 Good morning creative community and welcome back to Stanford University in beautiful Palo Alto, California My name is Savannah Peterson delighted to be here celebrating international women's day with you at the women in data science Worldwide annual event here on campus 400 fabulous attendees here with us in person today with thousands around the world in 57 different countries virtually But most importantly, I'm excited to introduce our third guest joining us here today from Lima Peru Mariana, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me Quite a journey for you coming up from South America our first South American guest on the show You've been a part of the Whits community now for three years You started as a volunteer as an usher. You were just telling me. Yeah, and now this year you get to come back as an ambassador What is what does that mean? What does the community mean to you? It act like if I can start by telling you like the story of how I ended up with Whits so I was like in the very start of my data science career at university and I heard about like the Whits community because my professors are also ambassadors So they were doing already like some events with Whits every single year and I wanted to like know more about it And I happened to have family that live close by so I was like like coincidentally close to the dates that they were having like one of their conferences and I wanted to be here, but like all the tickets were sold out and I asked if there was like some chance that I could come and Yeah, and they offered me this volunteering opportunity so I would be like an usher and also tend to the conference which was Amazing because I got to meet so many people that were already like ahead in their careers in data science And it was truly like an inflection point where I was like Oh, I really love this path and I love what I'm doing How important is it to meet people a few steps further down their journey in in data science But really for any woman in technology, I feel like it just gives you like Options of what you could do in the future like it shows you That maybe it's not that hard to go for that decision in one job or like aspiring at some like academic position like there are so many pasts and like it gives you like a range of things that you could do at some point and It's more about like what you want to try what you're more interested in so I think it really it's inspiring because you see other people doing it Yeah, and you see them applying data science in a lot of different verticals in a lot of different ways Every time I come to one of these shows I'm like you I see a new application or a different way that AI is going to change Our future and it's really it's really inspiring. It's super exciting You you seem so confident on your journey now When you were younger, how did you identify science as a path you wanted to take it was actually pretty tough thing for me Yeah, because Like at school like we have this regular test where you are like before going to uni decide like which major you're gonna be in Yeah, and I was very confused and I was like, oh, maybe I should do something like with letters because I'm really like Like always the social impact. It's always caught my attention. So I wanted to do something related to that and I didn't really know like where Which path because like there are many that kind of take you there But I wanted something at the same time that could be very practical, you know, like for example coding It's really direct and you can see like the results as you learn how to code as you learn how to apply certain techniques So I kind of find it through like while I was in uni I took some elective courses that allow me to see like the different courses that they were having in the like the Major and also something that I really like about my university is that they have As we are not that big of a class You always have the chance to talk with like graduates that already went through the whole program And you always have the chance to like contact them or talk with your professors and kind of see what you know Which path you could be yeah, and even though there's like a regular curriculum for everybody You could kind of go through the The directions that you like the most yeah, and do those life design interviews with folks to see how that hand out into their career You mentioned that the classroom was very intimate that helps your learning journey You also mentioned that your major is relatively new. Yeah Go on so this is a major that probably what is your major to speak? Oh, so in Spanish it's like the translation will be something like information engineering but we see a lot of like machine learning deep learning data science topics and It's a very small like I mean they're constantly having like new majors as well But like this one is one of the most recent compared to like the other old older majors last economics and administration and my university at its core it's like a business school and You know data is so important for any kind of business and even for like countries to like analyze them and get insights That could be helpful for making the shit decisions. That's exciting Just do you feel like there's a lot of support from your university? Yeah, because it is anyone there must there's got to be a lot of excitement Yeah, I mean you're studying something that's right at the peak of the hype curve. It's pretty awesome in addition to machine learning and data science you Also, well this involves that but you have a really interesting personal passion project that I want to bring up that matters Here on the cube We had the pleasure of interviewing the deaf and hard of hearing group at CNCF the cloud native foundation at KubeCon back in Chicago earlier this year and we'll hopefully again in Paris in the next couple of weeks Peruvian sign language is a project that you're building something around tell us about that Yes, so I as I was mentioning before I was always like brought up to like social you know problems that could be happening at a community and When we were having our decision for like our final project, this is a Paris Project, so I also have a teammate called Luis Las Arte and we are both doing this for our final project of our major Wow and you know we found in common that we really wanted to do something with social impact and We we having like a brainstorming of different ideas that we could do of like problems that are