(bright music) >> Hello, everyone. Welcome to theCUBE special presentation of International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. This is a global special open program we're doing every year. We're going to continue it every quarter. We're going to do more and more content, getting the voices out there and celebrating the diversity. And I'm excited to have an amazing guest here, LaDavia Drane, who's the head of Global Inclusion Diversity & Equity at AWS. LaDavia, we tried to get you in on AWS re:Invent, and you were super busy. So much going on. The industry has seen the light. They're seeing everything going on, and the numbers are up, but still not there, and getting better. This is your passion, our passion, a shared passion. Tell us about your situation, your career, how you got into it. What's your story? >> Yeah. Well, John, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm glad that we finally got this opportunity to speak. How did I get into this work? Wow, you know, I'm doing the work that I love to do, number one. It's always been my passion to be a voice for the voiceless, to create a seat at the table for folks that may not be welcome to certain tables. And so, it's been something that's been kind of the theme of my entire professional career. I started off as a lawyer, went to Capitol Hill, was able to do some work with members of Congress, both women members of Congress, but also, minority members of Congress in the US Congress. And then, that just morphed into what I think has become a career for me in inclusion, diversity, and equity. I decided to join Amazon because I could tell that it's a company that was ready to take it to the next level in this space. And sure enough, that's been my experience here. So now, I'm in it, I'm in it with two feet, doing great work. And yeah, yeah, it's almost a full circle moment for me. >> It's really an interesting background. You have a background in public policy. You mentioned Capitol Hill. That's awesome. DC kind of moves slow, but it's a complicated machinery there. Obviously, as you know, navigating that, Amazon grew significantly. We've been at every re:Invent with theCUBE since 2013, like just one year. I watched Amazon grow, and they've become very fast and also complicated, like, I won't say like Capitol, 'cause that's very slow, but Amazon's complicated. AWS is in the realm of powering a generation of public policy. We had the JEDI contract controversy, all kinds of new emerging challenges. This pivot to tech was great timing because one, (laughs) Amazon needed it because they were growing so fast in a male dominated world, but also, their business is having real impact on the public. >> That's right, that's right. And when you say the public, I'll just call it out. I think that there's a full spectrum of diversity and we work backwards from our customers, and our customers are diverse. And so, I really do believe, I agree that I came to the right place at the right time. And yeah, we move fast and we're also moving fast in this space of making sure that both internally and externally, we're doing the things that we need to do in order to reach a diverse population. >> You know, I've noticed how Amazon's changed from the culture, male dominated culture. Let's face it, it was. And now, I've seen over the past five years, specifically go back five, is kind of in my mental model, just the growth of female leaders, it's been impressive. And there was some controversy. They were criticized publicly for this. And we said a few things as well in those, like around 2014. How is Amazon ensuring and continuing to get the female employees feel represented and empowered? What's going on there? What programs do you have? Because it's not just doing it, it's continuing it, right? And 'cause there is a lot more to do. I mean, the half (laughs) the products are digital now for everybody. It's not just one population. (laughs) Everyone uses digital products. What is Amazon doing now to keep it going? >> Well, I'll tell you, John, it's important for me to note that while we've made great progress, there's still more that can be done. I am very happy to be able to report that we have big women leaders. We have leaders running huge parts of our business, which includes storage, customer experience, industries and business development. And yes, we have all types of programs. And I should say that, instead of calling it programs, I'm going to call it strategic initiatives, right? We are very thoughtful about how we engage our women. And not only how we hire, attract women, but how we retain our women. We do that through engagement, groups like our affinity groups. So Women at Amazon is an affinity group. Women in finance, women in engineering. Just recently, I helped our Black employee network women's group launch, BEN Women. And so you have these communities of women who come together, support and mentor one another. We have what we call Amazon Circles. And so these are safe spaces where women can come together and can have conversations, where we are able to connect mentors and sponsors. And we're seeing that it's making all the difference in the world for our women. And we see that through what we call Connections. We have an inclusion sentiment tracker. So we're able to ask questions every single day and we get a response from our employees and we can see how are our women feeling, how are they feeling included at work? Are they feeling as though they can be who they are authentically at Amazon? And so, again, there's more work that needs to be done. But I will say that as I look at the data, as I'm talking to engaging women, I really do believe that we're on the right path. >> LaDavia, talk about the urgent needs of the women that you're hearing from the Circles. That's a great program. The affinity circles, the groups are great. Now, you have the groups, what are you hearing? What are the needs of the women? >> So, John, I'll just go a little bit into what's becoming a conversation around equity. So, initially I think we talked a lot about equality, right? We wanted everyone to have fair access to the same things. But now, women are looking for equity. We're talking about not just leveling the playing field, which is equality, but don't give me the same as you give everyone else. Instead, recognize that I may have different circumstances, I may have different needs. And give me what I need, right? Give me what I need, not just the same as everyone else. And so, I love seeing women evolve in this way, and being very specific about what they need more than, or what's different than what a man may have in the same situation because their circumstances are not always the same and we should treat them as such. >> Yeah, I think that's a great equity point. I interviewed a woman here, ex-Amazonian, she's now a GSI, Global System Integrator. She's a single mom. And she said remote work brought her equity because people on her team realized that she was a single mom. And it wasn't the, how do you balance life, it was her reality. And what happened was, she had more empathy with the team because of the new work environment. So, I think this is an important point to call out, that equity, because that really makes things smoother in terms of the interactions, not the assumptions, you have to be, you know, always the same as a man. So, how does that go? What's the current... How would you characterize the progress in that area right now? >> I believe that employers are just getting better at this. It's just like you said, with the hybrid being the norm now, you have an employer who is looking at people differently based on what they need. And it's not a problem, it's not an issue that a single mother says, "Well, I need to be able to leave by 5:00 PM." I think that employers now, and Amazon is right there along with other employers, are starting just to evolve that muscle of meeting the needs. People don't have to feel different. You don't have to feel as though there's some kind of of special circumstance for me. Instead, it's something that we, as employers, we're asking for. And we want to meet those needs that are different in some situations. >> I know you guys do a lot of support of women outside of AWS, and I had a story I recorded for the program. This woman, she talked about how she was a nerd from day one. She's a tomboy. They called her a tomboy, but she always loved robotics. And she ended up getting dual engineering degrees. And she talked about how she didn't run away and there was many signals to her not to go. And she powered through, at that time, and during her generation, that was tough. And she was successful. How are you guys taking the education to STEM, to women, at young ages? Because we don't want to turn people away from tech if they have the natural affinity towards it. And not everyone is going to be, as, you know, (laughs) strong, if you will. And she was a bulldog, she was great. She's just like, "I'm going for it. I love it so much." But not everyone's like that. So, this is an educational thing. How do you expose technology, STEM for instance, and making it more accessible, no stigma, all that stuff? I mean, I think we've come a long way, but still. >> What I love about women is we don't just focus on ourselves. We do a very good job of thinking about the generation that's coming after us. And so, I think you will see that very clearly with our women Amazonians. I'll talk about three different examples of ways that Amazonian women in particular, and there are men that are helping out, but I'll talk about the women in particular that are leading in this area. On my team, in the Inclusion, Diversity & Equity team, we have a program that we run in Ghana where we meet basic STEM needs for a afterschool program. So we've taken this small program, and we've turned their summer camp into this immersion, where girls and boys, we do focus on the girls, can come and be completely immersed in STEM. And when we provide the technology that they need, so that they'll be able to have access to this whole new world of STEM. Another program which is run out of our AWS In Communities team, called AWS Girls' Tech Day. All across the world where we have data centers, we're running these Girls' Tech Day. They're basically designed to educate, empower and inspire girls to pursue a career in tech. Really, really exciting. I was at the Girls' Tech Day here recently in Columbus, Ohio, and I got to tell you, it was the highlight of my year. And then I'll talk a little bit about one more, it's called AWS GetIT, and it's been around for a while. So this is a program, again, it's a global program, it's actually across 13 countries. And it allows girls to explore cloud technology, in particular, and to use it to solve real world problems. Those are just three examples. There are many more. There are actually women Amazonians that create these opportunities off the side of their desk in they're local communities. We, in Inclusion, Diversity & Equity, we fund programs so that women can do this work, this STEM work in their own local communities. But those are just three examples of some of the things that our Amazonians are doing to bring girls along, to make sure that the next generation is set up and that the next generation knows that STEM is accessible for girls. >> I'm a huge believer. I think that's amazing. That's great inspiration. We need more of that. It's awesome. And why wouldn't we spread it around? I want to get to the equity piece, that's the theme for this year's IWD. But before that, getting that segment, I want to ask you about your title, and the choice of words and the sequence. Okay, Global Inclusion, Diversity, Equity. Not diversity only. Inclusion is first. We've had this debate on theCUBE many years now, a few years back, it started with, "Inclusion is before diversity," "No, diversity before inclusion, equity." And so there's always been a debate (laughs) around the choice of words and their order. What's your opinion? What's your reaction to that? Is it by design? And does inclusion come before diversity, or am I just reading it to it? >> Inclusion doesn't necessarily come before diversity. (John laughs) It doesn't necessarily come before equity. Equity isn't last, but we do lead with inclusion in AWS. And that is very important to us, right? And thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk a little bit about it. We lead with inclusion because we want to make sure that every single one of our builders know that they have a place in this work. And so it's important that we don't only focus on hiring, right? Diversity, even though there are many, many different levels and spectrums to diversity. Inclusion, if you start there, I believe that it's what it takes to make sure that you have a workplace where everyone knows you're included here, you belong here, we want you to stay here. And so, it helps as we go after diversity. And we want all types of people to be a part of our workforce, but we want you to stay. And inclusion is the thing. It's the thing that I believe makes sure that people stay because they feel included. So we lead with inclusion. Doesn't mean that we put diversity or equity second or third, but we are proud to lead with inclusion. >> Great description. That was fabulous. Totally agree. Double click, thumbs up. Now let's get into the theme. Embracing equity, 'cause this is a term, it's in quotes. What does that mean to you? You mentioned it earlier, I love it. What does embrace equity mean? >> Yeah. You know, I do believe that when people think about equity, especially non-women think about equity, it's kind of scary. It's, "Am I going to give away what I have right now to make space for someone else?" But that's not what equity means. And so I think that it's first important that we just educate ourselves about what equity really is. It doesn't mean that someone's going to take your spot, right? It doesn't mean that the pie, let's use that analogy, gets smaller. The pie gets bigger, right? >> John: Mm-hmm. >> And everyone is able to have their piece of the pie. And so, I do believe that I love that IWD, International Women's Day is leading with embracing equity because we're going to the heart of the matter when we go to equity, we're going to the place where most people feel most challenged, and challenging people to think about equity and what it means and how they can contribute to equity and thus, embrace equity. >> Yeah, I love it. And the advice that you have for tech professionals out there on this, how do you advise other groups? 