Dr. Nashlie H. Sephus
{{AFC comment|1=She may be notable, but this is a press release, not an encyclopedia article.
Remove all adjectives and expressions of praise, and anything that might be considered puffery. Remove PR about
An encyclopedia article is not a CV. Make sure the article contains, first, the basic biographical information such as birth year and birthplace, then the full sequence of degrees and positions, with dates. Next, (in the sciences) the 5 or so most cited peer-reviewed articles, given in full with coauthors, full name of journals, and links, with the number of citations to each of them; any national-level awards--(not junior awards or awards from their own university). Add major outside positions, such as president of major national organizations, and any positions of editor-in-chief; Membership or minor offices in most societies, and service on editorial boards, do not count for much & are better omitted. Very sparse articles attract skepticism, as do those using vague claims and superlatives, or those that list all possible internal and external committees.
The material on the Bean Path & Jackson Tech District is essential PR for her projects. WP does not publish PR, regardless of how worthy the cause. Please remove it DGG (talk) 01:18, 9 May 2021 (UTC)}
| Dr. Nashlie H. Sephus | |
|---|---|
 Dr._Nashlie_speaking_at_AFROTECH_2019.jpg Dr. Nashlie in Oakland speaking at the AfroTech Conference in 2019 | |
| Born | June 25, 1985 |
| 🏫 Education | Electrical & Computer Engineering |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Murrah High School, Mississippi State University, Georgia Tech |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| 👔 Employer | Amazon |
| 🏢 Organization | Founder & CEO of non-profit The Bean Path |
| Known for | Created visual search technology for former startup Partpic, later acquired by Amazon in 2016[1][2] U.S. Patent[3] |
| 🏡 Home town | Jackson, MS |
| Title | Applied Science Manager of Amazon's Artificial Intelligence |
| Board member of | Mississippi State University (MSU) Bagley College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council; MSU School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Advisory Board; Innovate Mississippi Seed Fund Advisory Board; EyeGage (Atlanta-based startup); Rocketing Systems (Mississippi-based startup) |
| 👴 👵 Parent(s) |
|
| 👪 Relatives | Bettie McPherson (grandmother) |
| 🌐 Website | phenomenash.org |
Nashlie Sephus recently joined the Amazon (company) Artificial Intelligence (AI) team focusing on fairness and biases in AI, based in Atlanta, Georgia.[4] She formally led the Amazon (A9) Visual Search and AR team, which launched Part Finder (visual search for replacement parts) on the Amazon shopping app.[5] The only Black woman of more than 900 applied scientists at Amazon at the time, Dr. Sephus also aids executive leadership in managing products and future planning; and designs and implements computer vision algorithms, deep learning models, and app tests. Her efforts are catered to diversity and inclusion in the tech industry, and in technology itself.[6]
Early Life and Education
Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Nashlie was parented by her mother as well as her grandmother, whom she lived with. Nashlie’s passion for computer engineering was born when an 8th grade teacher told her about an engineering camp that she later attended.[7][8]
Dr. Sephus earned the prestigious National GEM Consortium Fellowship with a 3.5 GPA (Cum Laude) B.S. in Computer Engineering from Mississippi State University. She earned her M.S. (Electrical and Computer Engineering, 3.4 GPA) and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (3.6 GPA). Her core research areas were digital signal processing (primarily music, speech, and image signals), machine learning, and computer engineering/science. Dr. David Anderson and Dr. Aaron Lanterman supervised her Ph.D. thesis.
Prior to Amazon and becoming CTO of Atlanta-based startup Partpic, Dr. Sephus worked and interned as an engineer and manager at companies such as IBM, General Electric, Delphi, and Exponent.
Publications
Sephus's core research areas are digital signal processing, AI/machine learning, and computer engineering. Some of her publications include “An Industrial-Strength Pipeline For Recognizing Fasteners”[9] and “Modulation Spectral Features: In Pursuit of Invariant Representations of Music with Application to Unsupervised Source Identification”[10]
Partpic Startup Sold to Amazon
In developing the prototype for Partpic’s patented software[11], Sephus faced the challenges of building out an engineering team in Atlanta, a city that in 2013 was not widely known as a place for technology. She required skilled technologists with deep expertise in machine learning and AI; a group with advanced degrees that would work in harmony under various constraints and levels of uncertainty. Partpic was later sold to Amazon for an undisclosed sum.[12] Amazon now uses Partpic’s machine learning software in its search feature.
In 2016, Sephus was the only Black female CTO of a company sold to Amazon. Her 501(c)(3), The Bean Path, is creating an avenue for more women from under-resourced communities to join the technology field.
