kelly, both live in Dallas.

Currently serving as Head of Customer Support for the Ericsson North America Market, Brian is a thirty-year veteran managing the development and delivery of complex network and software solutions primarily for telecommunications service providers. As an evangelist for the innovation driven by analytics and transformative digital solutions Brian has led the creation of strategies for migration to next generation technologies, evolving businesses to new business models and optimizing business operations to maximize quality and velocity of product delivery/deployment.

Charting the Future: Navigating Careers in the Age of GenAI

 

The panel discussion delves into the transformative impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on future careers and job roles. As GenAI continues to reshape the dynamics of data analysis and interpretation, this session aims to explore the evolving roles, emerging opportunities, and potential challenges faced by professionals in diverse industries. Our expert panelists will share insights on the integration of GenAI into the overall career landscape. From the automation of routine tasks to the creation of new job roles in AI ethics and governance, participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of how GenAI is reshaping career paths and influencing the future of analytics. Through thoughtful discussions and real-world examples, the panelists will address key questions surrounding the role of human analysts, the industries most affected, and the skills that will be in demand in this GenAI-driven era. Attendees can expect to leave with a heightened awareness of the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead, equipped with valuable insights to proactively shape their career trajectories in the dynamic and evolving field of analytics.

Peggy Tsai is the Chief Data Officer at BigID where she leads data governance strategy for the product. She has over 18 years of practitioner experience in data management, stewardship and governance in the financial services industry. Prior to BigID, Peggy was Vice President of Data & Analytics at Morgan Stanley where she helped run the data governance program in Wealth Management division. She was the Data Innovation Lead in the Enterprise Data Management group at AIG. Peggy also worked at S&P Global Ratings where she held various positions in the Data CoE and Data Services.
Peggy has a Masters in Information Systems from New York University and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Cornell University. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, co-host of a data podcast called The Data Transformers and an advisor to several start-up companies.

Building Data Fundamentals for Generative AI

This session will focus on building out the data fundamentals that are required to support the AI Initiatives required for business transformation. An AI governance framework is necessary to support identifying high impact use cases, evaluate and quantify trust levels across AI and Data, and implement ethical safe practices for responsible AI RAG practices that include privacy and security. Join this interactive roundtable to learn how to mature these data fundamental capabilities, hear use cases from other industries and share your data experiences with others!

Jeff Bartlett is a Product Manager in Walmart's Global People Organization, which serves as the HR arm for Walmart’s 2.1 million associates. In August, Jeff Bartlett launched My Assistant, Walmart's first GenAI powered virtual assistant to over 50k corporate associates. Prior to joining Walmart, Jeff worked in network analytics and device technologies at AT&T, where he holds multiple patents. Jeff holds a Master's degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University.

As the Senior Manager of Data Analytics at TrinityRail, I lead a team of data professionals whose purpose is to create analytical products that drive business outcomes for Trinity Industries, the leading provider of railcar products and logistics services. I have over five years of experience in data science and data analytics, and I hold a master’s in applied cognition & neuroscience and certifications in managerial leadership from McKinsey & Company.
 
My core competencies include data analysis, data science, business intelligence, machine learning, and statistical modeling. I use various tools and languages, such as R, SQL, Python, Tableau, and Power BI, to extract, validate, analyze, and report business KPIs, such as risk and financial valuation, portfolio development and performance, and market and sales trends.
 
Moreover, I also collaborate with operations and services teams to embed analytics into their workflows and processes, enabling them to make data-driven decisions and optimize their performance. My mission is to empower TrinityRail with data insights and solutions that enhance its competitive edge and creating value creation for rail customers.

Sankalan has over 22 years of data analytics and AI experience across broad spectrum of data strategy, data and AI architecture, technical architecture, data led transformation, GenAI and Responsible AI.

In his current role, as Managing Director and South Data and AI Industry Lead, he steers client discussions in envisaging, solution architecting, roadmap exercises of data and AI initiatives.

As a practitioner, he often leads largescale data and AI transformation initiatives for clients of Accenture. Sankalan is Global Lead for Accenture’s asset named Intelligent Data Foundation – a GenAI enabled solution to accelerate building data and AI platforms on cloud. He is also the Chief Architect of Accenture’s Responsible AI CoE.

Karley Buckley is a litigator who represents companies in high-stakes litigation in state and federal courts, including complex commercial and product liability matters. In addition to her litigation practice, Karley regularly conducts internal reviews and counsels clients on legal and regulatory risk mitigation strategies.
 
Karley has particular expertise in artificial intelligence (AI) governance and AI-related litigation.  She provides strategic advice to companies on the accountable adoption of AI solutions, including generative AI.  Karley has helped develop enterprise-wise AI policies and compliance strategies for some of the largest corporations in their transition to AI-enabled practices.  In addition, she is a member of the team defending novel tort claims against innovators relating to the accuracy of AI outputs.  Her AI litigation and counseling practice spans a broad range of industries, with a particular focus on the representation of healthcare and life sciences companies.

How do you innovate while navigating new risks and an evolving regulatory landscape?

