DSS AUSTIN | Schedule
Wednesday, Feburary 18
8:30 – 9:55am ET
Registration Opens
9:55 – 10:00am ET
Anna Anisin - Founder, Data Science Salon
10:00 – 10:30am ET
Dushyanth Sekhar - Head of AI & Data Platforms - Enterprise Data Organization ( EDO) at S&P Global
As AI adoption grows, relying on a single LLM for data extraction can lead to inconsistency and bias. This session explores how using multiple LLMs in parallel—combined with an automated LLM-as-a-Judge framework—can boost accuracy, reduce bias, and improve trust in extraction pipelines. Learn how to build scalable, resilient systems for unstructured data extraction without heavy human oversight.
10:30 – 10:50am ET
Shamindra Peiris - Senior AI Product Manager at Visa, Inc
Abstract coming soon
10:50 – 11:20am ET
Devdas Gupta - Senior Manager Software Development and Engineering Lead at Charles Schwab
This session is intended for technology leaders, engineers, and architects involved in designing or delivering Agentic AI systems at enterprise scale. It examines why Agentic AI breaks in production, focusing on architectural boundaries, governance, controlled tool execution, failure isolation, and operational ownership.
Attendees will gain practical insight and proven design patterns to move Agentic AI systems from experimental demos to reliable, secure, and scalable enterprise platforms.
11:20 – 11:40am ET
Coffee Break
11:40 – 12:10pm ET
Samaresh Kumar Singh - Principal Engineer at HP Inc.
12:10 – 12:40pm ET
Hamed Alikhani - Senior AI Engineer & Data Scientist at McGraw Hill
Drawing from real production rollouts, we’ll unpack key architecture patterns—from task decomposition and tool orchestration to memory and routing logic. You’ll learn how to move past brittle prompt chains, implement robust validation layers, and design agents that deliver measurable outcomes while aligning with enterprise governance and cost constraints.
Perfect for technical leaders and practitioners ready to operationalize AI agents at scale.
12:40 – 1:00pm ET
Deeksha Mishra - Data Science Manager at Meta
1:00 – 2:00pm ET
Lunch
2:00 – 2:45pm ET
Panel: From Prototype to Production: Building AI That Actually Works in the Enterprise
Cal Al-Dhubaib - Responsible AI & ML Executive at Further, Akshay Mittal - Member of Technical Staff Software Engineer at PayPal, Shivika Bisen - Senior Data Scientist, Gen AI Products at Viasat, Brent Schneeman - SVP of Artificial Intelligence at The SSI Group, Fatma Tarlaci - Chief AI Officer at Soar.com
2:45 – 3:15pm ET
Dippu Kumar Singh - Leader Of Emerging Data Technologies at Fujitsu North America Inc.
We’ll explore how to use Prompt Chaining, Semantic Routing, and Evaluator-Optimizer loops to design agents that are accurate, composable, and embedded into real systems. You’ll leave with a clear taxonomy of agent types and a practical roadmap for architecting AI systems that drive measurable ROI.
3:15 – 3:35pm ET
Reema Gill - Data/AI Governance Specialist at Wealthsimple Technologies
Drawing from experience across banks and high-growth startups, we’ll discuss how to operationalize global standards (EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, OSFI E-23) to build trust with regulators, investors, and customers. The goal: make governance a catalyst, not a constraint.
3:35 – 4:05pm ET
Pavan Kumar Mantha - AVP, Principal Data Engineer Lead at Synchrony
4:05 – 4:25pm ET
Coffee Break
4:25 – 4:55pm ET
Hari Kishan - Director of Cloud Engineering at Manulife John Hancock Retirement
This session dives into how a legacy Avaya IVR system was reimagined into an agentic, self-optimizing platform powered by Amazon Connect and RAG pipelines. Learn how we built SSML models that adjust tone and phrasing in real time, reduced AHT, and introduced an orchestration layer that updates strategies in minutes—not weeks.
If you’re scaling GenAI, modernizing CX, or looking to deploy agentic architectures in enterprise environments, this is your blueprint.
4:55 – 5:15pm ET
Yukti Goyal - Advanced Software Engineer at FM
Learn how techniques like UEBA, unsupervised learning, and AI-driven threat detection are being used to detect insider threats, stop credential misuse, and build resilient, compliant frameworks for modern healthcare systems.
If you’re working at the intersection of healthcare, AI, and data protection—this session is for you.
5:15 – 5:45pm ET
Preetham Kaukuntla - Staff Data Scientist at Glassdoor
Traditional rule-based notification systems fall short at scale. In this session, Preetham Reddy Kaukuntla shares how Glassdoor rebuilt its email and push infrastructure using ML models for both content and timing optimization. By integrating transformer-based subject line generation, LSTM and Prophet models for send-time prediction, and uplift modeling, Glassdoor now delivers 32M+ daily messages with measurable engagement gains. The session covers architecture, feature engineering, and lessons learned on model evaluation and long-term user impact.
5:45 – 5:55pm ET
6:00 – 8:00pm ET
Networking Reception