happening right now in Peru and Something that it's going on right now is that there's not that much accessibility for like deaf people and you know there are more than 30 300 like sign languages around the world, so like each country has its own and we decided to like go with it and Something that we also were really interested in it's not just like bringing a solution and you know just because we like to Code about it right but to understand and to have that empathy for the community from the deaf community and understanding if they actually need that and we kind of what what we have frame it is the system as Learning support for people that want to learn sign language Because you know when you're learning sign language is not like you can write notes about it and like okay You're gonna do the sign like this way like you have to practice it Right and because it's so be suggestive that you really have to be like actually like doing it and you know Having that feedback if it's correct or not, right, so we limited it to the Peruvian sign language alphabet because it's like an undergraduate project and It's also because we only have like a year for making the whole thing and we're in the last Mile almost we have the deadline for July, so we are working on that right now. That's so exciting What's the reception been like in the Peruvian deaf and hard of hearing community when you talk to them about this project? So we actually had an interview with Adelaida Riva de Neira. She's we have something I don't know if it applies also for the US, but we have something some term called like linguistic System and basically is a deaf person that also is in charge of teaching sign language So we had an interview with her and her interpreter Because we at this point we don't know how to communicate fluently in sign language So we got to understand like the pains that they have and how it is very hard to like go to a hospital or a bank and Having to communicate because people don't know Peruvian sign language and there's not always somebody that could be there for you Yeah, so and even for schools like even for like middle schools and high schools. There are not enough Professors and no sign language. So that's why we want something that could help But like from our side because it's like our commitment as community to also help others to feel more involved Absolutely, do you think that AI ML data science are gonna be tools that we can use for great improvements and accessibility over the next few years? Definitely, I feel like especially because for example having a person like Like for essential it's very hard like and you know for the number of people that need these kind of services like to be like Some kind of translator or like to have the accessibility. It's going to be hard to have it like one one one Yeah, so I'm in that case I feel like machine learning and artificial intelligence really helps to make it a little bit more massive and To reach out the communities that actually need it. Absolutely. Have you learned some Peruvian sign language as a result of this project? Yeah, I remember how to say um, I always remember show us So this is October and and it's really typical because it's like you're Like, you know taking something because in October we have this like party to senor de los milagros It's like religiously and it's kind of like mixed it up. So you can do like if you're like I don't know how to say it, but it's an Espanol Can I say in Spanish? Okay? I Una costumbre del señor de los milagros que hay una procesión entonces llevan el landa como si estuvieran Llevando la procesión del señor de los milagros. Oh, yeah, so yeah, you got some it's a beautiful parade It's a procession behind you. Yeah related to something from our country. Yeah, so that's what makes it unique And I love that too. Yeah, everyone would know. Yeah. Oh, that's so cute I'm gonna remember that and I'm in Peru and I need to do some sign language We learned no and I learned at our session in Chicago that this is cloud We were at a cloud conference obviously, so I had them teach a little cloud Hopefully the audience can see that as well Wow really fun and beautiful. What a beautiful example. Thank you for sharing that You brought up something really fun. You're very passionate about About mentoring the next generation the same way that you came here and got inspired I love that you're you're empowering high schoolers. You're working with undergrads. You're doing data thons You you said something when we were getting prepped that caught my attention. He used an interesting data set in this last data Time it was Harry Potter data What was that like? What did that look like so when we make the first Python workshop? We kind of like wanted to introduce people to the weights data set the health care the data set But we saw like the reception of some students was like, okay, this is a huge data set It has so many columns So it's kind of hard if you are just starting to learn like just like see this massive data set and don't really know Where to start so what we were thinking is okay, maybe we can make it a little bit simpler and You know something that people can relate to it's like Harry Potter I found that data set on Kaggle Yeah, so I just adapted some things like you know, it was a really good data set Like it had it was reviews from from Harry Potter movies So you could have the like prediction if whether somebody would like it or not, right? And I kind of adapted it so I has missing values and you know kind of make it similar to the case of the width Data set. Yeah, so people could understand what kind of challenges that could find in another data set Kind of make it a comparison of what they could do. So with that I was very happy because when I presented it to the high school students, they were like, okay Now it makes sense like now I understand why for example There's there are two data sets come the train and the test and they were asking me like Oh, but I don't know why like in the test There's a missing column and you know it part of like the the challenge is to predict that missing column Right, but like sometimes if it's something like like concepts and like different, you know Like I feel I felt like in that moment It was like they were having so many new concepts thrown at them that they were very confused so with this Harry Potter example kind of simplified things and Kind of make a roadmap for them Makes it easier to talk about