Ask AI interview with Ozge Yeloglu, Lead Data Scientist, Microsoft Canada.
Special thanks to Microsoft Canada and Cinchy for sponsoring the third series of the Ask AI podcast and supporting greater awareness of artificial intelligence in Canada. All of our episodes and 100s of AI profiles are also available from our chatbot, generously sponsored by Toronto’s Ada Support.
Ozge Yeloglu has had to work hard to get to where she is today. From a young age in Turkey, she had a keen interest in computers, despite not having access to one at home.
But that didn’t stop her from following her passion.
In 1999, when she began her computer science degree, she still didn’t own a computer (or even know what a floppy disk was), but she persevered.
As an undergraduate, she struggled to find an outlet for her love of programming and computing technology, but a pivotal moment came in 2004 when a professor handed her a book on neural networks.
That single gesture started Ozge on a journey that would eventually see her leading the data and AI teams for one of biggest players in Canadian technology.
After studying for her advanced degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax, she made the jump into #startuplife with a fellow PhD candidate. Three years of incredibly hard work as a tech co-founder followed but unfortunately things ended the way of so many new ventures.
But the path of learning and advancing computer science continued.
In 2016, Ozge was hired as the first data scientist at Microsoft Canada with a focus on building analytics solutions for some of the biggest financial services companies in the country.
In just over two years, she has expanded the team to 11 members and continues to work on changing the technology landscape for enterprise customers, while being the voice of AI at Microsoft Canada.
Tune in to this episode as host Jaxson Khan learns more about Ozge's fascinating journey and her unique perspectives on artificial intelligence.
Subscribe to podcast
Subscribe to the Ask AI podcast and receive new episodes directly to your phone.
Share your news
If you have news about your artificial intelligence company, project, research, or initiative that you’d like us to share with our community, please use this handy form.
Share this episode
Click below and share this episode with your social networks 👇
Talk to our bot
This episode and hundreds of AI profiles are also available from our chatbot.
Episode highlights
The power of women in tech groups and mentor-ships
The loneliness of the PhD candidate ;)
Why it might be a bit too early to worry about a technology skills gap in Canada.
Why chatbots and intelligent agents represent design and UX issues, rather than NLP or ML challenges
Why Ozge feels that everything that can be automated should be automated, starting with vacuum cleaners.
Can (or should) we clean historical data to remove bias? Or should we train AI to detect it?
Episode links
Episode credits
Sponsors: Microsoft Canada and Cinchy
Chatbot partner: Ada Support
Executive Producer: Chris McLellan
Host: Jaxson Khan
Assistant Producers: Oleena Mak and Kristin Riddell
Original music: Mike LeTourneau
About Ask AI
Ask AI is a volunteer project that is focused on increasing awareness and understanding of Canada’s artificial intelligence sector. Our projects include a popular podcast, AI Explainer videos, and live events. To learn more about sponsorship and volunteering please contact us or ask our chatbot.