'Cause you guys are doing a lot of great work. Other organizations are catching up. What would be your advice to folks who are working on this equity challenge to reach gender equity and other equitable strategic initiatives? And everyone's working on this. Sustainability and equity are two big projects we're seeing in every single company right now. >> Yeah, yeah. I will say that I believe that AWS has proven that equity and going after equity does work. Embracing equity does work. One example I would point to is our AWS Impact Accelerator program. I mean, we provide 30 million for early stage startups led by women, Black founders, Latino founders, LGBTQ+ founders, to help them scale their business. That's equity. That's giving them what they need. >> John: Yeah. >> What they need is they need access to capital. And so, what I'd say to companies who are looking at going into the space of equity, I would say embrace it. Embrace it. Look at examples of what companies like AWS is doing around it and embrace it because I do believe that the tech industry will be better when we're comfortable with embracing equity and creating strategic initiatives so that we could expand equity and make it something that's just, it's just normal. It's the normal course of business. It's what we do. It's what we expect of ourselves and our employees. >> LaDavia, you're amazing. Thank you for spending the time. My final couple questions really more around you. Capitol Hill, DC, Amazon Global Head of Inclusion, Diversity & Equity, as you look at making change, being a change agent, being a leader, is really kind of similar, right? You've got DC, it's hard to make change there, but if you do it, it works, right? (laughs) If you don't, you're on the side of the road. So, as you're in your job now, what are you most excited about? What's on your agenda? What's your focus? >> Yeah, so I'm most excited about the potential of what we can get done, not just for builders that are currently in our seats, but for builders in the future. I tend to focus on that little girl. I don't know her, I don't know where she lives. I don't know how old she is now, but she's somewhere in the world, and I want her to grow up and for there to be no question that she has access to AWS, that she can be an employee at AWS. And so, that's where I tend to center, I center on the future. I try to build now, for what's to come, to make sure that this place is accessible for that little girl. >> You know, I've always been saying for a long time, the software is eating the world, now you got digital transformation, business transformation. And that's not a male only, or certain category, it's everybody. And so, software that's being built, and the systems that are being built, have to have first principles. Andy Jassy is very strong on this. He's been publicly saying, when trying to get pinned down about certain books in the bookstore that might offend another group. And he's like, "Look, we have first principles. First principles is a big part of leading." What's your reaction to that? How would you talk to another professional and say, "Hey," you know this, "How do I make the right call? Am I doing the wrong thing here? And I might say the wrong thing here." And is it first principles based? What's the guardrails? How do you keep that in check? How would you advise someone as they go forward and lean in to drive some of the change that we're talking about today? >> Yeah, I think as leaders, we have to trust ourselves. And Andy actually, is a great example. When I came in as head of ID&E for AWS, he was our CEO here at AWS. And I saw how he authentically spoke from his heart about these issues. And it just aligned with who he is personally, his own personal principles. And I do believe that leaders should be free to do just that. Not to be scripted, but to lead with their principles. And so, I think Andy's actually a great example. I believe that I am the professional in this space at this company that I am today because of the example that Andy set. >> Yeah, you guys do a great job, LaDavia. What's next for you? >> What's next. >> World tour, you traveling around? What's on your plate these days? Share a little bit about what you're currently working on. >> Yeah, so you know, at Amazon, we're always diving deep. We're always diving deep, we're looking for root cause, working very hard to look around corners, and trying to build now for what's to come in the future. And so I'll continue to do that. Of course, we're always planning and working towards re:Invent, so hopefully, John, I'll see you at re:Invent this December. But we have some great things happening throughout the year, and we'll continue to... I think it's really important, as opposed to looking to do new things, to just continue to flex the same muscles and to show that we can be very, very focused and intentional about doing the same things over and over each year to just become better and better at this work in this space, and to show our employees that we're committed for the long haul. So of course, there'll be new things on the horizon, but what I can say, especially to Amazonians, is we're going to continue to stay focused, and continue to get at this issue, and doing this issue of inclusion, diversity and equity, and continue to do the things that work and make sure that our culture evolves at the same time. >> LaDavia, thank you so much. I'll give you the final word. Just share some of the big projects you guys are working on so people can know about them, your strategic initiatives. Take a minute to plug some of the major projects and things that are going on that people either know about or should know about, or need to know about. Take a minute to share some of the big things you guys got going on, or most of the things. >> So, one big thing that I would like to focus on, focus my time on, is what we call our Innovation Fund. This is actually how we scale our work and we meet the community's needs by providing micro grants to our employees so our employees can go out into the world and sponsor all types of different activities, create activities in their local communities, or throughout the regions. And so, that's probably one thing that I would like to focus on just because number one, it's our employees, it's how we scale this work, and it's how we meet our community's needs in a very global way. And so, thank you John, for the opportunity to talk a bit about what we're up to here at Amazon Web Services. But it's just important to me, that I end with our employees because for me, that's what's most important. And they're doing some awesome work through our Innovation Fund. >> Inclusion makes the workplace great. Empowerment, with that kind of program, is amazing. LaDavia Drane, thank you so much. Head of Global Inclusion and Diversity & Equity at AWS. This is International Women's Day. I'm John Furrier with theCUBE. Thanks for watching and stay with us for more great interviews and people and what they're working on. Thanks for watching. (bright music)

>>Okay, welcome back everyone. To the cubes coverage of AWS summit, 2022 in San Francisco, California. We're here, live on the floor at the Mosconi south events are back. I'm John fur, your host. Remember AWS summit 2022 in New York city is coming this summer. We'll be there with the live cube there as well. Look for us there, but of course, we're back in action with the cloud and AWS. Our next guest Garrett Miller is the general manager of navigation at Mapbox. I mean, it's been a Amazon customer for a long time, Garrett. Thanks for coming on the cube. >>Yeah. Thanks for having us, John. >>So you guys are in the middle of, I love the whole location base slash we developer integration. We've had many conversations on the cube around how engineers and developers are becoming embedded into the application, whether it's from a security standpoint, biometrics, all kinds of stuff, being built into the app and, and location navigation. That's right. Is huge from cars. Everyone knows their car, car map. That's right. GPS satellites, some space it's complicated. It sounds like it sounds easy, but I know it's hard. Yeah. You, you get the keynote going on today. Give us a quick update on Mapbox and we'll then we'll talk about the keynote. >>Yeah. You bet John that's right. So as you were saying, you know, it really is. It's all about location intelligence. And how does that get embedded into the applications? And to the point you made vehicles that are out there on the roads to today. So we target developers. Those are our key customers, and we've got over three and a half million registered on the platform today. They consume the modules that we build with APIs, SDKs, data sets, and more and more applications to accomplish whatever those location needs might be. >>Why we appreciate you coming on. You are featured keynote by presenter here at summit, which means Amazon thinks you're super important to share. I'll say your customer. So you, I know you've been a customer for a long time as a company, but what was your keynote about what was the main theme? The developers were all here. You got the builders. What was your content? What did you present this morning on the keynote? Yeah, >>Well, this morning we really talked a lot about logistics and the, this story that we told was know in the logistics industry, there is a massive movement to shorter and shorter delivery windows. And so the, the, the story that we told is really around a 10 minute delivery. Now, have you ever wondered how you get a 10 minute delivery? You, you place an order on your phone and all of a sudden somebody shows up at your front doorstep. You ever wonder about that? >><laugh> >>Some shows supply >>Chain. Someone's waiting in the wings from my call. >>Yeah. >>Yeah. Well, that's right. >>John's about to order sometime soon. That's right. You ready? That's right. Do all these assets. That's >>Right. They're all ready for you. But there's actually a tremendous amount that actually goes into that. And so it really starts with designing the right distribution system up front. And so we've got tools and, and applications and, and APIs that support that. And really it, every single step of the way, location is a critical aspect to making that delivery happen and getting it to a customer's doorstep in 10 minutes or less. And so how are you understanding the real time road graph that underlies a, a, a driver going from perhaps a dark store, dark kitchen to getting in, excuse me, in front of a customer in 10 minutes with hot food. >>I mean, this is a big point. I was just joking about waiting for me, you know, that, but the point is, is that it's not obvious, but it sounds really hard. I know it's hard because to have that delivery, a lot of things have to happen. It's not just knowing location. >>That's exactly >>Right. So can you just UN pull appeal back the covers on that? What's going on there? >>Yeah. So imagine this is, is, it really starts, as I was saying with designing that distribution system and it's putting in place where you might not expect it, it's actually putting in place a retail store, but these aren't any retail stores, right? These are dark stores. These are dark kitchens that are strategically placed as close as possible, the customer density, so that you can actually shorten that window as much as possible to get you whatever that order might be. But from there, it actually goes quite a bit further when an order actually comes in, you've gotta be able to understand how do I sign an, a driver to get that order to the customer in that, in that very short period of time, more often than not, it's getting it to the driver that can get there the fastest, once you've got the right driver identified, how are you actually then going to enable them to get from point a to B to get that order. >>And then perhaps from B to C to get to your front door, being able to do turn by turn navigation that reflects everything. That's how happening in the real world to be able to get there on a timely