REGISTER HERE

14 March 08:30Epicenter Stockholm

We are back for the 7th time!

Welcome on March 14th, at the Epicenter Stockholm or Online with a great line-up of speakers from industry and academia who will share their experience and technical knowledge. The lightning talk theme this year is "Navigating the dark side of AI," and there will be a panel and a mingle, as usual.

WiDS Stockholm conference is now called WiDS Sweden - representing better our expanded focus and hybrid nature. WiDS Sweden is independently organized by the WiDS (AI&ML) Sweden organization to be part of the mission to increase participation of women in data science and to feature outstanding women doing outstanding work.

Participants of all genders and backgrounds are welcome and the conference is free to attend. Most talks are intentionally fairly technical and aimed towards current and aspiring data scientists, machine learning engineers, data analysts, data engineers, and AI experts.

Invited Speakers

Mounia Lalmas-Roelleke
Senior Director of Research at Personalization at Spotify

Mounia Lalmas is a Senior Director of Research at Spotify, and the Head of Tech Research in Personalisation, where she leads an interdisciplinary team of research scientists, working on personalization. Mounia also holds an honorary professorship at University College London, and is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam. Before that, she was a Director of Research at Yahoo working on user engagement in the context of advertising, news, search, and user-generated content. Prior to this, she held a Microsoft Research/RAEng Research Chair at the University of Glasgow. Before that, she was Professor of Information Retrieval at Queen Mary, University of London. She is regularly a senior programme committee member at conferences such as WSDM, KDD, WWW and SIGIR. She was programme co-chair for SIGIR 2015, WWW 2018 and WSDM 2020, and CIKM 2023.

Read more

AI Innovation in Product Development: Research and Engineering perspectives

In this talk, we explore how Spotify harnesses AI to revolutionize product development. Looking through the lens of research and engineering, we'll discuss the collaborative efforts driving personalized experiences, content recommendations, and creator growth on the platform. Through real-world examples, we'll highlight the balance between research and technology, sharing insights into challenges and successes that help us to shape the future of music streaming industry.

Read more

Panel: Data & AI Careers in the Age of Generative AI

The rapid advancements in generative AI have thrust it into the forefront of technological discussions, sparking debates on its true impact. While some view it as an incremental step in AI development, others envision it as a transformative force threatening to reshape entire industries. In this panel, we aim to explore the potential implications of generative AI on the data & AI job market, evolution of AI career trajectories, and the new organizational requirements, particularly in the near to medium term.

Read more

Anastasia Varava
AI Research Lead at SEBx

Anastasia Varava is currently a Research Lead at SEBx, an innovation studio at SEB, where she is working towards bringing state-of-the-art AI to real applications. She is also responsible for coordinating the Language track of WARA Media and Language https://wasp-sweden.org/indust..., aiming to bridge the gap between academic research and industry, and contribute to the development and adoption of NLP tools and methods in Sweden. Prior to joining SEB, Anastasia has completed her PhD in Computer Science at KTH, Stockholm, and worked as a researcher there afterwards. The area of her scientific interests includes AI with the focus on representation learning.

Read more

Application Perspective: Finance Data, LLMs, and Knowledge Graphs

In this talk, we will discuss some practical aspects of using LLMs in a highly-regulated industry - finance. We explore building virtual assistants based on various kinds of internal knowledge bases using retriever -augmented generation, and finally, discuss the possibility to combine LLMs with knowledge graphs to represent more complex data.

Read more

Panel: Data & AI Careers in the Age of Generative AI

The rapid advancements in generative AI have thrust it into the forefront of technological discussions, sparking debates on its true impact. While some view it as an incremental step in AI development, others envision it as a transformative force threatening to reshape entire industries. In this panel, we aim to explore the potential implications of generative AI on the data & AI job market, evolution of AI career trajectories, and the new organizational requirements, particularly in the near to medium term.

Read more

Tonia Danylenko
Senior ML Eng Manager at Spotify

Tonia Danylenko is a Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager at Spotify, and a co-organizer of WiDS AI and ML in Sweden. At Spotify Tonia is heading up several cross-functional teams working on strategic and business-focused promotional platform as a part personalization mission. Before joining Spotify, Tonia worked on personalization problems at Viaplay and IKEA. She led an applied machine learning team at Viaplay and strategic data science initiatives at IKEA. Tonia holds a PhD in Computer Science from Linnaeus University, and has an interest in theoretical computer science including static program analysis and machine learning and AI in personalization and advertising.

Read more

AI Innovation in Product Development: Research and Engineering perspectives

In this talk, we explore how Spotify harnesses AI to revolutionize product development. Looking through the lens of research and engineering, we'll discuss the collaborative efforts driving personalized experiences, content recommendations, and creator growth on the platform. Through real-world examples, we'll highlight the balance between research and technology, sharing insights into challenges and successes that help us to shape the future of music streaming industry.

