Interview: The Data Scientist Helping to Lead an AI Revolution

Contexta360’s Livia Kuhn explains the path that she took to work as a data scientist.

When I heard that Contexta360 was looking for someone to coordinate a project, I was thrilled. I started working for them alongside my studies.

It did not take long before I was searching for reasons to be in the office because I was fascinated by how people here collaborated to build software. Being part of the many conversations, discussions, and exchanges of ideas that took place made me feel like I was witnessing the birth of something great.

I chose to put off my PhD and take on a different challenge. For me, this was an opportunity to continue working with a team and suite of products I had come to know and love.

My passion lies in minimizing all waste, including our time!

As an economist by training, I am concerned with the allocation of resources for their best possible use. In a world where resources are limited, it is important to minimize waste and my passion lies in optimizing away such inefficiencies. Knowing that the work we do is making conversational analytics more efficient, easy and widely available brings me great joy.

What I love most about working for a tech start-up is that it never gets boring. For the past two years, I have been a part of various projects spanning the fields of software development, data engineering, and data science.

I have trained machine learning models; built a framework for automated end-to-end testing; and developed everything from web applications to command-line tools.

I have helped improve our AI-fuelled speech analytics platform, Contexta360 CORE; optimized our NLP models; and worked closely with our clients to help them get the most value out of our products. I have found it incredibly rewarding to see our clients use the platform to understand why their customers are contacting them, optimize workflows and automate tasks.

Conclusion

Livia Kuhn

As a data scientist at Contexta360, no two days are the same and projects are exciting and far-reaching. As I grow as a software developer, I am learning more and more about the value of having the freedom to explore and expand my horizons.

Being a female in a disruptive tech start-up environment is extremely exciting, in fact, as a woman in tech you could say I was a disrupter myself! My background in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects has been vital.

I firmly believe in encouraging early collaboration with STEM programmes at primary school and this is especially important for girls.

Sadly, despite similar achievement scores among children of all genders in maths and science, men make up the majority of students studying these fields in higher education. I am proud that Contexta360 has been instrumental in recruiting, retaining and advancing STEM occupations for our growing team of female colleagues.

Author: Guest Author