the pieces of the puzzle so to speak in a way That's when the lexicon isn't all new. Oh, I think that's really great And I think I think that's exciting. I can imagine there were some silly conversations, too If you're just listening around. Oh, that's that's so fun And and so did you feel like did you could you tell that that made it easier to approach some of these new concepts? Yeah, definitely. It was like I love that. Yeah, that that is absolutely fantastic Whoo, okay, so so what's next for you? So actually this is my last semester undergraduate and I'm well we have to finish our project so far we've done the data set of actually for the data set as there is And any like recording of Peruvian sign language at that point we are yeah Because if you compare it for example with the American sign language There are many data sets that you know you have that Accessibility to like try on them and like try your model But in the case of Peruvian sign language there isn't anything so we had to made it from scratch And we asked our friends to make the sign language for us So in this case as it is the alphabet, it's not very much complicated. Of course if we wanted to make like Like more complex sentences, we will need like actual People from the deaf community to to help us right but at this first phase that we are just focusing on the alphabet We ask help for our friends We memorize the whole alphabet and you know make them make different repetitions of of the signs so that would feed our Model. Oh my gosh. I absolutely love that. So so you and your community have have learned Peruvian sign language to train your models So that you wow that is awesome and also probably really eye-opening for your friends in terms of how to be More inclusive. Yeah. So what are you gonna do after you graduate? I'm planning on continuing on my machine learning path because I'm really into that topic. Yeah, and I also like computer vision So maybe doing something but always as I was mentioning you the social impact. I'm I'm very like brought to Whatever I do I wanted to make it for good like, you know having tech for good And I'm really like that's my motto right now. I love that. Okay. I have three questions for you to close us out Hopefully pretty short and sweet because this has been absolutely fantastic You are an inspiring Woman, I'm sure there are and you interact with a lot of I mean that and you interact with a lot of young people And and people at different ages and I don't I actually Don't like when we're ages so we talk about someone early in their career Someone could be older in their career and decide that they want to get involved in data science and machine learning Never a better time than right now to be in the industry What would be your advice to someone curious about getting started or just getting started in our space You know something that really helps is like finding that topic that you are passionate about like it could it could be harry potter It could be sign language. It could be anything you you are really interested in And once you have that it's easier to like kind of see in okay What has been done in this field? What techniques have been applied and kind of going like step by step into understanding Why is it being applied to it? Because you know in the range of different techniques that are in data science like ones are better for certain topics So if you kind of limit and you know, you have your own like thing that passionates more than most It will help you to not feel like you know like overflow with information So you have like something that you like and something that will let would let you like learn easier I I love that advice and I am definitely going to clip that out as a soundbite for folks listening because that's just it If if you're not into what the thing is it's going to feel even more overwhelming than it is already If you're applying this To to a concept that you already really love or one of the things that actually the production team and I were doing earlier today Was asking various llms to explain extremely high Uh, uh extremely deep and complex technological concepts to us like we're five year olds And it was really cute and and kind of hilarious But I think it's just that find find the thing you don't mind learning a lot about so when you're Faced with that information repeatedly. You're not sick of it and you know, it's like it's like how sports can teach people about statistics Harry Potter can teach you about data science. I think that's an absolutely outstanding point Since it is international women's day and we are all obviously celebrating ourselves I do know there are plenty of people in the audience who are looking to be better allies to women like us What would your advice be to the allies out there on how they can empower women in data science? I think um It would be mainly like listen like sometimes We could be even in the same room But we are not really paying attention and I think it's to like be present and actually like pay attention to what's going on Your surroundings because the answer is there. It's just sometimes we we probably are not very Like there in the moment And you'll you will get the answers as well I like that. There's a lot that can be learned from listening and and actually processing No pun intended maybe pun intended actually processing that data and and hearing a woman's turning I think that's fantastic. Mariana. I could talk to you all afternoon. I'm inspired How can people follow along with the work that you're already doing right now with Peruvian sign language and everything else at school in Lima as well as with your future journey So um in my LinkedIn we will be um putting like all the updates right now We're still at the dataset preprocessing so it will take a while But hopefully for july we'll have some more news Fantastic. Well, I personally will be staying tuned and I'm sure a lot of our guests are mariana. Thank you so much for being here Thank you for bringing the heat We're grateful you're a part of the widths community that you've spent all the time here and as an ambassador This time around very exciting Thank all of you for tuning in to this fabulous great start to our all day coverage here at in Palo Alto, california at stanford university For women in data science worldwide Annual event here on international women's day. My name's savannah peterson You're watching the cube the leading source for empowering baddies in tech