How do we best create accountable adoption of AI solutions including generative AI? The complexities of enterprise-wide AI policies and compliance/regulatory strategies could easily stifle innovation. This session addresses real world challenges with the emphasis on enabling enterprises to build the accountability into their solutions and to avoid the pitfalls that regulation and policy can introduce.

Muhammad Mahmood is an entrepreneur executive, with a history of driving disruptive growth and delivering digital transformation.  His leadership has enabled the monetizing of innovation within a $1+ billion digital services portfolio, Adept in AI (incl. Hyperautomation), 5G, SaaS, Automotive, Healthcare, and other cutting-edge digital solutions, Muhammad has employed multiple stages of transformation to ensure businesses are future ready. Muhammad understands that to be a force multiplier, you must build a culture of collaboration and excellence that embraces disruptive ideas. Muhammad holds a Bachelor and Masters in Engineering, as well as an MBA, from UIUC, with specializations in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Business Analytics. Also, as a life-long learner, Muhammad holds several executive certificates from Harvard Business School.

Driving Innovation in the GenAI Era:  Accelerating Progress through Collaboration, Creativity and the Removal of Walls that Slow Progress
 
This discussion centers on the pivotal role of innovation in the dynamic landscape of artificial intelligence, particularly in the GenAI era. It explores how fostering a culture of collaboration and embracing creative approaches can propel advancements in AI technologies. The abstract will delve into the governance considerations that underpin innovation, emphasizing the importance of responsible development and deployment of GenAI solutions. Additionally, it will highlight the challenges with examples where innovative thinking has run into roadblocks due to security, privacy and regulatory requirements. This exploration aims to inspire and guide stakeholders towards a future where innovation is enabled across the enterprise through proper AI innovation governance.

Sridhar Nerur is the Goolsby-Virginia and Paul Dorman Endowed Chair in Leadership and professor of information systems at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He is also the chair of the Graduate Studies Committee on Business Analytics at UTA. His research has been published in premier journals/magazines such as MIS Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, Communications of the ACM, European Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, IEEE Software, and Journal of International Business Studies. He has served on the editorial boards of the European Journal of Information Systems and the Journal of Association for Information Systems. His research and teaching interests include social networks, machine learning/AI/deep learning, text analytics, neuroeconomics, and agile software development.

AI in Education: Opportunities and Challenges

AI is transforming the world in ways we could not have imagined even a few years ago. While attention has been lavished on its effects on business practices, relatively less effort has been expended to understand the opportunities and challenges it presents to educators at all levels. AI will undoubtedly change how students learn and assimilate information. These systems confer many advantages, including personalized learning and the ability to draw on a vast pool of knowledge to clarify concepts. There are, however, challenges in terms of plagiarism, reliability of the responses, integration into the curriculum, and so forth. This table topic will discuss the implications, challenges, and opportunities of AI – particularly Generative AI – for education and research. This matters to industry because the new grads you will hire may apply very different methods leading to needed changes in the enterprise.

Vino Kingston is a recognized Data, Digital & Decision Intelligence leader with 30 years working in Fortune 10 companies leading and managing decision intelligence and automation practices. As Lean-Agile Data Management & Decision Intelligence Leader with strategic and tactical experience led and managed large corporate wide data and analytics initiatives in prestigious companies (Ford, HP, Lockheed Martin). Contributed and led various Business/IT transformation efforts that included Process Re-engineering, Business and Enterprise Process Optimization aided by modern data management and analytics activities such as Enterprise Data Lake, Business Data Hubs, Advanced BI & Purpose Driven Analytics. His background in Instrumentation & Control Engineering provided him early on exposure to Industrial Internet in the form of Process Control & Automation. Working in real time systems and enabling decision making for plant operations made Vino passionate about workflow automation in business operations. He is well versed with data and its criticality for business success. He has established business success-oriented data strategy to bring data, business processes, applications together and implemented the strategy using lean and agile processes, best fit technologies, high performing teams to provide data integration, data management, data governance, self-service analytics, data science capabilities. As analytics expert transitioned from process control & automation engineer with hands on industrial automation experience effectively applying that knowledge to transform business decision making capabilities with embedded & distributed micro analytics services that support proliferation of next generation Robotic Process Automation (RPA). To summarize Vino’s 25+ years of career in one simple phrase, it is, "Distributed Control Systems to Distributed Computing Systems". Started in continuous process industry doing industrial automation with SCADA, PLC, DCS systems enabling real time decision making for plant operators. It was an IoT environment for industries. In the new world of IoT & Big Data Analytics, Vino enables decision makers to operate large businesses using distributed computing & analytics to get to real time decision making.

Navigating Complexity of Data & Delivering Business Value.

Thought Leadership: Being a data practitioner is essentially about solving problems for business. However, data is not an isolated aspect of the business. The journey of data in a business from it’s cradle to crave is in parallel with business process activities. Data is also connected with people and also with technologies that makes data practice dynamic and complex. Hence, along with your technical prowess, it is required to have business acumen and ability to wade through the changing priorities to do the right thing for your stakeholders and sponsors. In this Thought Leadership roundtable, we will discuss these challenges and how to strategically plan and tactically execute to deliver value.