way is critical. And then wrapping around that actually the, the, the end customer's experience your experience with how are you placing that order? Yeah. How are you using Mapbox services to do that? How are you being able to track on your application and say, well, you know, great, I expect 10 minutes and they're five minutes away. Are you gonna show up our APIs and SDKs power? That experience, >>I wanna get into the product in a second, but you brought up something I think's important to highlight. One is dark kitchens, dark stores. That's right. Okay. Term people may or may not have heard of, we all have experience in COVID going to our favorite restaurant, which has been kind of downsized because of the COVID and we're waiting for our food. And someone comes in from another delivery ever standing in line next was just pick something up. I mean, they're going through the front door. That's like the, the, the branded store. So, so is it right to say that dark kitchens are essentially replicas of the store to minimize that traffic, but, but also to be efficient for something else that's right. >>It actually even goes further than that. There are many restaurant brands. Now, it only exists as a brand. They don't have a restaurant that you can go to and sit down and have that meal. They actually only operate dark kitchens to, to serve that demand of people wanting to order up, Hey, I want my food. I want it. Now, those brands exist to serve that need. >>All right. So great for the definition, we just define dark kitchens, dark stores, but also brings, I wanna get your reaction to this before we get into the product, cuz this is a trend that's right. This is not like a one off thing. That's right. It's not a pulled forward TA a market that was COVID enabled. This is actually a user experience inflection point. That's >>Right. >>Can you share your vision on what this means? Because there's mobile ordering, there's the dynamics of the kitchens as a supplier of something in stores. So that's content or a product that's being delivered to a consumer via of the web. So now there's gotta be a whole nother reef factoring of the operating environment. Now that's what's happening is that might get that >>Right? No, that's exactly right. And even if you step back, even further and you, you think about the, the journey that the logistics industry has been on, it used to be that two days was that really exciting delivery time. Right. And everybody got it super excited. Then it became next day. Then it became same day and now it's become 10 minutes. And even some companies are out there offering seven minute deliveries, right. And in order to do that, you've gotta completely retool your business. So you can think the logistics and industry really existing on two continuums, you've got pre-planned deliveries on one hand and on-demand deliveries on the other. And there are two parallel distribution systems and ecosystems and industries really springing up to serve those different types of demand. >>So you've been on Amazon web services customer for how many years, >>Since 2013 in our founding. And you know, actually we're really proud to say that we were born on Amazon and we have scaled on Amazon. >>How are they helping you scale? What are they doing to help you? >>Well, I'd say just about everything. And if you think about their, the, the services that Amazon provides for us, they power every single step of our business along the way. And so I'll give you an example. We can walk through that with some of the tech technology. I, if you think about again, how do you get 10 minutes? You gotta have a pretty precise understanding of what's going on in the real world. And so to do that, it, for us, it all starts with collecting billions and billions of data points from sensors that are out there in the world. We stream that into our technology stack, starting at the very beginning with Amazon ESIS. And so that's just the start. But then that feeds into our entire technology stack that all runs on site on top of AWS, to where we're running our own AI models that we use Amazon SageMaker to make, and then stream it back out to our AP, through our APIs, to our se Ks and applications that sit on the edge again, all leveraging Amazon technology. >>Well, I think this is a great use case and I'll get back into the, the Mapbox a second, but Amazon, you guys are executing what I call the super cloud vision, which is snowflake you guys building on their CapX leverage. You're building a super cloud on your own. It's your app, it's your cloud. >>That's right. That's right. So if you, again, if you think about it, you know, and actually just stepping back for a moment, tell about Mapbox for a second is what, what Mapbox can do is provide the most accurate digital representation of the physical world. Think about the Mapbox technology, delivering the most accurate digital twin of mother earth, right? That's what we do. And the way that we do that is to consume, as I said earlier, vast amounts of data, we've got powerful AI that structures that data, and then really robust and scalable infrastructure that underpins all of that. Now the benefit of working with a company like AWS is that they take care of that third point. Yeah. Which means we get to go focus on the first two, which is how we differentiate and build our >>Business. And that's exactly the model of how you win in the cloud. In my opinion, that's the go big piece, the go and there's tools that fit in white spaces. But that's the, I think that's the right formula. Let's get back to Mac boxer. I know you've got news. You got the, the, uh, Mapbox fleet SDK. You announced, I wanna hold on that we'll get to in a second, let's get back to what you got are providing that example as you have this new operating environment of how delivery and, and supply chain and that's example, I want to know how tech your technology is making all that work. Because I was just talking to someone last night about this web van was web 1.0 and crash never was successful. Instacart is kind of hurting. So maybe they're optimized. You could save them. I mean, cuz the economics gotta work. If you don't have the underlying system built, that might fail. So there'll be probably the third version that gets it. Right. Maybe at Mapbox again, I'm speculating, but I'll let you talk. Yeah. How does Mapbox solve the, that problem? >>You know, it's interesting if you come back to that, that, that analogy we're using with AWS and how do you use AWS to win in the cloud? It's the same story for Mapbox of how do you win in the location industry? And what we do is provide those same tool sets of APIs and SDKs, the thing go power, those logistics companies like an Instacart, who's a great customer of ours to run in their logistics business on top of it again, it's all about how do you provide technology that allows your customers yeah. To focus on what matters from a differentiation perspective as they focus on building their >>Business and you think your economics is gonna enable these people to be successful >>100%. That's >>The goal >>100%. >>All right. So another thing that I wanna bring up is the fleet SDK, what was the, that you announced they can, you just quickly share the news on what this >>Is? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I appreciate that, John. Yeah. So today on the Eve of earth day, we're very excited to announce Mapbox fleet going into, uh, our beta launch and what Mapbox fleet is, is, uh, a set of tools and application that allows our customers to more efficiently route their vehicles, which means lowering their fuel consumption. And at the same time, more efficiently dispatching those vehicles, which means that you can get more done with fewer assets, essentially. How do you get more packages onto a single vehicle to get those to the customers? Now you may be watching the news and understanding, yeah, there's a tremendous explosion of delivery going. Yeah. And that's fantastic. Right? That's great business for our logistics customers. Good business for us too. What's happening though, is that as those volumes are ballooning, everybody's all of a sudden, really looking at their cost structures and trying to understand how do I manage this? >>Right. I have efficiency targets as a business. Maybe I've been really focused on customer acquisition. Now it's time to flip the model and really understand in the economics of profitable growth. We help with that, with that focus on efficiency, but the double edged sword with growth and, and you know, running a logistics business is that you actually have a tremendous amount of carbon emissions that are associated with that. Yeah. For a car to show up or a truck to show up, to deliver something to your house, their emissions associated with that. So what we find is that we're able to not only drive dollar savings for our customers, but also as part of that, with the efficiency angle, really help to drive down the overall carbon impact in the carbon footprint of what they do. And >>How do you do that? >>Well, it's the efficiency lens, right? So if somebody is driving 20%, fewer miles, they're going to emit 20% fewer. Okay. >>Gotcha. So it's a numbers game across the board with actual measurement. That's exactly right. Built in and say optimization paths, all kinds of navigation. >>That's exactly right. So embedded within Mapbox fleet application are those optimization algorithm. >>So you got a platform that's setting up for the next level delivery system slash new way to connect people to goods and services and other things getting from point a to point B, you got the sustainability check you're in the cloud, born in the cloud cloud scale. I gotta a, I can't go without asking if you're on Amazon, you do all this cool stuff. There's gotta be a machine learning an AI angle. So what is that? Yeah, absolutely. >>Absolutely. AB yeah. You know, <laugh> guilty as charged. >>I would say >>John. Uh, so look, I >>Think, I mean AI and, and sustainability are gonna be, I think filings in my, in the future we be talking about on the cube, if you're not an AI company or, and doing force for good stuff, I think there's gonna be mandatory requirements on those. >>I couldn't three more. I think the ESG agenda is an incredibly important one. One that's core to Mapbox has been since the founding of the company back in 2013. Uh, but if you look at how does AI and ML fit into Mapbox, it does that in a number of different ways. And really when we come back to this idea of Mapbox creating a digital twin of the earth, the way that we do that, it is through ingesting a tremendous amount of sensor data. Right? You can imagine, uh, Mapbox customers on any given week drive, billions of miles, we're capturing all of that telemetry data to understand and make sense of what does that mean for, for, for the world that allows us to push in any given day 700,000 updates to our underly, your location technology stack, and at the same time provide insights as to exactly what's happening. Are there roadside incidents? Are there, are there issues with traffic? So by collecting all of that data, we run incredibly powerful AI models on top of it that allow us to create the, the real world representation of what's happening. That's exactly how >>It works. What, what, as they say in the, um, big data AI world is you guys have a tremendous observation space. You're looking at a lot of surface area data that's exactly right. Across multiple workloads and apps. That's >>Exactly >>Right. You can connect those dots with the right AI. >>That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And I think I, you know, coming back to your point around sustainability, I do think that the AI and ML capabilities that are being delivered are going to be paramount to that. It being such a fundamental aspect to what am, to what Mapbox does as a business allows us to launch these game changing solutions like Mapbox fleet and staying on that, that kind of environmental and sustainable kick for a second. Just last week, we launched our, our EV routing API that powers the next generation of EVs. So AI ML sustainability. If it's not core business today, it's gotta very quickly become core. >>It's really interesting. I really think what we're teasing out here and it's fun to talk about it now because we'll look back at it later 10 years or more and say, wow, this is completely refactored the industry and lives and the planet ultimately. Right. So this is a, a kind of got force for good built into the system natively. That's >>Right. That's >>That's interesting, Garrett, thanks so much for sharing the story. Give you the last word, share with the audience, what you guys are up to, what you're promoting, what you're looking for. Are you hiring, uh, is there a call to action? You wanna share? Give the plug for the company? Yeah, >>Absolutely hiring like crazy come join Mapbox and BU build the future of geolocation and intelligent location services with us. Uh, the, thanks so much for the time, >>John. Thanks for coming on cube coverage here in San Francisco, California Mosconi center back at live events. I'm John for host cube stayed with us as day two wraps down. Remember New York city. This summer will be there as well. Cube coverage of more cloud coverage events are back. Thanks for watching.

