Dr. Glen Ferguson: From Navy Electrician’s Mate to Director of AI & ML | The Data Canteen #20

Not many forces on Earth are comparable in power to a resilient spirit combined with a strong work ethic, and Dr. Glen Ferguson embodies this dynamic! Tune-in to this episode to hear how Dr. Ferguson went from a young man whose high school guidance counselor discouraged him from even applying to college, to enlisting in the U.S. Navy, to completing a PhD in physical chemistry, to becoming a data science individual contributor, to his present day role as Director of AI & ML at Huckleberry Labs! It is a remarkable story of resilience in the face of adversity and triumph against daunting odds!

 

FEATURED GUESTS:

Name: Glen Ferguson

Email: gallenferguson@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenferguson/

 

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EPISODE LINKS:

The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect (book recommendation): https://www.amazon.com/The-Book-of-Why-audiobook/dp/B07CYJ4G2L

Deep Learning with Python 2nd Ed (book recommendation): https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Deep-Learning-Python-Second/dp/B09RN7QLT3

Deep Learning (book recommendation): https://www.deeplearningbook.org/

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (book recommendation): https://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Recognition-Learning-Information-Statistics/dp/0387310738

Introduction to Statistical Learning 2nd Ed (book recommendation): https://hastie.su.domains/ISLR2/ISLRv2_website.pdf

 

PODCAST INFO:

Host: Ted Hallum

Website: https://vetsindatascience.com/thedatacanteen

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-data-canteen/id1551751086

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaNx9aLFRy1h9P22hd8ZPyw

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-data-canteen

 

CONTACT THE DATA CANTEEN:

Voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/datacanteen

 

VETERANS IN DATA SCIENCE AND MACHINE LEARNING:

Website: https://vetsindatascience.com/

Join the Community: https://vetsindatascience.com/support-join

Mentorship Program: https://vetsindatascience.com/mentorship

 

OUTLINE:

00:00:07​ - Introduction

00:01:22 - Glen's first touch point with VDSML

00:03:15 - Glen's military background, college, & grad school

00:12:10 - Glen's first civilian career as a physical chemist working in materials science

00:15:31 - The shift to pursue data science

00:17:37 - A sabbatical in winemaking

00:20:25 - Glen's experience attending the NYC Data Science Academy

00:28:18 - Glen publishes about one of his data science projects in a peer reviewed journal

00:29:15 - Glen's first roles in data science as an individual contributor

00:38:37 - Glen moves into data science management

00:44:12 - Glen's overview of roles in the datasphere and military occupational specialties that map well to those roles

00:55:58 - Glen's current learning focus

00:57:29 - Glen's favorite learning resources

00:59:01 - The best way to contact Glen

01:00:03 - Farewells