Read more

Johanna Björklund
Associate Professor of Computer Science, Director of WARA Media & Language

Johanna Björklund holds the position of Associate Professor at the Department of Computing Science at Umeå University. Her research revolves around the semantic analysis of multimodal data, aiming to achieve human-like understanding by incorporating diverse elements such as images, audio, video, and text. In addition to her academic pursuits, she is a co-founder of Codemill and Aeterna Labs, media tech companies that provide products and services for the media supply chain. Björklund obtained her PhD in Theoretical Computer Science from Umeå University in 2007. Following her dissertation, she undertook a research position at Dresden University before returning to Umeå University, where she attained the title of Docent in 2016. Her work receives support from institutions such as the Swedish Research Council, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and various European Commission funding programs. Furthermore, she serves as the director of the Wallenberg Research Arena for Media and Language, which is part of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program.

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Fireside Chat

Join us for a fireside chat with Professor of computer Science & serial startup CTO, Johanna Björklund. Professor Björklund also serves as the director of the Wallenberg Research Arena for Media and Language, which is part of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program. In this intimate conversation, we will hear about her career and the intersectional landscape of the Swedish AI ecosystems, both spanning academia and industry. 

Read more

Alejandra Monge Granados
Senior Data Engineer at 0+X

Alejandra is a Senior Data Engineer with a background in Software Engineering. She has been working with data for over a decade and she has been a consultant for the past 6 years. Alejandra has hands-on experience in data processing, DataOps, DevOps, and full-stack development from companies like PayPal, Schibsted, Volvo, Viaplay and Spotify. In previous roles, she focused on developing near real-time pipelines, data infrastructure, data lifecycle, development process improvements, and processing time/cost optimizations. In collaboration with others, she enjoys creating solutions to get value out of data.

Read more

Near-real Time Data Processing: Is It Worth It?

"NRT data processing: is it worth it?" Offers an introduction to the world of near-real-time data processing, highlighting some considerations, challenges, and must-haves of deploying such systems. Through a focused use case, this talk provides a glimpse of the technical landscape of NRT processing. Concluding with a reflection on the practical value and applicability of NRT data processing, this session aims to provide attendees with an idea of NRT data processing and the investments required to implement it.

Read more

Samantha Lam
Associate Director for Analytics Engineering, Brooklyn Data Co

Samantha Lam is a seasoned data expert with 15 years in the field, blending industry experience with formal training at companies like Brooklyn Data Co. and King. With Masters in Informatics and AI from Galway and Edinburgh and a BSc in Math from Cork, she's all about empowering teams and making data work smarter. She leads with a mix of SQL, Python and data modeling skills, to drive insights into action. And she coaches with a mix of curiosity, compassion and a dash of fun, to drive people to their career goals.

Read more

Data Tastings: Sampling 3 Savory Stories of Industry Data

Salla Franzén
Investment Manager, Navigare Ventures

Salla invests over a broad range of deep tech areas, primarily in the intersection of mathematics, engineering and technology. She has spent large parts of her career working in the boundary between academic research and industrial applications, both as Group Chief Data scientist at SEB AB and VP data and analytics at IKEA Retail (Ingka Digital). Salla has a PhD in mathematics from Stockholm university and was voted Nordic data science professional of the year in 2021.

Read more

Panel: Data & AI Careers in the Age of Generative AI

The rapid advancements in generative AI have thrust it into the forefront of technological discussions, sparking debates on its true impact. While some view it as an incremental step in AI development, others envision it as a transformative force threatening to reshape entire industries. In this panel, we aim to explore the potential implications of generative AI on the data & AI job market, evolution of AI career trajectories, and the new organizational requirements, particularly in the near to medium term.

Read more

Stephanie Cabrera
Head of Data & Analytics at Bokadirekt

Stephanie's background is in Finance & Strategy but in the past 6 years, she has only worked in Data Science.

She entered the field as responsible for Business Intelligence and Analysis at Espresso House, then worked as a Product Data Scientist at Paypal and she is now working in different fields of Data Science as she is building Bokadirekt's data stack and data team.

What she is passionate about is finding new valuable insights out of messy datasets and creating gamification-oriented tools that provide direct business value (and fun!) to all stakeholders.

She is convinced that her diverse background is a strength since it helps her see data projects as business cases (with opportunities…and costs!) and helps her adapt her communication to audiences with various degrees of data literacy.

When she isn't coding, she is either running in the forest or reading French literature by the fire.

Read more

Building the first data stack of a 10+ year-old tech company. Successes, failures and everything in between

A year ago, Stephanie took on the challenge to build a data stack and data team from scratch at Bokadirekt, Sweden’s leading software provider and marketplace for the health and beauty industry. She will walk you through some challenges she encountered during this data journey and share how she dealt with them: from picking the right stack tools to creating a data-driven culture. The biggest challenges might not have been the ones she anticipated. 

