Hello DataFriends, Databeers Dublin is coming!



We hope to see you at our next event, taking place on Monday the 14th October 2019 at Google, Google Docks Building, Barrow Street, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 4.

Registration starts at 5:30pm and ends at 6:30pm. After that time, access to the building will not be allowed. Please come early to avoid disappointment! Talks start at 6:45pm.

Beers will be kindly provided by Estrella Damm.

Databeers Dublin aims to bring together data experts from industry and academia, at a level accessible to a wide audience, by holding events which comprise of short talks from professionals with diverse expertise.

Please note that REGISTRATION ON EVENTBRITE IS ESSENTIAL to ensure we have enough beer for all attendees. Please register early to avoid disappointment!



Here are the speakers on the night:

1. Isabella Gollini

Assistant Professor in Statistics at University College Dublin

Exploring the structure of human smuggling networks

In this talk, we illustrate a new statistical methodology based on latent variable models for exploring the connectivity structure of a human smuggling network out of Libya. The data consists of ego-networks based on the wiretaps acquired by the Italian police on 29 suspects during an investigation period lasting from January to October 2014. We will show how to tackle the challenge given by the presence of a large number of anonymous contacts (more than 15k) involved in phone relations with the 29 suspects and often related to more than one suspect.

2. Andrew Parnell

Hamilton Professor in the Hamilton Institute at Maynooth University

Success with simplicity; a story of tsunamis and dating

In industry and academia data scientists are always striving to find the next big technique which will solve more generic problems. A common tactic is to generalise complex methods others have created. There is an inherent tension here: complex methods are often hard to understand and computationally slow, and they struggle for adoption in their community, yet they will often gain the most respect when presented. By contrast, simple techniques based on standard extensions of e.g. linear regression still maintain industry-leading performance. In this talk I will give some thoughts on when/where complex models might be appropriate and how simple models, at least in academia, can still lead to publications in some of the world’s top journals.

3. Mervi Sepp

Product Manager, Data and Reporting at Topia

Building neighborhoods with adaptive grids



How people divide cities into neighborhoods and how this is used in modeling rental prices and commute distances. A patent pending solution.

4. Patrick Callinan

Head of Insights and Data Science at CarTrawler

Suits vs geeks – Make me want to stay and I’ll want to make it pay

As a former data monkey and now a manager with a P&L, I need to make it all work - keep everyone happy and make tons of money with analytics. As an analyst, I’ve been demotivated by empty suits who clearly didn’t understand what we do. And as a former management consultant, I’ve had to help companies recover from insane experiments in data science that cost millions and have yet to generate a dime (despite all the TedTalks and Meetup presentations those companies give). How do you make data science inspiring for your team and generate ROI? Do you have to tradeoff team happiness for dollars or can you find win-win? Yes. My current team of 15 is doing full cycle data science from idea to production. When someone leaves, the team has friends who want to join. And we make money. I’ll present five ideas on how to do it right.

We hope to see as many of you there!

Sláinte and Happy Data everyone!