Domenic Puzio works for Capital One, building tools to assist cybersecurity analysts dive into data they have to sift through. He will be hosting a panel, Become a Machine Learning Expert in Under an Hour, along with Jennifer Van of Capital One. The session will be held on March 9, 2018, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at Antone’s Capital One House on 305 E. 5th Street.

Could you tell me about your session?

My session is a crash course in all things machine learning (ML). The talk will be an hour of lessons, visualizations, and demonstrations on the types of machine learning algorithms, how they work, and what they can be used to do. While the title is a bit tongue-in-cheek, the session will provide folks with a breadth of knowledge that will allow them to dive deeper into specific areas that interest them!

What specific things are you hoping people learn?

There’s a lot going on in the machine learning field today – supervised learning, unsupervised learning, deep learning – and the talk will attempt to cover all of it. Really important, too, is providing some intuition on when to use machine learning and when more traditional approaches are actually a better choice, so that will be a part of the conversation as well.

What do you hope the biggest takeaway will be for someone that attends?

The machine learning world is full of buzzwords, or, at the very least, it’s very abstract. I want to demystify ML for attendees so that they can talk the talk and walk the walk as well! I hope people walk away knowing that machine learning is approachable; it’s not just for PhDs!

What inspired you to host this session at SXSW?

I think machine learning is (and is going to continue to be) a transformative technology, on the level of smartphones and the internet. With the impact that ML will have on our world, it’s important that we democratize knowledge on what machine learning does and how it works. I want to empower people, as technology makers and, more importantly, as technology users to understand how ML is impacting their lives.

How did you get interested in this topic?

I work for Capital One, building tools to assist cyber security analysts, who have a difficult job due to all the data that they have to sift through. My mentor introduced to machine learning to me as a way to tackle with some of these large-scale, complex problems like malware detection and phishing email prevention. From there, I was hooked. I’ve really enjoyed learning what other companies are doing in the ML space and then applying those ideas to the cyber security world.

Could you tell me a little about yourself?

I live in DC with my two houseplants, my latest obsession is the Great British Baking Show, and I’m a huge Lord of the Rings nerd. This is my first SXSW, and I’m super excited, especially for the film festival… I’m a big Wes Anderson fan, so I geeked out when I heard that Isle of Dogs is going to be there.

Sunday, March 9th
11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Antone’s Capital One House

Find out more: Become a Machine Learning Expert in Under an Hour