Category: R&D

  • What to expect when you weren’t expecting an R&D project

    What to expect when you weren’t expecting an R&D project

    This was supposed to be a regular digital project that consistently made progress towards the objective… right? Problem statement, some analysis, build a solution bit by bit, deploy, …, nice linear progression… but no… we were wrong! It turned out to be an R&D project. Often R&D projects change direction and sometimes seem to go…

  • R&D burn up

    R&D burn up

    This article captures the key points of a conversation I have quite often with teams involved in exploratory work, and their stakeholders. Typical burn up We’re used to burn up charts looking like the examples in this description from Atlassian – a roughly horizontal scope line which we work towards with a roughly diagonal completed…

  • Effective Machine Learning Teams in print

    Effective Machine Learning Teams in print

    My book Effective Machine Learning Teams is now in print! Building ML solutions requires multi-disciplinary collaboration. EMLT shows how to use design practices to identify the right products, how to apply good data science and software engineering practices to build products right, and how to structure ML teams and organisations so that they are right…

  • A gentle introduction to embeddings at the inaugural GenAI Nework Melbourne meetup

    A gentle introduction to embeddings at the inaugural GenAI Nework Melbourne meetup

    I was thrilled to help kick-off the GenAI Network Melbourne meetup at their first meeting recently. I presented a talk titled Semantic hide and seek – a gentle introduction to embeddings, based on my experiments with Semantle, other representation learning, and some discussion of what it means to use Generative AI in developing new products…

  • Electrifying the world with AI Augmented decision-making

    Electrifying the world with AI Augmented decision-making

    I wrote an article about optimising the design of EV charging networks. It’s a story of work done by a team at Thoughtworks, demonstrating the potential of AI augmented decision-making (including some cool optimisation techniques), in this rapidly evolving but durably important space. We were able to thread together these many [business problem, AI techniques,…

  • Rebooting AI Review

    Rebooting AI Review

    I was excited to read Rebooting AI (website), to find inspiration and tools for doing things better. Here is the book in one great quote: For now, we are in a kind of interregnum: narrow but networked intelligences with autonomy, but too little genuine intelligence to be able to reason about the consequences of that…

  • The Lockdown Wheelie Project, Part 3

    The Lockdown Wheelie Project, Part 3

    In Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown, I’ve wheelied over 17km. Not all at once, though. Over three months, I’ve spent 90 minutes with my front wheel raised. I’d like to keep it up, but as lockdown has gradually relaxed, and routines have changed, so have I landed the wheelie project, for now. Read the full article over on…

  • The Lockdown Wheelie Project, Part 2

    The Lockdown Wheelie Project, Part 2

    I now have an AI coach for my wheelie project. Coach has seen over 1,500 of my wheelies, and reckons they can tell pretty quickly whether my effort will be wheelie good or bad. Coach also fits on my phone, so they come on rides when I want real-time advice. Read the full article over…

  • The Lockdown Wheelie Project

    The Lockdown Wheelie Project

    “It’s Strava for wheelies,” my lockdown project, combining hyper-local exercise with data analytics to track and guide improvement. Practising wheelies is a great way to stay positive; after all, it’s looking up, moving forward. Read the full write-up over on Medium at The Lockdown Wheelie Project.

  • Byte Into It

    Byte Into It

    I joined 3RRR’s Byte Into It on their 25th anniversary program to talk about ThoughtWorks’ technology innovation with Guide Dogs Victoria. You can watch the recording here (I’m on from 40 mins). Did someone say puppies? Image credit 3RRR.