Biography

Susana Zoghbi received a PhD in Computer Science in 2016 from the KU Leuven university in Belgium. Her research interests lie at the intersection of computer vision and natural language processing, and include deep learning, topic modelling and probabilistic graphical models. During her PhD, she developed latent-variable models for understanding language and images in social media and e-commerce data. She holds two Master’s degrees, one in Mechanical Engineering, where her research focused on human-robot interaction technologies, and one in Mathematical Physics, where she focused on gravitational fluctuations in Domain Wall Spacetimes. She has worked for NASA Frontier Development Lab as an Artificial Intelligence Researcher to automatically search for long-period comets that might impact Earth. She has also worked at Microsoft Research in Cambridge on machine learning for optimizing environments for large scale software development. She has been awarded a Google Anita Borg Scholarship. Currently she works as a Deep Learning Research Engineer at Greyparrot to help recycling facilities monitor waste, increase the number of items correctly recycled and aid the transformation of waste into a valuable assets.

Abstract

Globally, we produce over 2 billion tons of solid waste per year, and unfortunately only 14% is recycled. In this talk, we will discuss how computer vision is innovating this sector, extracting the value of materials that would otherwise end up in landfills, oceans or incinerated. Currently, the industry is heavily relying on manual processes, this is why we are building image recognition systems to increase recycling rates. We are committed to tackle this crisis by unlocking the financial value of waste. This will support our transition to a circular economy and keep our environment clean for generations to come.