The Rosetta Stone of Technology
THIS IS THE TECH TRANSLATOR ORIGIN STORY.
Once upon a time, there was a young geek…
I’m a geek. I don’t mean that in a pejorative way…I have been fascinated with technology in general and specifically computers since I was young. No, I wasn’t programming computers in kindergarten – I’m not of that generation. But I did have a photo in my high school yearbook my senior year standing on a chair, holding up a computer program. For those of you too young to recognize, the paper was all connected together because it came off a dot matrix printer (watch it work.) So maybe I just gave away too much about my age…oh well.
The birth of the Tech Translator
In college, I loved every one of my computer science classes, especially topics such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and graphics. The first company I founded developed software that helped manufacturers plan and manage their production and inventories. It was deeply steeped in collecting and reporting on data with a tagline “Turning plant floor data into actionable information.” We were in data analytics before it was called such. Even though I programmed roughly 50% of the first product we took to market, my role was mainly as Tech Translator. Thanks to my father and grandfather, I was gifted with the ability to communicate, which isn’t always a given with technologists. I would dig into what our customers were trying to accomplish – what they needed – and then translate that vision to our tech team for implementation. I always felt understanding the underlying technology gave me better insight into the questions to ask the end users to get to what they were really trying to accomplish so as to marry their needs to technology solutions.
“Thanks to my father and grandfather, I was gifted with the ability to communicate, which isn’t always a given with technologists. I would dig into what our customers were trying to accomplish – what they needed – and then translate that vision to our tech team for implementation. ”
Collecting more information
I still embrace my role as a Tech Translator today and I find it leading me back to where I began.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve been drawn to the advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Surrounded by startups and entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed an explosion of companies touting their use of these advanced technologies such as AI and deep learning and I wonder – do they really use artificial intelligence or are they adopting a buzz word to impress customers and investors? I am sure some truly are, but I also suspect that many are just using the words to generate marketing hype. I don’t know enough to ask the right questions. At least not yet.
Additionally, as I read about the technological capabilities being developed, I find myself following the threads talking about inherent biases in the data (and hence in the “intelligence” we’re creating from that data) and ethics of how data is being used. Again, I don’t know enough to ask the right questions. At least not yet.
The root of it all
So now I’m back to my roots – to where it all started. After earning a Certificate in Machine Learning from Stanford over the summer, I’ve enrolled in the Master’s in Machine Learning at UMD. I’m crazy, I know it. The programming is coming back to me; it’s the math that might do me in. But I’m determined. While I don’t envision becoming a programmer again, I think I’ve found a whole new area that is in need of people with strong Tech Translation skills.
Rosetta Stone of technology, here I come!