>>live from Orlando, Florida It's the cue covering Microsoft Ignite Brought to you by Cohee City. >>Welcome back, everyone to the Cubes Live coverage of Microsoft IC night here at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida I'm your host, Rebecca Knight, coasting along side of stew. Minutemen >>were joined by Patrick Moorehead. He is the founder and principal principal analyst. Atmore Insights and strategy Thank you so much for returning to the Cube. You're a good friend of the queue. >>Thanks for having me on. I mean, it's a great show, and I literally look for the Cube everywhere. >>Very nice. You >>do about 40 events year, and I'm pretty sure you're in >>about exactly, exactly. >>We've got a few more for you to cut. Come Thio. Yeah, in the other place. Year is >>not over. So so many announcements. Today, an 87 page book from From the Microsoft comes team. One of the things that is getting a lot of attention is azure arc. Satya Nadella himself said, I am so excited about this. This marks the beginning of hybrid computing. What are your first impressions of it, and are you able to see the immediate of differences between Stack and an arc >>S o. I think I would say completely expected. Uh, we're out of this drunken sailor mode where everything's going to the public cloud. Oh, my gosh. And everybody is toast. Who's not doing this? Okay, And now we're in this somewhat sober right where 80% of the workloads are still on Prem. And 20 of those have gone on to either SAS or I as or pass, but it's expected now. Microsoft already had a full stack i e azure stack, but this takes it up a notch because you been deployed arc anywhere on anybody's cloud. They even showed a demo of doing backups to eight of us. So whether it's on Prem, and I'm sure they're gonna show it running on GC, Pia's well >>so Patrick, For for a number years we've been saying, When you line up the big hyper scale er's and say who's doing well, a hybrid. Microsoft's been at the top of the list there because they have a strong footprint in my data center. Microsoft gave everyone the green light to go. Do sass is much you can because they're pushing everybody toe. 03 65. And, of course, Azure is growing in, You know, one of the leaders in Public Cloud. The announcements this week were compelling, but it may be kind of rethink is that I think you laid it out well and said, But we've been talking about hybrid cloud your number years, but we're not really there. So you are. It's a first piece. It's only in tech preview. I think you're saying for a singular application, which is databases. That's right. When you look out there and you see you know the VM wear on AWS Azure, Google, Oracle, IBM, you look a AWS with outposts and those things. How is Microsoft doing today at delivering for what customers need, you know today and moving forward on their cloud journey? >>So Microsoft was first out of the gate with azure stack, right? They were doing hybrid before it was cool. It was interesting for about two years when they were rolling in outer building it they weren't talking about it. So I was thinking, Wait a second, is it not catching on, or do they want to put more on the big cloud azure? But in fact they have been diligently working behind the scenes. And while they had to show Wall Street this Hayward, the public cloud, they were actively building out their hybrid opportunities. And I do believe that when it comes to the slice of hybrid they are leading right now. Now it depends on where you start. I guess where I do is their leading if you have a major public cloud. Okay, eight of us, obviously there were the outposts, and everybody in the audience were all in the audience. We gasped when Andy Jassy brought that out. We kind of knew something was being worked on and focus a CZ well. And I think to be a credible player you have tohave both implementations, going one way and going the other, being able to work with other people's clouds but also noticed everybody has their single pane of glass strategy. If you want to go all in on Microsoft, you have arc on dhe. That's really the classic Microsoft embrace and extend. >>Yeah, Patrick, you said, all in on Microsoft. And if I if I look at the enterprise, you've obviously got some Microsoft. There's probably some things you're doing. An azure right, You're you're running. 03 65. You know, there's lots of pieces in the more Microsoft portfolio, but most people aren't all in on anything today. That's right, The same thing. I looked at Antos and said in Google Cloud or in my data center shore. But anthros on AWS And >>no Veum no, no virtualized applications on Antos either. >>So the same question for Microsoft is if I'm in a W s, you know, have a big footprint of AWS. Is this gonna fly or you know what? What? What's your what's your take >>s? So it's funny where I've wound up after 30 years of doing this stuff is there's always gonna be a lock in. You just have to pick the lock and that you want. Some people are comfortable with an A p. I lock in. Some are comfortable with a hardware lock. In some people are comfortable with a development environment, and you're gonna pick one. Just what is it gonna be? The reality is in a Fortune 500. You're gonna have multiple panes of glass using to determine which two or which three are you comfortable with? Maybe all the panic last for deployment. Maybe we'll have a panic glass for ops. The interesting thing that I'm really looking for, though, is where this heads with multi cloud. Because I believe at least to my definition, multi cloud is kind of fiction if you talk about actually managing it because Dev ops are cool. But you know, when you got a multi cloud, you break Dev and you break ups. So this is a way Arc is a way to keep. If you buy into their Dev and the Rapps and their security, you would go all in on our. >>So I'm actually interested in what you were talking about with Microsoft going sort of working behind the scenes to Wall Street, presenting this one thing but really working behind the scenes and then talking about being at the conference in everyone, gasping at Andy Jassy how much our company's really paying attention to every birth of these companies in terms of their competition with each other to to be number one. >>Oh, they'll all say that they don't track the competition, but they all say they all have these massive competitive teams that are operating in a real time and I guarantee you all of Microsoft's competitors Aire watching all these are are here on doing that. Now I think the best companies are looking forward trying to change the game if they have to change the game. Trench vendors are really have been playing catch up mode, right? If you were 100% on Prem and you were talking about the public cloud, you're gonna be in trouble. I think, actually, oracles a great example of they're in trouble, particularly with I s I c databases of service. But it's like too little, too late. And I think they're paying the price right >>now. Patrick A Thanks for teeing up the Oracle piece because one of one of the topics that saga repeatedly talked about in the keynote was trust. It's actually the exponential t to the environment. If you talk about the ecosystem. Microsoft. If you look at the hyper scale, er's is probably more trust in others. We talk about people wanting to break up cos well, you know, we tried to break up Microsoft back years ago way know what happened there, and Oracle was up on stage it Oracle openworld saying you want to run or go on the cloud. Here's Azure. There are partner. We actually think that was a keep east of the jet ideal eyes enabling that environment. So the question I have for you is first, Do you agree that the ecosystem believes that Microsoft is more trusted? But what about customers? I think you actually made a tweet about it, right? Because I wonder, you know, historically speaking, Microsoft was not the most trusted. It was the one that, you know, I was right behind Oracle esta who I spent the most. Licensing money to Microsoft has changed. Are they trusted partner for companies building their strategy? >>I have to say, based on the last, we'll call it five years level of Microsoft Trust has raised. And there are other players who make Microsoft look like the super trust zone. Okay, I mean, in what they're maybe what they're doing in a breaking consumer privacy, Let's say, 95% of your businesses advertising right. >>Let's just say what you imagine this right? >>Having commercial offerings that are SAS offerings out there. I think you do have to ask the question, but But listen, I think, um, nobody's mother Theresa here. Okay, Everybody's trying to get business, but I do believe particularly Cincinnati has been here. Level has trust has has gone up, and I hear it from clients that I that I meet with all the time other people are on the naughty list for sure. Even those 95% advertising companies who haven't, let's say, done something. That's horrible. But it's just the notion that something could go wrong. I mean, enterprises, they're slow to adopt their very conservative and makes great fun. >>Exactly So. Well, one of the other big announcement is power platform, not water. What are you What are your impressions of this? I mean, is it is it just semantics? I mean, is this just really the umbrella of a lot of things we've seen before? Or is it something new and different? >>So we wait, did see some brand changes of name changes, but we did did see Cem Cem riel movement here. I like to put even though they're different. I like to put a B I dynamics 3 65 and power kind of in the same region because it's Hey, I'm teeing up. Um, hr at for you or C R Ram, But then you're gonna build APS on top of that. And that's what where power comes into play, I think the r p a portion was relatively new and what they brought out. But I wouldn't say this was the big news rollout for, uh, for power. I do think, interestingly enough, is it is it is their largest growth area. If you think about what? Let's a sales force tracking up. What s a P is doing out there? Even a work day? That is, if I look at the cubic dollars that are available, that is their first or second business driver. So I was expecting a little bit more news here. How about you? >>Well, I mean, I I'm I'm just the host here. You're the analyst. You know what you're talking about? I think that how I mean, what do you think? Do? >>Yeah. No, Patrick, you know, from people I've been talking to, there's a mixture of some of it was pulling everything together, but there is a rapid movement. You know, when I talked to the r p. A vendor's out there, it's not right. It's not like they're all quaking in their boots. They're still partner with Microsoft shirt. We see IBM in S A p. Everybody's going after that environment. Come on. Our P a is the gateway drug to a I ITT. It's Rebecca was at exactly show recently talking about that so back to that trust. Their Microsoft is not usually making announcements that you walk across the booth and there's a few people you know saying, Can we roll out the beer early? Because we think our business is ruined. That's where some of that trust isn't Microsoft. But that being said, you know, it was curious to me that they didn't have any big partnerships announcement last year. McDermott was up on stage on Dhe. You know he's changed companies since then, but there was a couple of small open source announcements, but not any large partnership announcement. So ecosystem majorly important. Any commentary from you how Microsoft is doing in that grand battle for you? >>So if I look the past couple of years when some of the biggest players CEOs were on stage right, it was about OD I Hey, let's share our data s a P, probably one of the bigger one even though they're doing with Salesforce's. Well, and I think that was a giant giant leap for folks and second of all way, working to see Larry on stage. Because by the way, that I agree with you on Jen. I That was a huge deal to me. Was Oracle outsourcing? I asked Asher, right, That would have been newsworthy. Okay, if I look at what could have been up here, not that there aren't more strategic deals that could be done. I think they're I think people are busy executing at this point. But if you look at who's gonna share the data without the eye that was the biggest. Working with different clouds. Well, we're not gonna get eight of us to get up on stage here, right? We're not gonna get G c. P here on stage, although, although we could have gotten WebEx up stage because apparently WebEx at a Cisco and teams are becoming friends. And maybe we'll see that on a slightly smaller stage >>enterprise connect kind of launch than it is a Microsoft show. >>Exactly. But I was surprised, you know, and I think it's a testament to how powerful teams actually is on. It's funny when, um um teams, which everybody thought was dead after Slack was announced and hang out with Google has actually ended up being the darling off the enterprise. And not just because it comes free with your M one subscription, right? It's really it's a good product. It's a shockingly good product. You don't have to do any of the any security. If you have any security challenges of anything in Microsoft, you'll avenues you here. But that's not the case. It all uses the back and of Microsoft for security and and regulatory. So anyways, I know I'm veering off here. But there was one partner announcement that I saw. It was Cisco WebEx being friends with teams. >>Can't we all just get along? I mean, there we go. When there's money, everybody exactly every continually we can't. It's too >>expensive to go out on your own. >>Patrick always so much fun to have you and I should having you. I'm Rebecca Knight. For Sue Mittleman, >>stay tuned For more of the cubes, live coverage of Microsoft ignite

