Glimpsing the future

The Special Meetup on Industrial Data Science, Modern AI and Deep Learning was held at VirtusaPolaris Colombo, where Dr. Rukshan Batuwita (Senior Data Scientist at Ambiata, Australia; PhD, Computer Science (Machine Learning) from University of Oxford) delivered two presentations followed by a panel discussion with representatives from IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Sri Lanka Section, SLAAI (Sri Lanka Association for Artificial Intelligence) and the Colombo Big Data Meetup Group.

In his first presentation on ‘Industrial Data Science: Key Technologies, Applications and Challenges’, Dr. Batuwita highlighted the key technologies behind the astonishing growth of data science over the past several years from single-machine analytics to the distributed parallel-analytics and large-scale machine learning. In addition, he discussed the major industrial application areas of these technologies, as well as some key challenges which need to be overcome and best practices to consider when organisations look to Industrialise Data Science. 

In his second presentation on ‘AI Spring Has Arrived: The Rise of Deep Learning’, Dr. Batuwita started with a brief history of AI research, and then focused on the major breakthroughs, key algorithms and very exciting current and future applications of the state-of-the-art Deep Learning methods.  

Prof. Nalin Wickramarachchi (Head of Department at Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Moratuwa), Dr. Miyuru Dayarathna (Senior Technical Lead at WSO2) and Dr. Rukshan Batuwita answered questions from the audience on Industrial Data Science, Modern AI and Deep Learning during the panel discussion which was moderated by Dinesh Asanka (Microsoft MVP, Senior Architect at VirtusaPolaris). They shared their experiences on modern cutting edge state of the art technologies and expressed their predictions on future direction of AI and Data Science.