The Bean Path & Jackson Tech District
Sephus is the founder and CEO of nonprofit The Bean Path, which affords small businesses and tech entrepreneurs technical advice and guidance. Among its free services, The Bean Path offers Tech Office Hours virtually and in-person at local community libraries, hosts engineering and coding programs for youth, and awards merit-based college scholarships and tech grants to students and community groups.[13][14] Sephus believes that The Bean Path will help expand opportunities for people who are at risk of falling through the widening digital divide. Her overarching goal is to help increase the number of STEM professionals; better expose all children to technology at an early age; and strengthen the network of tech companies and schools in the United States.
Similarly, in September of 2020, Sephus owns and leads a multi-acre IT development project in downtown Jackson, Mississippi named the Jackson Tech District.[15] The goal of this mixed-use commercial real-estate in downtown Jackson is to bring tech training and workforce/economic development to the area. Its upcoming development will soon provide technology access to individuals in nearby local communities.
In addition to Mississippi initiatives, Sephus co-founded KITTLabs in Atlanta, GA alongside other Black technologists to create equity and opportunity, targeting Black entrepreneurs in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math).[16]
Awards & Recognition
Sephus's accomplishments have been featured in numerous articles. She was acknowledged in Georgia Institute of Technology's Inaugural Top 40 Under 40 Alumni Class of 2020.[17] She was also featured in the Inc. Conscious Leadership segment in February 2021.[18] In addition, she was interviewed for Ebony's Culture & Black Life segment.[19]
A list of some of Sephus's other awards are as follows:
- Lookfar's Ada Lovelace Women in Tech-Software Engineering Award 2019[20][21]
- Mississippi State University's Bagley College of Engineering Young Emerging Leader Award 2019[22]
- National GEM Consortium Young Leadership Award 2018[23]
- Patty Peck Honda, Young Gifted & Empowered, Innovator of the Year Award 2018[24]
References
- ↑ https://www.amazon.science/latest-news/women-scientists-at-amazon-shaping-the-future-of-ai
- ↑ https://www.innovate.ms/partpic-how-pitch-competitions-can-lead-to-the-big-payoff
- ↑ http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,082,237.PN.&OS=PN/10,082,237&RS=PN/10,082,237
- ↑ https://www.amazon.science/working-at-amazon/amazon-scientist-dr-nashlie-sephus-focuses-on-ensuring-accuracy-in-machine-learning
- ↑ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/20/how-to-find-parts-on-amazon-screws-nuts-bolts.html
- ↑ "Women scientists at Amazon shaping the future of AI". Amazon Science. 2020-03-08. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- ↑ https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/dec/12/cultivating-technology-sprout/
- ↑ https://www.codenewbie.org/podcast/how-do-you-create-visual-recognition-software-ethically-and-responsibly
- ↑ Sephus, Nashlie; Bhagavatula, Sravan; Shastri, Palash; Gabriel, E. (2015). "An Industrial-Strength Pipeline for Recognizing Fasteners". 2015 IEEE 14th International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA): 781–786. doi:10.1109/ICMLA.2015.191. ISBN 978-1-5090-0287-0. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ Sephus, Nashlie H.; Lanterman, Aaron D.; Anderson, David V. (2015-01-02). "Modulation Spectral Features: In Pursuit of Invariant Representations of Music with Application to Unsupervised Source Identification". Journal of New Music Research. 44 (1): 58–70. doi:10.1080/09298215.2014.916723. ISSN 0929-8215. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,082,237.PN.&OS=PN/10,082,237&RS=PN/10,082,237
- ↑ https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/19/amazons-new-ar-part-finder-helps-you-shop-for-those-odd-nuts-and-bolts/
- ↑ https://www.wjtv.com/news/local-news/focused-on-the-future-the-bean-path/2006570260/
- ↑ https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/oct/28/bean-path-anniversary-ummc-lgbtq-clinic-and-trustm/
- ↑ "Amazon AI developer brings tech hub to Jackson". Mississippi Today. 2020-10-10. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- ↑ "Making Space for Black Tech | School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology". www.ece.gatech.edu. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- ↑ "Press Release". www.gtalumni.org. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- ↑ 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 2021-03-02.
- ↑ Grant, Teddy (2018-05-22). "DISRUPTIVE: Nashlie H. Sephus, the Brains Behind the Tech Startup Sold to Amazon • EBONY". EBONY. Retrieved 2021-03-02.
- ↑ https://www.adaawards.us/nashlie-sephus-phd
- ↑ https://www.innovate.ms/dr-nashlie-sephus-and-dr-julie-cwikla-honored-at-ada-awards/
- ↑ https://www.bagley.msstate.edu/news/bagley-honors-2019-class-of-distinguished-fellows-selects-emerging-leader/
- ↑ https://innotechtoday.com/nashlie-sephus/
- ↑ http://savvylifemagazine.com/lifestyle/2018-young-gifted-empowered-awards/
External Links
This article "Nashlie Sephus" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Nashlie Sephus. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
|
This page exists already on Wikipedia. |
