It's Refactor time again! We have an awesome line-up to warm up the winter blues: Dr Rhema Vaithianathan, Bridget Beh, and Katherine Barrow. Read on to learn more about them or grab your ticket now!
The event is presented in conjunction with our awesome sponsors AUT, Pushpay, and Catalyst!
Wednesday 28 June 2017, 6-8:30pm
Room WG308 at AUT, 55 Wellesley Street East, Auckland CBD
Tickets $25 – open to all
Speaker Profiles
Dr Rhema Vaithianathan
Rhema (@RVaithianathan) is a health economist and co-director of the Centre for Social Data Analytics (@AUTCSDA) at AUT. The Centre’s mission is to solve hard social problems with innovative data analytics solutions. Rhema is always looking for opportunities to use data to address intractable social problems. At the CSDA she leads data scientists and researchers working on projects in NZ, the US and the UK, all aiming to deliver measurable social impact. Rhema’s work often makes use of existing administrative data that can be transformed to predict certain adverse outcomes, like child maltreatment or chronic homelessness. Recent work of note includes development of the Allegheny Family Screening Tool, a predictive risk model for child welfare implemented in the US last year, and impact evaluations of New Zealand’s Family Start, Teen Parent Units and Social Workers in Schools programmes. As a researcher Rhema is known for pairing the best possible scientific methodologies with enviable human engagement: “Data doesn’t change minds. People do”.
Bridget Beh
Bridget is a Software Engineer at Serato, a world-leading music software company. She currently works on Serato DJ, a cross-platform native desktop application and was part of the team that launched Pyro, an iOS app that automatically mixes music. Prior to Serato, Bridget completed internships at Orion Health, First NZ Capital and Google. She is a keen FutureInTech ambassador and in her free time you can find her jamming on various musical instruments.
Katherine Barrow
Katherine (@katbarrow) is the Experience Director at Pixel Fusion. She works at the intersection of customer experience, technology and business strategy, helping businesses apply design thinking and innovation methodologies across their channels and products. She has an eclectic background, having worked in tourism and teaching before joining the design and tech industries 7 years ago. She’s passionate about the importance of empathy and ethics in the tech industry, and the responsibility that we have to shape the world consciously and inclusively.
