Nashlie H. Sephus is an American

computer engineer Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engine ...

and entrepreneur specialized in

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

and

algorithmic bias Algorithmic bias describes systematic and repeatable harmful tendency in a computerized sociotechnical system to create " unfair" outcomes, such as "privileging" one category over another in ways different from the intended function of the a ...

identification. She is a

technology evangelist A technology evangelist is someone who builds a critical mass of support for a specific technology, and then establishes it as a technical standard in a market that is subject to network effects. The word ''evangelism'' is borrowed from the cont ...

Amazon Web Services Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon.com, Amazon that provides Software as a service, on-demand cloud computing computing platform, platforms and Application programming interface, APIs to individuals, companies, and gover ...

. Sephus is co-founder and chief executive officer of Bean Path, a nonprofit startup company developing Jackson Tech District, a

planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

and

business incubator A business incubator is an organization that helps startup companies and individual entrepreneurs to develop their businesses by providing a fullscale range of services, starting with management training and office space, and ending with venture ...

in Jackson, Mississippi.

Life

Sephus was born in

Jackson, Mississippi Jackson is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city sits on the Pearl River (Mississippi–Louisiana), Pearl River and is locate ...

, where she was raised in an all-female household. She attended a two-week sleepaway engineering camp for girls that introduced her to computer engineering. Sephus graduated from Murrah High School in 2003. In 2007, she completed a B.S. in computer engineering at

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

. After graduating, Sephus won a GEM fellowship, which provided her a full-tuition graduate scholarship, internships, and a job placement at Delphi Electronics & Safety upon finishing her Ph.D. She earned a master's degree and Ph.D. (2014) in electrical and computer engineering from the

Georgia Institute of Technology College of Engineering The College of Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology provides formal education and research in more than 10 fields of engineering, including aerospace, chemical, civil engineering, electrical engineering, industrial, mechanical, ma ...

. Her dissertation was titled ''A framework for exploiting modulation spectral features in music data mining and other applications''. Sephus' doctoral advisors were and . In 2013, Sephus, then a doctoral student, began working part-time for the all

black women Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

startup Partpic, where she developed visual recognition algorithms and

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

s. Sephus later worked as a software engineer at

Exponent In mathematics, exponentiation, denoted , is an operation involving two numbers: the ''base'', , and the ''exponent'' or ''power'', . When is a positive integer, exponentiation corresponds to repeated multiplication of the base: that is, i ...

in New York. In 2015, she joined Partpic full time as their chief technology officer. In 2016, Amazon acquired Partpic, and Sephus became leader of the Amazon Visual Search team in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. Sephus later became a machine learning and applied science manager at

Artificial Intelligence. Her team develops tools for bias-identification for machine learning models. She is currently a

at Amazon. In 2018, Sephus began plans to create a technology community and

in Jackson, Mississippi as part of her nonprofit startup company Bean Path. She is the company's cofounder and CEO. In 2019, Sephus and Julie Cwikla were awarded an

Ada Lovelace Award The Ada Lovelace Award is given in honor of the English mathematician and computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, by the Association for Women in Computing. Founded in 1981, as the ''Service Award'', which was given to Thelma Estrin, it was named the ...

. On September 11, 2020, Sephus purchased 12 acres near

Jackson State University Jackson State University (Jackson State or JSU) is a Public university, public Historically Black colleges and universities, historically black research university in Jackson, Mississippi. It is a member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and ...

to create the Jackson Tech District.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sephus, Nashlie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Businesspeople from Jackson, Mississippi 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American scientists 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American engineers Mississippi State University alumni Georgia Tech alumni Technology evangelists Amazon (company) people Engineers from Mississippi American women computer scientists American computer scientists Computer engineers African-American computer scientists African-American women engineers 21st-century American women engineers African-American engineers

Life

See also

References

External links