Nashlie Sephus

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Nashlie Sephus
Born
Jackson, Mississippi, U.S.
Alma materMississippi State University
Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering
OccupationComputer engineer, entrepreneur, technology evangelist
AwardsAda Lovelace Award (2019)

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 cofounder and chief executive officer of Bean Path, a nonprofit startup company developing Jackson Tech District, a planned community and business incubator in Jackson, Mississippi.

Education[]

Sephus is from Jackson, Mississippi. She was raised in an all female household. She did a two week sleep away camp for girls that introduced her to computer engineering.[1] Sephus graduated from Murrah High School.[2] In 2007, she completed a B.S. in computer engineering at Mississippi State University.[3][1] Sephus won a GEM fellowship which provided a full-tuition scholarship, internships, and a job placement at upon graduation.[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  [Wikidata] and  [Wikidata].[5]

Career[]

In 2013, Sephus, then a doctoral student, began working part-time for the all black women startup,[1] Partpic, where she developed machine learning of visual recognition algorithms and prototypes.[4]

Sephus 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, Partpic was sold to Amazon where she began leading Amazon Visual Search team in Atlanta.[3][4] Sephus later became an 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 a technology evangelist at Amazon.[6]

In 2018, Sephus developed the idea to create a technology community and business incubator as part of her nonprofit startup company, Bean Path.[7] She is the company's cofounder and CEO. On September 11, 2020, Sephus purchased 12 acres next to Jackson State University to create the Jackson Tech District.[3][8][9]

Awards and honors[]

In 2019, Sephus and Julie Cwikla were awarded an Ada Lovelace Award.[10]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "Jackson native builds tech hub downtown". WAPT. 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  3. ^ a b c d e 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Sephus, Nashlie H. (2014-05-15). "A framework for exploiting modulation spectral features in music data mining and other applications". Georgia Tech. Retrieved 2021-09-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ Webb, Natalie (2021-06-02). "Black in Tech: Meet Two Amazon Employees Blazing Trails in the South". AfroTech. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  7. ^ Perkins, Njera (2021-03-04). "Amazon Scientist Nashlie Sephus is Building a $25M Tech Hub in Her Mississippi Hometown". AfroTech. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  8. ^ Hensley, Erica (2020-10-10). "Jackson native disrupts downtown with new tech hub plans". Mississippi Today. Retrieved 2021-09-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ "Dr. Nashlie Sephus and Dr. Julie Cwikla Honored at Ada Lovelace Awards • Innovate Mississippi". Innovate Mississippi. 2019-04-03. Retrieved 2021-09-18.

External links[]

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