>> from Palo Alto, California It's the Cube covering the EM Where women Transforming technology twenty nineteen. Brought to You by V. M. Where. >> Lisa Martin on the ground with the queue at VM. Where fourth annual women transforming technology that W. Scored one of my favorite events. Excited to welcome to the Cube, the CEO and founder of Mother coders, Tina lied, Tina, it's great to have you on the program. Nice to be invited. Thankyou. So this event one of my favorites, because when you literally walk in up, I would say we're the registrations. You just feel it's very natural, authentic, a sense of community of women wanting Tio engage with each other share stories. And, of course, this morning's keynote kicked off with a bang with joy Bowling. We need talking and sharing about this massive bias and facial recognition technology, like bothers a lot of technology for good, but there's some really issues we've got eye identifying, fix. Tell me about your involvement and w T. Squid. What makes it worthy of your >> time? Well, any time I can come and hang out with like minded women who want to create change, I am all about it. And having that space to be together physically I think, is really important. Because to build authentic relationships, to build, trust, to create, you know, a space where I could tell you stories I normally don't bring up at work right requires us tohave a dedicated time and space to be together to do that. So I I'm just so honored to be a part of this conference >> today to tell me a little bit about your career journey on DH. The impetus for mother coders. >> Yeah. So I started mother coders after my second child was born, and I have started my career as a management consultant at Accenture. I went on to become a technical recruiter and then went back to grad school and God Master's degree and learning design and technology from Stanford School of Education. So I was ready, Tio, find a way to use technology to change the world. So teach, you know, people how to engage politically and civically. And then once my second daughter was born, it just became increasingly difficult to keep up with my technical skills. I had been going to the meetings. I had been going to the hackathons I have been going to these evening workshops, but after the second child came awhile, I waas a mom with a two year old infant. So the only thing left to me was online learning. And it works for some people, Not for me, not for many people. And what I was lacking Waas a community that was there to support me and just be there with me, struggling through this someone, you know, people who would understand what I was going through. And I did not find that in most cases I was trying to get these technical skills from. So I thought, Why don't we have our own lead up for moms? You know? And my grandmother had raised me, so I had envisioned. Moms were here with the laptops, Grandma's over here with the kids, and it would just be this fun community building experience. I put up a Google form, and within less than a week I had nearly one hundred women saying, I want to come to the hotel. Some were even located in the San Francisco Bay area, so I knew I had tapped into something, and to this day I still get emails tweets dms from women all over the world, saying when it's one of mother coders coming to our community. So I started another coders, Really, As away Teo, help Mom's women who have become moms, um, gained technical skills so that they can get jobs that would enable them to contribute to shaping our future. And they also make a living that would enable them to take care of their families. >> One of the things that I was looking at when I was doing some research on you is some of this stuff, So let's talk numbers for a second. Why this is so imperative and critical to betting on Mom's is smart. Ninety percent women reinvest ninety percent of their income back into their families and communities. Um, women drive eighty five percent of business and consumer purchasing, with two point one trillion dollars of spending attributable to mom's alone. So you think of the Amazons of the World or online or brick and mortar retailers. This is an important community that needs to be involved in the design of technologies and products and services because it's going to have the impact is probably not even quantifiable this point So it seems like a This is so obvious. Yet to your point, you're saying I found myself in a situation where he didn't have mother. I didn't have what I confinement is looking for, said to create it. And then suddenly there's this groundswell and that suddenly almost instantaneously of Wow, this is really there's a really in need here. Talk to me about getting women back in the workers because I mentioned, as you were saying, Oh my gosh, Suddenly I have two kids under two. We don't have the time Technology changes so quickly. How are you able to help women re enter the workforce? >> Well, you know what's really astonishing is even women who had been technical before becoming Long's have a tremendous amount of trepidation about going back in. It's like you really learned it used to be a software engineer. It shouldn't be that hard getting back in. But I think motherhood has a way of just wearing down your confidence. And because the workplace is not friendly towards mother's right, the mother penalty marks us someone who's less committed to your career and less competent when that's the furthest from the truth. Because you have all these motivations to go in there, least of which is taking care of your family, right? So what we do is a lot of it is just confidence building and giving these moms a space to be with each other and reassuring each other and knowing that they're not alone right, the technical skills will come. It's just time and effort, but the friendships are forged. The sons of community of belonging that these moms create with each other is what sustains them. And when they get hit with those rejections, because there's a gap in your resume or because you know someone spoke to you disrespectfully because you were mom, it's You have someone to go back to and talk about what happened with so that you know you're not alone. So that component is actually really, really important. Well, just don't do technical skills. We bring in women from the field to teach a specific topic So our moms get context around. Why data science? Why I suddenly hot What are the issues right? And then the community part, all those three things come together. And at the end of our nine week program, the mom's walk away with a greater sense of purpose and more clarity about their career path. But then they also leave, knowing they have a crew behind them that they can access any time because they had spent a fair amount of time and effort developing these relationships. Where are you going to be strengthened over time >> and just say strength and numbers that we can say that to imply to anything in life? But this is so true? Finding your tribe, if you will of this isn't just me. This is a This is a pandemic. And sharing those stories and helping Bill confidence, I think is so critical you lead a workshop here and a beauty square today. Talk to me about some of the stories that were shared along the lines of kind of helping some woman maybe refined that confidence that used to be there. What were some of the things that came up today? >> Well, you know, the workplace hasn't really evolved and, you know, even Melinda Gates is talking about this. It was built for an era that was at that has gone right. The reality is that now more than half of families comprise of dual income earners who are leading these families, and they need income. Tio Tio lead these families into a place of economic security, right? So you talk about the workplace and what women indoor naturally, because our society isn't set up to support them. All this pain and suffering is going to come out, and in spite of the setting that we have here, we don't know each other. We're just a bunch of strangers who came to talk to each other. They were very generous in revealing their pain in revealing stories. So something that consistently came up with a lot of the participants is that there's this unspoken understanding that you don't talk about your kids, that if you're a mom and you talk about your kids, you kind of shoot yourself in the foot. In fact, sometimes it's not even tested. Its explicit someone talked about how her manager would say, Say things like, Don't talk about your kids because you steer stressing out the rest of the team because they don't understand and it doesn't matter. It's not relevant here. When that is such a huge part of your identity, everyone comes back to work on Monday morning to tell me what they did for humans. Yeah. Yeah. And if you are possibly in a position where you have to perform and hide yourself, you can just imagine how that would impact the way your creativity would come out or ideas you would share or how you show up for your costly credibly. ***, yes, yes. And we are just not enabling all this innovation and source of power that are locked up in Mom's both in and outside of the work for us, because we're not letting them back in. One say, get kicked out and coming back is so hard, Right? So ah, lot of the stories that were shared has to do with these every day, not even like earth shattering events. It's just normal, everyday interactions at like the water cooler or Monday morning chatter that already makes moms feel even more isolated than there. So what >> are some of the things that that you're going to take away from the workshop that will help influence the direction of mother coders throughout the rest of twenty nineteen into twenty twenty? >> Well, you know, one of the, uh, stats that I always keep in my head is that eighty six percent of women become mothers in the US and for the watch part, they're not doing by themselves. Right? So when we talk about most true, we're talking about the *** right. And I have this hunch that men don't want to be at work all the time, either. Right? They don't want to be this bread winning person who you know, has to do all these things to appear masculine, and so it's damaging for everyone. And if we were to create some ways to release some pressure off of caregivers in general, right? Not just mothers, fathers, people carrying for elderly, even pet owners. Everyone will feel better. Everyone would benefit. So my main takeaway leaving this conference is that the pain that the moms air feeling at work, the ones are employed are very similar to the ones that are trying to get back in right pain. The bias is it runs across or culture to be honest. And when you're trying a hat culture, it's all about storytelling. It's all about figuring out How do I make this resonate to people? How do I turn their stories into actionable steps that can be taken. And that was what their last question arises. What is the next step that you're going to take when you leave this room? And not surprisingly, everyone had inaction. Step. >> I love that Will. Tina, Thank you so much for sharing your story and excited to hear about great things that >> come, >> uh, from Mother coders. Thanks for spending some time with me on the Cube today. Thank you. My pleasure. We want to thank you for watching the cave. Lisa Martin at Women Transforming Technology, Fourth annual. Thanks >> for watching.