Read more

By signing up for a physical ticket you will be able to attend the event in person on March 14th at Epicenter, with a mingle after at a location that will be disclosed later. The number of physical tickets are however limited, and if you are unable to get one, please sign up for an online ticket. The streaming link and instructions on how to join will be sent to your email.

If you are sick on the day of the event, please join us online instead. We want everyone to be able to attend our events, so providing a great experience regardless of whether you join online or in person is a top priority!

Note that there is no need to sign up for both an in-person and an online ticket. Online tickets are unlimited and will be available throughout the event, so if you need to cancel your in-person ticket you will be able to then sign up for an online one instead.

REGISTER HERE
© MapTiler © OpenStreetMap contributors

Schedule: March 14th

08:30

Registration & Mingle

Drop in at any time after 8:30 to register for the event, pick up your name badge and start mingling with other attendees! Coffee and tea will be available.

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09:15

Introduction to WiDS Sweden

Why are we here today, what is Women in Data Science, who are the organizers, why are we doing this? Join to find out!

Read more
Women in Data Science Sweden
09:30

AI Innovation in Product Development: Research and Engineering perspectives

In this talk, we explore how Spotify harnesses AI to revolutionize product development. Looking through the lens of research and engineering, we'll discuss the collaborative efforts driving personalized experiences, content recommendations, and creator growth on the platform. Through real-world examples, we'll highlight the balance between research and technology, sharing insights into challenges and successes that help us to shape the future of music streaming industry.

Read more
Mounia Lalmas-Roelleke
Senior Director of Research at Personalization at Spotify
Tonia Danylenko
Senior ML Eng Manager at Spotify
10:00

Near-real Time Data Processing: Is It Worth It?

"NRT data processing: is it worth it?" Offers an introduction to the world of near-real-time data processing, highlighting some considerations, challenges, and must-haves of deploying such systems. Through a focused use case, this talk provides a glimpse of the technical landscape of NRT processing. Concluding with a reflection on the practical value and applicability of NRT data processing, this session aims to provide attendees with an idea of NRT data processing and the investments required to implement it.

Read more
Alejandra Monge Granados
Senior Data Engineer at 0+X
10:30

Coffee Break

11:00

Data Tastings: Sampling 3 Savory Stories of Industry Data

Samantha Lam
Associate Director for Analytics Engineering, Brooklyn Data Co
11:30

Fireside Chat

Join us for a fireside chat with Professor of computer Science & serial startup CTO, Johanna Björklund. Professor Björklund also serves as the director of the Wallenberg Research Arena for Media and Language, which is part of the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program. In this intimate conversation, we will hear about her career and the intersectional landscape of the Swedish AI ecosystems, both spanning academia and industry. 

Read more
Johanna Björklund
Associate Professor of Computer Science, Director of WARA Media & Language
Galina Esther Shubina
Sr Product Director, Machine Learning, King
12:00

Lunch

Lunch will be served at Epicenter for everyone who is attending in person.

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13:00

Application Perspective: Finance Data, LLMs, and Knowledge Graphs

In this talk, we will discuss some practical aspects of using LLMs in a highly-regulated industry - finance. We explore building virtual assistants based on various kinds of internal knowledge bases using retriever -augmented generation, and finally, discuss the possibility to combine LLMs with knowledge graphs to represent more complex data.

Read more
Anastasia Varava
AI Research Lead at SEBx
13:30

Lightning Talks: Navigating the Dark Side of AI

Machine Learning, Data Science, and Generative AI are crucial in today's business world. As we apply these technologies across diverse disciplines, the positive drastically outperforms the negatives, and in many places AI/ML is not yet causing major societal issues, but there are growing concerns that these models might be biased and affect human behavior, political views, and personal beliefs. The 5 minute + 5 Q&A lightning talks will address issues, efforts, methods and solutions in this area.

13.30 - 13.40 "Explainable AI is a double edged sword",  Leila Methnani, PhD student at Umeå University

13.40 - 13.50 "The Gatekeepers of Disinformation or Inconvenient Facts? AI's Emerging Role in Media", Elin Ehsani, Lead AI Scientist at Silo.ai

13.50-14.00 "Human-AI Strategies for Misinformation Detection in Russia-Ukraine War News", Nina Khairova, Visiting Professor at  Umeå University

14.00-14.10 "Transparency in Innovation: Using Explainable AI (XAI) to Navigate Challenges in Drug Development", Becki Wordsworth, CTO at VivoLogica

14.10 - 14.20 "Reducing the climate impact of fashion with machine learning - Embracing uniqueness to make second-hand the first hand choice", Therese Persson, Head of Machine Learning at Sellpy

