Latest Developments in Applied AI - from Cutting Edge Models to MLOps Platforms and How to Use Them

Azul (She/Her) is a highly experienced ML engineer with a background in economics and mathematics. She is the CTO and Co-Founder of Nixtla, home of the first foundational model for time series-TimeGPT. With over a decade of expertise deploying ML models in production for large financial institutions, Azul has a proven track record of delivering end-to-end products. She is passionate about creating usable, scalable, and open-source ML products andd is a maintainer of the most used Python libraries for time series analysis. Azul's expertise in the field has also earned them recognition as a speaker at multiple PyCons and author of peer-reviewed papers, solidifying their status as a leading expert in time series analysis.

Patricio Cerda-Mardini, Machine Learning Research Engineer @ MindsDB Since joining MindsDB in 2020, Patricio has been a core maintainer of its in-database predictive ML engines. His research interests include deep learning, robotics and uncertainty quantification. His academic degree is focused on human-robot interaction and recommendation systems, areas in which he holds several publications.

Harrison Chase is the CEO and co-founder of LangChain, a company formed around the open source Python/Typescript packages that aim to make it easy to develop Language Model applications. Prior to starting LangChain, he led the ML team at Robust Intelligence (an MLOps company focused on testing and validation of machine learning models), led the entity linking team at Kensho (a fintech startup), and studied stats and CS at Harvard.

Helping Accelerate innovation through Microsoft AI!

Previously: Global Head of AI/ML AWS Startups and Venture Capital

VP of Engineering at Standard Cognition, which included building the team from a 20 person seed-stage company to a 125+ person Series-B company with $535M valuation

Appointed as CTO of Automatic and spearheaded one of Ycombinator’s 10 Biggest Exits to SiriusXM

Served as Head of Data Science team at Rdio (Pandora), earning Gizmodo’s Bestmodo - Best Streaming Radio."

Vidya Raman joined Sorenson Ventures in 2019 from Cloudera, where she led the ML platform, the fastest-growing product line in the company’s history at the time. There, she was responsible for making ML at scale a reality for customers spanning industries such as autonomous driving, biotech, banking, and government. Before that, she led engineering and product teams at venture-backed enterprise startups, including eMeter (Sequoia-funded, acquired by Siemens) and Silver Spring Networks (Kleiner funded, IPO exit).

Throughout her career, Vidya has worked with teams that have taken more than a dozen products from mere ideas to many millions in revenue and eventually to product-market fit. She draws on her rich set of successes and failures, helping founders navigate the journey to product-market fit while at the same time being an eternal student in the constantly evolving world of go-to-market techniques.

Vidya is passionate about partnering with technical founders who think in first principles, dream big, and are keen to build businesses that stand the test of time. Vidya’s primary focus is on startups that build for the builders, i.e., tools used by engineers.

Working with companies in their earliest stages is her passion. She believes that the opportunity to have the most meaningful and direct impact is at that stage.

Outside of work, she loves spending time in nature and reading. Her favorite genre includes biographies (all-time favorite: Nelson Mandela), behavioral economics, and psychology (favorite: Thinking fast, slow). She is a die-hard Harry Potter fan, and her favorite spell is Wingardium Leviosa.