(upbeat music) >> From San Francisco, it's The Cube, covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here, with The Cube. We're at Downtown San Francisco, Girls in Tech Catalyst. Great event. We've been coming for a couple of years. About 700 professionals, mainly women, a few men, and I think they brought in a busload of kids to get inspired, talking about their stories, and really, it's a series. It's a one-track conference, two days, about 20 minute talks and really good stuff. Really great content. Check it out online if you didn't register this year. Make sure you come next year, and we're excited to have our next guest, Cube alum, really from one of the hottest companies in tech right now, she's Wendy Pfeifer, the CIO of Nutanix. Wendy, great to see you again. >> Hey, nice to see you, Jeff. >> Absolutely, so we see you at Nutanix Next all the time, but we haven't seen you at Girls in Tech. >> Yeah. >> So how long have you been involved in Girls in Tech? >> So, I've been involved since the very first meet up, more than 10 years ago. Girls in Tech was very inspiring to me, and I was here at the Catalyst Conference last year, and I'm a member of the board of Girls in Tech as well, so I'm able to give back and provide some leadership at that level. >> So we just had Adriana on, and she was going through-- >> Yeah. >> Some of the numbers, I mean, the growth of this organization, second to Nutanix, is off the chart. >> Yeah. >> I mean, really amazing. >> It really is amazing, you know. In some ways our time has come. Adriana's had this big vision for a really long time. Really focused on educating women, helping them to understand the potential of careers in tech, and technology knowledge, and that's a global message, and a message that resonates at every age level, and in lots of different sectors of society, so it's juts a privilege to be able to partner with her and others on the board, to enable the vision, and Nutanix as well, you know, is donating, is present here at these conferences, and partnering at Catalyst and Amplify, and other parts of the organization. >> Right, because it's not only the right thing to do, it's also good business, which has been proven time and time again. >> Absolutely, and you know, it's kind of taken on this passion, mission, just excitement thing, but it is practical as well and you know, all the studies, I'm sure so many folks have talked with you about this. There's so many studies, there's so much research that says diversity brings better decision-making, better product development. >> Right. >> And better satisfaction in our work environments as well. >> Right. The other thing that struck me talking to Adriana, and I guess I just didn't know, kind of the breadth of types of activities that Girls in Tech's put on. So we've been to Catalyst before. We've been to-- the Pitch Night, Amplify-- >> Amplify, yeah. >> But I didn't know, she's running, you know, there's all kinds of different-- types of things. >> Absolutely. I think the underlying passion is for education. If you think about, particularly people in underserved communities, there is a real opportunity, you know coding, and learning to code, learning to interact with computers; that's a language that transcends geographic boundaries, ethnic boundaries, age, and religious boundaries, and it's something that, you know ever since my days at Yahoo, I really felt like technology could bring the world together, and today in particular, there is so much disparity between women and men and their access to technology education and technology careers. >> Right. >> That this is, you know, more than just creating a level playing field. I think we're making our own playing field. We're not going to their playing field, anymore. We're creating our own at locations like this. >> Right, and clearly a bunch of founders are here today, who've-- >> Yeah. >> Started their own companies. But the other thing I think is interesting, is culture keeps coming up time and time again in all these conversations, and Adriana's built a culture starting, always from the top down, with the board. It's a phenomenal board of professional women-- >> Yes. >> That she's pulled together of this organization. >> Yeah, there are a couple of males on the board, too. I want to make sure I point out. >> Yep. >> Because we're a diverse board as well, but she has. She has brought together people who are leaders in the technology space, but also folks who are passionate about building a healthy nonprofit organization; one that's global, one that can scale, and so we also look at the fundamentals, and the business fundamentals as well, so we are expanding from 60 to 100 countries, and from 100,000 members to 200,000 members, I mean, who would think, right? >> Right, right, right. >> It's extraordinary. Even then, though, those 200,000 women are a drop in the bucket, compared to the 50% of the global population-- >> Right. >> Who are female. >> Right. And then you work at Nutanix. Super hot-- >> Yeah. >> I don't want to say startup anymore. You guys have IPO'd. >> Right, right. >> But, you know, but you're livin' it in terms of trying to get enough, good, qualified talent-- >> Yes. >> Just to feed the one engine that I Nutanix, so it's a real-- >> Yeah. >> Demand in the market place. >> Definitely, that's the case, you know, we sort of struggle with the thought, you know, are there just not enough women candidates in these fields, but what we learn at conferences like this is, that there are enough women candidates, but we don't necessarily recognize those women, and we don't know where to find them, and they may not find the sort of work that we represent to be attractive. And so we're sort of trying to change how we speak and think. Culture is a good word, but it's a revolution. It's a cultural revolution in terms of identifying talent where it sits. We spoke a lot in the last day and a half around blended careers, the bringing together of art and technology, or communication and technology, and the fact is that technology just underscores everything we do-- >> Right. >> Nowadays. >> Right. >> And so, you know, having people who can blend those things, is a real advantage, and women have this ability to take a multi-faceted approach to the work that we do and the way that we live our lives. We multi-task as a sport. >> Right, right. It's interesting, too, as the machines get better and as A.I. gets better, machine learning, the softer skills applied with the context become so much more important than necessarily just the super hard-core coding skills. >> You know, I have a story around that. So, we've just deployed, my IT department has deployed a machine-learning tool at Nutanix, to replace a lot of the interactions that happen on our help desk, and we found we just couldn't scale as the company was scaling, so we've been training A.I. from a company called Moveworks, and you know, we've been training it uniquely with our voice, and I think a little bit with my voice, and I just had one of our employees write back to me and say, "Not only is this thing", we call it Xbot, "Not only is Xbot solving my problems, but", he said, "she is pretty sassy, too." And I'm like, yay, he knows it's a she! >> Right, right. >> Right, and she's sassy too, so yeah, that unique voice-- >> Right. >> Is infusing even the machine-learning training that we're doing-- >> Right. >> And I think that makes for a more delightful experience-- >> Right. >> For all of us. >> It's funny, the voice thing, 'cause you know, Google had their very famous, the restaurant reservation call-in demo-- >> Yes! >> They got capped on a little bit-- >> Right. >> For, you know, was it real or not, but what made it so, so dramatic was the human-like elements in the conversation of the machine-- with ums, and ahs-- >> Absolutely. >> And uhs, and pauses, which we laugh about, 'cause we can shoot Cube interviews, everybody wants to cut those parts out, and we're like no, that's what makes people, people. >> Right, exactly, I agree with you. And at the same time, you know, there are, you know, things that are uniquely female stereotypes. We're more wordy. We have more things to say. >> Right. >> You know, we're more multi-dimensional. We can hold two thoughts at the same time, and so that's part of the richness of communication and our interaction too, but to the extent to which we can embed that in our technologies and our interactions, those are the extent to which they'll be more delightful-- >> Right. >> It's no coincidence that Siri and Cortana and all of those A.I.s sort of have this female persona, and I don't know if you know this, the, you know, Cortana, who's the Microsoft, you know, A.I., you know, she's voiced by the same character that's Cortana in one of their video games-- >> Oh, really? >> And she's sort of this like, badass fighter gal, too, so check it out. >> Well, we know what happened to Bob, right? >> Right. >> I know, poor Bob. >> Which, ironically, was Melinda Gates's project. Which, I don't know if you knew-- that story. >> I did not know that. >> So yeah, Melinda Gates's introduction to Bill was as product manager for Bob, which, if you don't know that story, check it out. It's old history. >> Oh, that's-- fantastic! >> But it's very good. Alright, before I let you go, one last thing. >> Yes. >> So you spoke, and they've got these great posters all around the room with little highlights from people's-- >> Yes. >> Conversations and yours was, I described it off the wall, "It's okay to be bad." >> Yes. >> I'd love, for the people that missed it, what's the message there? It's an important message. >> Yeah. >> Especially for women. >> Yeah, I think as women, you know, we don't have a lot of role models and when I get up as a role model, I'm one of the few CIO's who's female and Silicon Valley. You know, we give these speeches, and they sort of make us like Mother Teresa, you know. First you hae your mission in mind, and you lean in, and you do all these awesome things. But the fact is, it is actually okay, to be yourself. It's okay to be bitchy. It's okay to be cranky. It's okay for anger to fuel you. It's okay to be aggressive, and even if your male counterparts tell you otherwise, or say, "Wow, that's "unseemly.", I think it's just okay. We don't have to be pure and perfect in order to be successful. I can be those things all at the same time. And I also say, it's also okay to be good, to be merciful, to be soft-spoken, to be wordy, to be studious; that combination of things. We're allowed to be our genuine selves, and we don't have to be perfect to be successful and I feel like I embody that-- in particular. >> Yes, you certainly do. You certainly do! >> What, I'm not perfect? >> Yes, I mean the Nutanix story is a phenomenal story. >> It is. We are fortunate, we've been there since the beginning-- >> Absolutely. >> Watching it grow, and so no-- >> Helping us to frame the story, so thanks to The Cube. I appreciate that. >> Well, and you're super successful, and the company's successful so the fact that are Wendy, you know, you are who you are. You're a big personality, and it comes through, and it's great, and it works, and you're successful, so, if they need someone to look up to, you're certainly a fantastic role model. >> Thank you so much. Well I appreciate that. It's funny, 'cause I have never tried to be a role model, and now, just by accident, I've survived long enough. Here I am. (both laughing) >> Well that's a whole different conversation-- >> Right, right. >> You just look around like, I am the oldest guy in the room. But that's a different thing. >> I know. You're actually the only guy, just sayin'. >> Alright, well Wendy thanks for takin' a few minutes, and I guess we'll see you next at Nutanix next, if not sooner. >> I look forward to it, thanks. >> Alright, thanks. She's Wendy, I'm Jeff, you're watching The Cube from women, or Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018. (upbeat music)

