Behind the Hype – Finastra and Rise London have collaborated to bring a new series of meetup events breaking down overhyped topics in fintech. Our next topic will be on AI and Machine Learning

During this meetup we will cover:

• What AI and Machine Learning is and how is it applied in finance
• How to ingest big data
• Debate key theme in data science: responsible AI, environmental impact of data and bias

This meetup is free to attend, open to all, and we expect developers, fintechs and banks among others to join us.

Agenda:

17:30-18:00: Registration and drinks

18:00-19:00: Presentations and debate. Featuring:

• Barclays - how AI and ML is used in banking
• BBC - Maximising value for BBC audiences with Big Data and ML

19:00-20:00: Networking and drinks

Speakers:

Ben Houghton, Head of Data Science - Cards and Payments, Barclays

Ben is the Head of Data Science for Barclays Payments where his team builds machine learning and statistical models for use cases across the payments landscape. Over the last six years, Ben has worked in data science and analytic roles in Barclaycard, Barclays Africa and Group and has recently been awarded the title of Distinguished Engineer recognising his expertise and contribution to Data Science and Machine Learning across the bank. Ben’s background is in statistics and he is a Chartered Statistician with the Royal Statistical Society.

Teodor Popescu, Data Engineer, BBC

Teo is a Data Engineer at the BBC, where he works on productionizing machine learning pipelines for the Marketing & Audiences Data Science team. He is also a Teaching Assistant at the UCL School of Management, where he builds content and delivers workshops for Data Engineering and Software Engineering topics. Prior to this, he worked on building Deutsche Bank’s market data pipelines and metadata search engine platform. In his free time he enjoys traveling and the game of basketball.

Clare Whitehead, Fintech Platform Manager, Rise

Clare manages the fintech platform at Rise, created by Barclays. In her role she engages with a number of the hottest fintechs in the ecosystem and helps build the community at Rise.

Ryan Clifford, Developer Relations Lead, Finastra

Ryan leads building the developer community for Finastra’s open fintech platform, FusionFabirc.cloud. He helps developers to work with Finastra’s APIs and develop apps which can be consumed by Financial Institutions. Ryan previously worked as an API Product Manager at Barclays.