We feature speakers at Global Data Science Conference - Oct - 16 - 18 2017 - Boston - MA to catch up and find out what he or she is working on now and what's coming next. This week we're talking to Andrew Jacobus, VP Data Science, Virgin Pulse (Topic : Keynote Session: Finding Value in Massive, Growing Health and Wellbeing Data)
1. Tell us about yourself and your background.
I have spent nearly 20 years from HR and Workforce Analytics, joined to lead the Insights and Data Science Team at Virgin Pulse at end of 2015. I love the storytelling aspect with data, especially about people and productivity.
2. What have you been working on recently?
Cracking the code of protecting privacy while helping individuals succeed, and still achieving value creation from daily health and wellbeing and productivity data.
3. Tell me about the right tool you used recently to solve customer problem?
My team recently completed a Value on Investment calculator based on multiple predictive models developed in SAS. The calculator is set up as a Shiny dashboard – getting raves from our sales and client success teams.
4. Where are we now today in terms of the state of Data Science, and where do you think we’ll go over the next five years?
We’re mature, but still innovating – constantly adding best data to our sets and creating new metrics. Currently focusing on personalization through our consumer platform using disparate data and live/validated data-fed AI tools. Our next five years will leverage more ML techniques and establish stronger predictive modeling capabilities through to our customers, strengthening their dashboard experience.
5. What are some of the best takeaways that the attendees can have from your "Finding Value In Massive, Growing Health And Well Being Data" talk?
Great ideas for integrating and presenting daily transactional data (e.g., behaviors, activities, interests, and social) in meaningful ways to both individuals and their clients. Also, a great foundation for the business case of great data processes and infrastructure.
6. What are the top 5 Data Science Use cases in enterprises?
All about better decision support – from individual daily success to optimizing organizational resources.
7. Which company do you think is winning the global Data science race?
Too many to consider – those with both resources and flexibility will win out.