(upbeat music) >> From San Francisco, it's The Cube, covering Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. Brought to you by Girls in Tech. >> Hey welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here, with The Cube. We're at Downtown San Francisco, Girls in Tech Catalyst. Great event. We've been coming for a couple of years. About 700 professionals, mainly women, a few men, and I think they brought in a busload of kids to get inspired, talking about their stories, and really, it's a series. It's a one-track conference, two days, about 20 minute talks and really good stuff. Really great content. Check it out online if you didn't register this year. Make sure you come next year, and we're excited to have our next guest, Cube alum, really from one of the hottest companies in tech right now, she's Wendy Pfeifer, the CIO of Nutanix. Wendy, great to see you again. >> Hey, nice to see you, Jeff. >> Absolutely, so we see you at Nutanix Next all the time, but we haven't seen you at Girls in Tech. >> Yeah. >> So how long have you been involved in Girls in Tech? >> So, I've been involved since the very first meet up, more than 10 years ago. Girls in Tech was very inspiring to me, and I was here at the Catalyst Conference last year, and I'm a member of the board of Girls in Tech as well, so I'm able to give back and provide some leadership at that level. >> So we just had Adriana on, and she was going through-- >> Yeah. >> Some of the numbers, I mean, the growth of this organization, second to Nutanix, is off the chart. >> Yeah. >> I mean, really amazing. >> It really is amazing, you know. In some ways our time has come. Adriana's had this big vision for a really long time. Really focused on educating women, helping them to understand the potential of careers in tech, and technology knowledge, and that's a global message, and a message that resonates at every age level, and in lots of different sectors of society, so it's juts a privilege to be able to partner with her and others on the board, to enable the vision, and Nutanix as well, you know, is donating, is present here at these conferences, and partnering at Catalyst and Amplify, and other parts of the organization. >> Right, because it's not only the right thing to do, it's also good business, which has been proven time and time again. >> Absolutely, and you know, it's kind of taken on this passion, mission, just excitement thing, but it is practical as well and you know, all the studies, I'm sure so many folks have talked with you about this. There's so many studies, there's so much research that says diversity brings better decision-making, better product development. >> Right. >> And better satisfaction in our work environments as well. >> Right. The other thing that struck me talking to Adriana, and I guess I just didn't know, kind of the breadth of types of activities that Girls in Tech's put on. So we've been to Catalyst before. We've been to-- the Pitch Night, Amplify-- >> Amplify, yeah. >> But I didn't know, she's running, you know, there's all kinds of different-- types of things. >> Absolutely. I think the underlying passion is for education. If you think about, particularly people in underserved communities, there is a real opportunity, you know coding, and learning to code, learning to interact with computers; that's a language that transcends geographic boundaries, ethnic boundaries, age, and religious boundaries, and it's something that, you know ever since my days at Yahoo, I really felt like technology could bring the world together, and today in particular, there is so much disparity between women and men and their access to technology education and technology careers. >> Right. >> That this is, you know, more than just creating a level playing field. I think we're making our own playing field. We're not going to their playing field, anymore. We're creating our own at locations like this. >> Right, and clearly a bunch of founders are here today, who've-- >> Yeah. >> Started their own companies. But the other thing I think is interesting, is culture keeps coming up time and time again in all these conversations, and Adriana's built a culture starting, always from the top down, with the board. It's a phenomenal board of professional women-- >> Yes. >> That she's pulled together of this organization. >> Yeah, there are a couple of males on the board, too. I want to make sure I point out. >> Yep. >> Because we're a diverse board as well, but she has. She has brought together people who are leaders in the technology space, but also folks who are passionate about building a healthy nonprofit organization; one that's global, one that can scale, and so we also look at the fundamentals, and the business fundamentals as well, so we are expanding from 60 to 100 countries, and from 100,000 members to 200,000 members, I mean, who would think, right? >> Right, right, right. >> It's extraordinary. Even then, though, those 200,000 women are a drop in the bucket, compared to the 50% of the global population-- >> Right. >> Who are female. >> Right. And then you work at Nutanix. Super hot-- >> Yeah. >> I don't want to say startup anymore. You guys have IPO'd. >> Right, right. >> But, you know, but you're livin' it in terms of trying to get enough, good, qualified talent-- >> Yes. >> Just to feed the one engine that I Nutanix, so it's a real-- >> Yeah. >> Demand in the market place. >> Definitely, that's the case, you know, we sort of struggle with the thought, you know, are there just not enough women candidates in these fields, but what we learn at conferences like this is, that there are enough women candidates, but we don't necessarily recognize those women, and we don't know where to find them, and they may not find the sort of work that we represent to be attractive. And so we're sort of trying to change how we speak and think. Culture is a good word, but it's a revolution. It's a cultural revolution in terms of identifying talent where it sits. We spoke a lot in the last day and a half around blended careers, the bringing together of art and technology, or communication and technology, and the fact is that technology just underscores everything we do-- >> Right. >> Nowadays. >> Right. >> And so, you know, having people who can blend those things, is a real advantage, and women have this ability to take a multi-faceted approach to the work that we do and the way that we live our lives. We multi-task as a sport. >> Right, right. It's interesting, too, as the machines get better and as A.I. gets better, machine learning, the softer skills applied with the context become so much more important than necessarily just the super hard-core coding skills. >> You know, I have a story around that. So, we've just deployed, my IT department has deployed a machine-learning tool at Nutanix, to replace a lot of the interactions that happen on our help desk, and we found we just couldn't scale as the company was scaling, so we've been training A.I. from a company called Moveworks, and you know, we've been training it uniquely with our voice, and I think a little bit with my voice, and I just had one of our employees write back to me and say, "Not only is this thing", we call it Xbot, "Not only is Xbot solving my problems, but", he said, "she is pretty sassy, too." And I'm like, yay, he knows it's a she! >> Right, right. >> Right, and she's sassy too, so yeah, that unique voice-- >> Right. >> Is infusing even the machine-learning training that we're doing-- >> Right. >> And I think that makes for a more delightful experience-- >> Right. >> For all of us. >> It's funny, the voice thing, 'cause you know, Google had their very famous, the restaurant reservation call-in demo-- >> Yes! >> They got capped on a little bit-- >> Right. >> For, you know, was it real or not, but what made it so, so dramatic was the human-like elements in the conversation of the machine-- with ums, and ahs-- >> Absolutely. >> And uhs, and pauses, which we laugh about, 'cause we can shoot Cube interviews, everybody wants to cut those parts out, and we're like no, that's what makes people, people. >> Right, exactly, I agree with you. And at the same time, you know, there are, you know, things that are uniquely female stereotypes. We're more wordy. We have more things to say. >> Right. >> You know, we're more multi-dimensional. We can hold two thoughts at the same time, and so that's part of the richness of communication and our interaction too, but to the extent to which we can embed that in our technologies and our interactions, those are the extent to which they'll be more delightful-- >> Right. >> It's no coincidence that Siri and Cortana and all of those A.I.s sort of have this female persona, and I don't know if you know this, the, you know, Cortana, who's the Microsoft, you know, A.I., you know, she's voiced by the same character that's Cortana in one of their video games-- >> Oh, really? >> And she's sort of this like, badass fighter gal, too, so check it out. >> Well, we know what happened to Bob, right? >> Right. >> I know, poor Bob. >> Which, ironically, was Melinda Gates's project. Which, I don't know if you knew-- that story. >> I did not know that. >> So yeah, Melinda Gates's introduction to Bill was as product manager for Bob, which, if you don't know that story, check it out. It's old history. >> Oh, that's-- fantastic! >> But it's very good. Alright, before I let you go, one last thing. >> Yes. >> So you spoke, and they've got these great posters all around the room with little highlights from people's-- >> Yes. >> Conversations and yours was, I described it off the wall, "It's okay to be bad." >> Yes. >> I'd love, for the people that missed it, what's the message there? It's an important message. >> Yeah. >> Especially for women. >> Yeah, I think as women, you know, we don't have a lot of role models and when I get up as a role model, I'm one of the few CIO's who's female and Silicon Valley. You know, we give these speeches, and they sort of make us like Mother Teresa, you know. First you hae your mission in mind, and you lean in, and you do all these awesome things. But the fact is, it is actually okay, to be yourself. It's okay to be bitchy. It's okay to be cranky. It's okay for anger to fuel you. It's okay to be aggressive, and even if your male counterparts tell you otherwise, or say, "Wow, that's "unseemly.", I think it's just okay. We don't have to be pure and perfect in order to be successful. I can be those things all at the same time. And I also say, it's also okay to be good, to be merciful, to be soft-spoken, to be wordy, to be studious; that combination of things. We're allowed to be our genuine selves, and we don't have to be perfect to be successful and I feel like I embody that-- in particular. >> Yes, you certainly do. You certainly do! >> What, I'm not perfect? >> Yes, I mean the Nutanix story is a phenomenal story. >> It is. We are fortunate, we've been there since the beginning-- >> Absolutely. >> Watching it grow, and so no-- >> Helping us to frame the story, so thanks to The Cube. I appreciate that. >> Well, and you're super successful, and the company's successful so the fact that are Wendy, you know, you are who you are. You're a big personality, and it comes through, and it's great, and it works, and you're successful, so, if they need someone to look up to, you're certainly a fantastic role model. >> Thank you so much. Well I appreciate that. It's funny, 'cause I have never tried to be a role model, and now, just by accident, I've survived long enough. Here I am. (both laughing) >> Well that's a whole different conversation-- >> Right, right. >> You just look around like, I am the oldest guy in the room. But that's a different thing. >> I know. You're actually the only guy, just sayin'. >> Alright, well Wendy thanks for takin' a few minutes, and I guess we'll see you next at Nutanix next, if not sooner. >> I look forward to it, thanks. >> Alright, thanks. She's Wendy, I'm Jeff, you're watching The Cube from women, or Girls in Tech Catalyst 2018. (upbeat music)

