Hundreds of students, business leaders, and alumni assembled at Olin for the school’s first “Data for Good” workshop on October 5, 2018. The event shined a spotlight on WashU Olin’s focused approach toward values-based, data-driven decision-making among its students by drawing together industry experts who spoke of using big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, to make material improvements in their businesses—and the community at large.
The Center for Analytics and Business Insights and the Bauer Leadership Center co-sponsored by the daylong workshop. Here are some quotes and highlights from the event. And don’t forget to check out the attached video (above).
Jake Porway, keynote speaker and the CEO and founder of DataKind: “The whole reason we’re talking about data for good at all is that in the last 10 years, we’ve dramatically changed out world. There’s now more cellphones on the planet than people, we’re instrumenting our bodies to measure everything from our heartbeats to what tugs at our heartstrings.”
David Stiffler, vice president, global corporate responsibility, Equifax: Using data to create social impact “makes a ton of sense. But if I’m only talking to my leaders about philanthropy and charity, they’re only going to pay attention on the weekend. I needed to stop talking about this in passionate terms, but talk about it in terms of the bottom line. They had to see there was something more than a PR or charitable brand stamp on an event.”
Chris Merz, vice president, product development and innovation, Mastercard: Finance companies are leveraging the power of data, AI, and machine learning to recognize “out of pattern” behavior in customers’ credit card usage—even to the point of noting when users don’t enter a password with their usual cadence. “Moving to chips on credit cards was a big cue to fraudsters to move online. That was the path of least resistance. The most common point of exploitation is online.”
Cindy Riordan, chief information officer, city of St. Louis: “Data-driven decision-making is a big pillar in Mayor (Lyda) Krewson’s administration.” Partnering with the Open Data Project to create a database of vacant properties in the city “lit a spark in our staff and made us look for more partnerships. We can’t do it by ourselves. This opportunity to partner with volunteers has been a great asset. I challenge you to look at how you can partner.”
John Ose, director of analytics, Ameren: “We use our data to try and find ways to help our community, helping those in need. For us, it’s about powering the quality of life.”
Read more about the Data for Good workshop, featuring an interview with Tony Sardella, adjunct lecturer in business strategy and CEO of evolve24, a panelist at the workshop.
