Diana Maynard

Dr. Diana Maynard is a Senior Research Fellow in the Computer Science department at the University of Sheffield, UK. She has a PhD in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and has more than 30 years of experience in the field. Since 2000 she has been one of the key developers of the GATE NLP toolkit, leading work on Sheffield’s open-source multilingual text analysis tools.  Her main research interests are in practical, multidisciplinary approaches to text and social media analysis, in a wide range of fields including cultural heritage, human rights, law, journalism, sustainability and the environment, geography, politics, and natural disasters. She is currently working on various projects based around the detection and analysis of online hate speech, including methods for removing bias in Machine Learning, and for early warning detection of abuse escalation.

Thomas Hoe

Thomas Hoe is the head of Amazon‘s Economic Decision Science team, which combines cutting-edge economics and data science to solve challenging economic problems in Amazon’s EU retail business. His work bridges academia and industry, with a distinguished career that includes previous roles as Assistant Professor at Cornell University. Before joining Amazon, Hoe had a varied professional journey: from being an award-winning video gamer to studying computer science, working as a chef in Michelin-starred restaurants, and earning a PhD in economics. He also led economics teams for the UK government and conducted healthcare research at Cornell University. Hoe’s team tackles unique challenges using techniques at the intersection of microeconomics, statistics, and machine learning, including models to reduce long-distance shipping by strategically placing products closer to customers and algorithms to highlight the best deals for customers.