Stephanie Fitchett

Title: Applications of Data Science at a Life Insurance Company (Transamerica)

Abstract: The field of data science is exploding with some well-known high-tech companies on the leading edge of the industry. Many traditional and longer established industries, such as life insurance, are also turning to data science to stay competitive in a changing marketplace. This talk will share some of the projects in which Transamerica’s data science teams have been engaged, including attention to bias and ethics that is part of that work. Many examples will focus on underwriting for retail life insurance.

Bio: Dr. Stephanie Fitchett holds the position of Data Scientist at Transamerica in Boulder, CO and also serves as a rotating program officer in the Division of Undergraduate Education at the National Science Foundation.

 

Melissa Haendel

Title: Making science go faster, better, and together by harmonizing and reusing data

Abstract: Addressing complex scientific challenges requires weaving together data from diverse sources, organisms, contexts, formats, and granularities, and building a coherent holistic view of this data landscape to address any given problem is non-trivial. Often in the aggregation process, many of the original connections within the data are lost. Moreover, it is difficult to make new (inferred) connections without a common conceptual model. A common model is made possible by novel data integration strategies that leverage semantic technologies. The use of ontologies, knowledge graphs, and a common modeling framework can help span disciplinary boundaries. However, it takes the people too; robust interdisciplinary collaboration and improved data licensing and access can advance progress and innovation.

Bio: Dr. Melissa Haendel is the newly instantiated Chief Research Informatics Officer at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School. Her background is molecular genetics and developmental biology as well as translational informatics, with a focus over the past decade on open science and semantic engineering. Melissa’s vision is to weave together healthcare systems, basic science research, and patient generated data through development of data integration technologies and innovative data capture strategies. Her research has focused on integration of genotype-phenotype data to improve rare disease diagnosis and mechanism discovery. She also leads and participates in international standards organizations to support improved data sharing and utility worldwide.