14.20 - 14.30 "From bias to fairness in the machine learning pipeline", Saghi Hajisharif, Principal Research Engineer at Linköping University/CTO of Fair AI Data

14.30 - 14.40 "Addressing Bias in recommendations at King", Maria Paskevich, Senior Data Scientist at King

Read more
Leila Methnani
PhD Sudent, Umeå University
Saghi Hajisharif
Principal Research Engineer at Linköping University/CTO of Fair AI Data.
Becki Wordsworth
CTO at VivoLogica
Nina Khairova
Visiting Professor at Umeå University, Computer Science Department
Therese Persson
Head of Machine Learning at Sellpy
Maria Paskevich
Senior Data Scentist at King
Elin Ehsani
Lead AI Scientist at Silo.AI
14:40

Coffee Break

15:00

Building the first data stack of a 10+ year-old tech company. Successes, failures and everything in between

A year ago, Stephanie took on the challenge to build a data stack and data team from scratch at Bokadirekt, Sweden’s leading software provider and marketplace for the health and beauty industry. She will walk you through some challenges she encountered during this data journey and share how she dealt with them: from picking the right stack tools to creating a data-driven culture. The biggest challenges might not have been the ones she anticipated. 

Read more
Stephanie Cabrera
Head of Data & Analytics at Bokadirekt
15:30

Panel: Data & AI Careers in the Age of Generative AI

The rapid advancements in generative AI have thrust it into the forefront of technological discussions, sparking debates on its true impact. While some view it as an incremental step in AI development, others envision it as a transformative force threatening to reshape entire industries. In this panel, we aim to explore the potential implications of generative AI on the data & AI job market, evolution of AI career trajectories, and the new organizational requirements, particularly in the near to medium term.

Read more
Salla Franzén
Investment Manager, Navigare Ventures
Mounia Lalmas-Roelleke
Senior Director of Research at Personalization at Spotify
Anastasia Varava
AI Research Lead at SEBx
Anna Baecklund
Head of Data & Analytics Platforms at Handelsbanken
16:15

Closing Remarks

16:30

Mingle at King!

After the conference, we will migrate diagonally across the intersection for a mingle at King's offices.

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Lightning Talk Speakers

Elin Ehsani
Lead AI Scientist at Silo.AI

Maria Paskevich
Senior Data Scentist at King

Therese Persson
Head of Machine Learning at Sellpy

Nina Khairova
Visiting Professor at Umeå University, Computer Science Department

Becki Wordsworth
CTO at VivoLogica

Saghi Hajisharif
Principal Research Engineer at Linköping University/CTO of Fair AI Data.

Leila Methnani
PhD Sudent, Umeå University

WiDS Sweden Organizers

Galina Esther Shubina
Sr Product Director, Machine Learning, King

Galina Esther Shubina has 20 years of experience in the tech industry, including a decade at Google, building from scratch the software & AI team at Northvolt, helping to transform central data & analytics teams for two big media enterprise companies, and building an AI-driven healthtech startup. She's a co-founder of Women in Data Science, AI & ML Sweden. Her background in computer science, mathematics and epidemiology.

Sahar Asadi
Director of AI Labs at King

Tonia Danylenko
Senior ML Eng Manager at Spotify

Tonia Danylenko is a Senior Machine Learning Engineering Manager at Spotify, and a co-organizer of WiDS AI and ML in Sweden. At Spotify Tonia is heading up several cross-functional teams working on strategic and business-focused promotional platform as a part personalization mission. Before joining Spotify, Tonia worked on personalization problems at Viaplay and IKEA. She led an applied machine learning team at Viaplay and strategic data science initiatives at IKEA. Tonia holds a PhD in Computer Science from Linnaeus University, and has an interest in theoretical computer science including static program analysis and machine learning and AI in personalization and advertising.

Anastasia Varava
AI Research Lead at SEBx

Anastasia Varava is currently a Research Lead at SEBx, an innovation studio at SEB, where she is working towards bringing state-of-the-art AI to real applications. She is also responsible for coordinating the Language track of WARA Media and Language https://wasp-sweden.org/indust..., aiming to bridge the gap between academic research and industry, and contribute to the development and adoption of NLP tools and methods in Sweden. Prior to joining SEB, Anastasia has completed her PhD in Computer Science at KTH, Stockholm, and worked as a researcher there afterwards. The area of her scientific interests includes AI with the focus on representation learning.

Anna Baecklund
Head of Data & Analytics Platforms at Handelsbanken

Kathleen Myrestam
Project Manager at WiDS Sweden

Barbara Livieri
Product Insights Manager at Handelsbanken

Ece Calikus
Postdoctoral Researcher at KTH

Masoomeh Ghasemi
Data Architect at Iver Sverige

Celine Xu
Lead Data Scientist at H&M Group

Organized by