Nashlie H. Sephus is an American computer engineer and entrepreneur specialized in machine learning and algorithmic bias identification. She is a technology evangelist at Amazon Web Services. Sephus is co-founder and chief executive officer of Bean Path, a nonprofit startup company developing Jackson Tech District, a planned community and business incubator in Jackson, Mississippi.
Nashlie Sephus | |
|---|---|
| Born | Jackson, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Mississippi State University Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering |
| Occupation(s) | Computer engineer, entrepreneur, technology evangelist |
| Awards | Ada Lovelace Award (2019) |
Life
editSephus was born in Jackson, Mississippi, where she was raised in an all-female household. She attended a two-week sleepaway engineering camp for girls that introduced her to computer engineering.[1] Sephus graduated from Murrah High School in 2003.[2] In 2007, she completed a B.S. in computer engineering at Mississippi State University.[3][1] After graduating, Sephus won a GEM fellowship, which provided her a full-tuition graduate scholarship, internships, and a job placement at Delphi Electronics & Safety upon finishing her Ph.D.[4] She earned a master's degree and Ph.D. (2014) in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering.[3] Her dissertation was titled A framework for exploiting modulation spectral features in music data mining and other applications. Sephus' doctoral advisors were Aaron D. Lanterman and David V. Anderson.[5]
In 2013, Sephus, then a doctoral student, began working part-time for the all black women startup[1] Partpic, where she developed visual recognition algorithms and prototypes.[4] Sephus later worked as a software engineer at Exponent in New York. In 2015, she joined Partpic full time as their chief technology officer.[4] In 2016, Amazon acquired Partpic, and Sephus became leader of the Amazon Visual Search team in Atlanta.[3][4] Sephus later became a machine learning and applied science manager at Amazon Web Services Artificial Intelligence.[3] Her team develops tools for bias-identification for machine learning models.[1] She is currently a technology evangelist at Amazon.[6]
In 2018, Sephus began plans to create a technology community and business incubator in Jackson, Mississippi as part of her nonprofit startup company Bean Path.[7] She is the company's cofounder and CEO.[3] In 2019, Sephus and Julie Cwikla were awarded an Ada Lovelace Award.[8] On September 11, 2020, Sephus purchased 12 acres near Jackson State University to create the Jackson Tech District.[3][9][10]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d Pretz, Kathy (2021-01-13). "This AWS Machine Learning Manager is Rooting Out Bias in AI Programs". IEEE Spectrum. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ "Dr. Nashlie H. Sephus". Jackson Public Schools. 2022-10-29. Retrieved 2022-10-29.
- ^ a b c d e f Rhinehart, Charlene (2021-03-07). "Meet The Black Woman Transforming 12 Abandoned Acres Into $25 Million Tech Hub in Mississippi". Black Enterprise. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ a b c d "DISRUPTIVE: Nashlie H. Sephus, the Brains Behind the Tech Startup Sold to Amazon". Ebony. 2018-05-22. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ Sephus, Nashlie H. (2014-05-15). "A framework for exploiting modulation spectral features in music data mining and other applications". Georgia Tech. hdl:1853/52243. Retrieved 2021-09-17.
- ^ Webb, Natalie (2021-06-02). "Black in Tech: Meet Two Amazon Employees Blazing Trails in the South". AfroTech. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ Perkins, Njera (2021-03-04). "Amazon Scientist Nashlie Sephus is Building a $25M Tech Hub in Her Mississippi Hometown". AfroTech. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ "Dr. Nashlie Sephus and Dr. Julie Cwikla Honored at Ada Lovelace Awards • Innovate Mississippi". Innovate Mississippi. 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ Hensley, Erica (2020-10-10). "Jackson native disrupts downtown with new tech hub plans". Mississippi Today. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
- ^ Carr, Teneshia (2021-02-23). "She's a Black AI Scientist at Amazon. Her Next Move Is a $25 Million Tech Hub on 12 Abandoned Acres in Jackson, Mississippi". Inc.com. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
External links
edit- Nashlie Sephus's publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
- The Why and How of Diversity in Tech | Nashlie Sephus | TEDxJackson on YouTube