>> Announcer: Live, from Stanford University, it's theCUBE, covering the Women in Data Science Conference 2017. (upbeat music) >> Hi and welcome back to theCUBE, I'm Lisa Martin and we are at Stanford University for the second annual Women in Data Science Conference. Fantastic event with leaders from all different industries. Next we're joined by Finale Doshi-Velez. You are the Associate Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University. Welcome to the program. >> Excited to be here. >> You're a technical speaker so give us a little bit of insight as to what some of the attendees, those that are attending live and those that are watching the livestream across 75 locations. What are some of the key highlights from your talk that they're going to learn? >> So my main area is working on machine learning for healthcare applications and what I really want people to take away from my talk is all the needs and opportunities there are for data science to benefit patients in very very tangible ways. There's so much power that you can use with data science these days and I think we should be applying it to problems that really matter, like healthcare. >> Absolutely, absolutely. So talking about healthcare you kind of see the intersection, that's your big focus, is the intersection of machine learning and healthcare. What does that intersection look like from a real world applicability perspective? What are some of the big challenges? And can you talk about maybe specific diseases that you're maybe working on-- >> Sure, absolutely. So I'll tell you about two examples. One example that we're working on is with autism spectrum disorder. And as the name suggests, it's a really broad spectrum. And so things that might work well for one sort of child might not work for a different sort of child. And we're using big data and machine learning to figure out what are the natural categories here and once we can divide this disease into subgroups, we can maybe do better treatment, better prognosis for these children, rather than lumping them into this big bucket-- >> Lisa: And treating everybody the same? >> Exactly. >> Lisa: Right. >> And another area we're working on is personalizing treatment selection for patients with HIV and with depression. And again, in these cases, there's a lot of heterogeneity in how people respond to the diseases. >> Lisa: Right. >> And with the large data sets that we now have available, we actually have huge opportunities in getting the right treatments to the right people. >> That's fantastic, so exciting. And it's really leveraging data as a change agent to really improve the lives of patients. >> Finale: Absolutely. >> From a human interaction perspective, we hear that machine learning is going to replace jobs. It's really kind of a known fact. But human insight is still quite important. Can you share with us-- >> Finale: Absolutely. >> where the machines and the humans come into play to help some of these dis-- >> Yes, so a big area that we work on is actually in formalizing notions of interpretability because in the healthcare setting, the data that I use is really really poor quality. There's lots of it. It's collected in a standard of care everyday but it's biased, it's messy. And you really need the clinician to be able to vet the suggestions that the agent is making. Because there might be some bias, some confounder, some reason why the suggestions actually don't make sense at all. And so a big area that we're looking at is how do you make these algorithms interpretable to domain experts such as clinicians, but not data experts. And so this is a really important area. And I don't see that clinician being replaced anytime soon in this process. But what we're allowing them to do is look at things that they couldn't look at before. They're not able to look at the entire patient's record. They certainly can't look at all the patient records for the entire hospital system when making recommendations. But they're still going to be necessary because you also need to talk to the patient and figure out what are their needs, do they care about a drug, that might cause weight gain for example, when treating depression. And all of these sorts of things. Those are not factors again that the machine are going to be able to take over. >> Lisa: Right. >> But it's really an ecosystem where you need both of these agents to get the best care possible. >> Got it, that's interesting. From an experimentation perspective, are you running these different experiments simultaneously, how do you focus your priorities, on the autism side, on the depression side? >> I see, well I have a lab, so that helps makes things easy. >> Lisa: Yup, you got it. >> I have some students working on some projects-- >> Lisa: Excellent >> And some students working on other projects, And we really, we follow the data. My collaborations are largely chosen based on areas where there are data available and we believe we can make an impact. >> Fantastic, speaking of your students, I'd love to understand a little bit more. You teach computer science to undergrads. >> Yes. >> As we look at how we're at this really inflection point with data science; there's so much that can be done in that, to your point, in tangible ways the differences that we can make. Kids that are undergrads at Harvard these days grew up with technology and the ability to get something like that; we didn't. So what are some of the things that have influenced them to want to become the next generation of computer or data scientists? >> I mean, I think most of them just realize that computers and data are essential in whatever field they are. They don't necessarily come to Harvard thinking that they're going to become data scientists. But in whatever field that they end up in, whether it's economics or government, they quickly realize, or business, they quickly realize that data is very important. So they end up in my undergraduate machine learning course. And for these students, my main focus is just to teach them, what the science, what the field can do, and also what the field can't do. And teach them that with great power comes great responsibility. So we're really focused on evaluation and just understanding on how to use these methods properly. >> So looking at kind of traditional computer, data science skills: data analytics, being able to interpret, mathematics, statistics, what are some of the new emerging skills that the future generation of data and computer scientists needs to have, especially related to the social skills and communication? >> So I think that communication is absolutely essential. At Harvard, I think we're fortunate because most of these people are already in a different field. They're also taking data science so they're already very good at communicating. >> Lisa: Okay. >> Because they're already thinking about some other area they want to apply in. >> So they've got, they're getting really a good breadth. >> They're getting a really great breadth, but in general, I think it is on us, the data scientists, to figure out how do we explain the assumptions in our algorithms to people who are not experts again in data science, because that could have really huge downstream effects. >> Absolutely. I like what you said that these kids understand that the computers and technology are important whatever they do. We've got a great cross section of speakers at this event that are people of, that are influencing this in retail, in healthcare, in education, and as well as in sports technology, on the venture capital side. And it really shows you that this day and age, everything is technology, every company we're in, we're sitting in Silicon Valley of course, where a car company is a technology company. But that's a great point that the next generation understands that it's prolific. I can't do anything without understanding this and knowing how to communicate it. So from your background perspective, were you a STEM kid from way back and you really just loved math and science? Is that what shaped your career? >> So I grew up in a family with like 15 generations back, accounting, finance, small business, and I was like, I'm never going to do any of this. (Lisa laughs) I am going to do something completely different. >> Lisa: You were determined, right. >> And so now I'm a data scientist. (laughing) >> At Harvard, that's pretty good, they must be proud. >> Working on healthcare applications. So I think numbers were definitely very much part of my upbringing, from the beginning. But one thing that I think did take a while for me to put together is that I came from a family where my great uncle was part of India's independence movement. My role models were people like Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa and I liked numbers. >> Lisa: Yeah. >> And, like how to put those together? And I think it definitely took me a while to figure out okay, how do you deliver those warm fuzzies with like cold hard facts. >> Lisa: Right. >> And I'm really glad that we're in a place today where the sort of skills that I have can be used to do enormous social good. >> What are some of the things that you're most excited about about this particular conference and being involved here? >> So I think conferences like these, like the Women in Data Science, I'm also involved in the Women in Machine Learning Conference, are a tremendous opportunity for people to find mentors and cohorts. So I went to my first Women in Machine Learning Conference over 10 years ago, and those are the people I still talk to whenever I need career advice, when I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with my research and what directions, or just general support. And when you're in a field where you maybe don't see that many women around you, it's great to have this connection so that you can draw on that wherever you end up. Your workplace may or may not have that many women but you know that they're out there and you can get support. >> Now that there's so much data available, a lot of the spirit of corporations that use data as a change agent have adopted cultures or tried, of try it, it might fail, but we're going to learn something from this. Do you see that mentality in your students about being free or being confident enough to try experiments and if they fail, take learnings from it and move forward as a positive? >> I mean, certainly that's what I try to teach my students. >> Lisa: Yeah, yeah. >> My graduate students I tell them, I expect you to make consistent progress. Progress includes failure if you can explain why it failed. And that's huge, that's how we learn and that's how we develop new algorithms, absolutely. >> Yeah, and I think that confidence is a key factor. You mention that Women in Machine Learning Conference, you've been involved in that for 10 years, how have you seen women's perspectives, maybe confidence evolve and change and grow as a result of this continued networking? Are you seeing people become more confident-- >> Finale: I think so. >> To be able to try things and experiments. >> I mean certainly, as people stay involved in the field, I've noticed that you develop that network, you develop that confidence, it's amazing. The first event had less than a hundred people. The last event that we had had over 500 people. The number of people at just the Women in Machine Learning event, was the same as the number of people at the entire conference 10 years ago. >> Right. >> Right, and so the field has grown but the number of women involved that you see through this events like WIDS and WIML I think is enormous. >> And the great thing that's happening here at WIDS 2017 is it's being live streamed. >> Finale: Right. >> Over 75 locations. >> So it's accessible to so many people. >> Exactly. >> Yes. >> We're expecting up to 6,000 people on the live stream. So the reach and the extension is truly global. >> Which is fantastic. >> It is fantastic and just the breadth of speakers that are here to influence. You mentioned a couple of your key influencers: Martin Luther King and Mother Teresa. From an education perspective, when you were trying to figure out your love of math and numbers and that, who were some of the people in your early career that were really inspiring and helped you gain that confidence that you would need to do what you're doing? >> So I think if I had to pick one person, it was probably a professor at MIT that I interacted quite a bit in my undergrad and continued to mentor me, Leslie Kaelbling, who is just absolutely fearless in just telling people to follow their passions. Because we really are super privileged as was mentioned earlier: we lose our jobs, we can just get another one. >> Lisa: Right. >> Right? And our skills are so in need that we can and we should try to do amazing things that we care about. And I think that message really stayed with me. >> Absolutely. >> So you got research going on in autism. You mentioned depression. What's next for you? What are some of your next interests? Cancer research, other things like that? >> So I'm actually really interested in mental health because I think that that's, you know, talk about messy spaces, in terms of data. (laughing) It's very hard to quantify but it has a huge, huge burden both to the people who suffer from mental health disorders, which is like close to 15 percent, 20 percent, depending on how you count. But also it has a huge burden on everyone else too, on like lost work, on the people around them. And so we're working with depression and autism, as I mentioned. And we're hoping to branch out into other neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as adult psychiatric disorders. And I feel like in this phase, it's even harder to find the right treatments. And the treatments take so long to test, six to eight weeks. And it can be so hard to keep up the morale, to keep trying out a treatment when your disorder is one that makes it hard to keep up trying whatever you need to try. >> Lisa: Right. >> So that's an area that I'm really focusing on these days. >> Well then your passion is clearly there. That intersection of machine learning and healthcare. You're right, you're talking about something that maybe isn't talked about nearly as much as some of other big diseases but it's one that is prolific. It affects so many. And it's exciting to know that there are people out there like you who really have a passion for that and are using data as a change agent to help current generations and future to come. So Finale, such a pleasure to have you on theCUBE. We wish you the best of luck in your technical talk and know that you're going to be mentoring a lot of people from far and wide. >> Thank you, my pleasure to be here. >> Absolutely, so I'm Lisa Martin. You've been watching theCUBE. We are live at the Women in Data Science Conference at Stanford University, but stick around, we'll be right back. (upbeat music)