Nachum Shacham, Ph.D

Data Science Leader

nachum • at • nachumshacham • dot • com

Profile

Dr. Nachum Shacham is an Engineering Fellow, Data Science and AI at Teradata, where he is leading data science practices, exploring and applying technologies, modeling, and data. He works on developing statistical and machine learning methods for modeling large datasets, optimizing the operation of large-scale analytics platforms, and benchmarking their performance under complex workloads. He is also collaborating with business leaders to identify opportunities to leverage Teradata Analytics Platform’s data-science and machine-learning functionality to drive business value from large-scale data. Prior to joining Teradata, Dr. Shacham has been with eBay and PayPal, where he led data science modeling of workloads on large analytics platforms, developed customer-oriented machine-learning models, and taught advanced analytics methods. Nachum is a data Science leader with comprehensive working knowledge of the theory and practice of statistics, analytics, machine learning and AI. He has collaborated with business to transform operational needs to data science products. Leading teams in executing the full cycle of data science tasks: data sourcing & conditioning, model design and validation, delivery of business-interpretable results, and ROI measurement. Frequent speaker in data science events, addressing technical and non-technical audience

Summary

Over 20 years hands-on experience in developming models and technologies for extracting financial value from data
> Led complete development cycle machine learning models, from business requirements, data extraction and conditioning, machine learning model development, solution implementation, and measurement of ROI of the deployed solutions.
> Predictive machine learning models for customer behavior
> Algorithms for scalable processing of big datasets
> Financial models for big data systems
> Service management methods and metrics for big data RDBMS and Hadoop
> Predictive models for big data
> ROI optimization for online ads (SEM and display)
> Deal management and pricing optimization in B2B trade
> Design and performance modeling of algorithms for mobile networks and distributed applications

Scalable Data Science and AI

Engineering Fellow, Data Science and AI; Teradata
Led data science teams in developing statistical analysis and machine learning models:
> Developed a scalable MPP algorithm for equitable dependence metric based on mutual information that enhances feature selection of deep and wide dataset with general, non-linear relationships.
> Recommendations for customer-service actions based on textual messages > Design of key performance indicators (KPI) and tests for benchmarking of large scale data platforms.
> Led the data science task in the development of a platform for training and managing AI models at enterprise scale

Leadership of Data Science in Enterprise Environment

Director, Data Science; PayPal
Led the development, productization, and business adoption of machine learning models that predict customer lifecycle evolution (growth, churn, decline, and propensity to accept offers).
> Delivered tools to facilitate transformation of model results to marketing actions
> Directed processes for leveraging public-domain and enterprise data to drive predictive models
> Led the development of models to forecast data warehouse hourly usage and customer engagement.
> Worked on building a data science team: wrote job reqs, guided recruiters, and interviewed applicants

Analysis of Big-Data and MPP Platforms

Distinguished Researcher, eBay
Financial and performance models for large scale processing systems:
> Hybrid cloud computing: Financial models and deployment tradeoffs
> Integrated analysis of big data MPP RDBMs and Hadoop: Service-oriented KPIs and processing cost models
> Methods for analyzing large scale structured and semi structured data using R

Revenue Management in Online Advertising

Principal, AdGlean
Designing and implementing statistical and data mining techniques for online applications:
> Optimizing ad performance over multiple channels
> Large scale multiple statistical comparisons
> Multivariate scoring > Implementing models in R & Python

Sr. Director, Algorithms, Efficient Frontier-- the leader in Search Optimization Marketing (SEM).
Led the Algorithms team, developing methods for maximizing ROI of advertisers on search engines:
> Statistical models for ad performance
> Methods for ascertaining models' performance
> Algorithms for optimal keyword bidding and management of campaigns

Principal, Allocad LLC
Developed tools for publishers to maximize monetization of online display ads
> Statistical modeling of publishers' data
> Algorithms for recommending profitable ad-space allocation and optimal pricing.
> Methods for extracting values from segments of the site
> Visualization of multisource click and revenue data

Worked with a large and small publishers
> Retrieving and analyzing traffic and revenue data
> Identifying revenue lifting potential of various site segments
> Interacting with ad buyers on behalf of publishers

Price Optimization in B2B Markets

CTO and co-founder of Metreo -- VC-funded (Sequoia, Redpoint, USVP)
> Built statistical models and optimization algorithms for B2B pricing
> Designed algorithms for deal optimization
> Created optimal pricing models and practices for F100 companies (incl GE and Honeywell)
> Designed ROI testing methods and measured in the field profit uplift impact of optimal pricing
> Worked with corporate customers, led solution customization projects, and measured ROI lift of deployed solutions

Internet Infrastructure and Applications

Principal Scientist and Director of the Telecomm Theory and Technology group at SRI International
Developed some of the original internet algorithms, protocols, and systems up and down the IP protocol hierarchy, mostly as a Principal Investigator under DARPA funding
> Packet Radio
> Packet Speech
> Real-Time Multimedia Teleconferencing
> Reliable real-time transport.

Areas Of Expertise

> Online advertising monetization: revenue optimization; ad inventory allocation models, algorithms, & systems
> Statistical modeling, machine learning, and data mining techniques for big data
> Map reduce programming in R, Python, Java & Hive
> Data visualization methods
> Collection, conditioning, and integration of data for revenue management decision support
> Development of pricing algorithms and practices with applications to B2B trade and direct sales of online ads
> B2B pricing, revenue management, and deal management
> Design and execution of methods for measuring ROI of pricing-actions
> Design of web-based technologies and applications
> Design and analysis of internet protocols and their performance models
> Management of R&D teams. Leading technology projects from inception to product
> Advanced working level in R, Python, SQL, C, HTML & XML

Some Other stuff
> Elected Fellow of the IEEE
> 5 US patents

Professional Activities
> Program chair for IEEE INFOCOM'91, & Chairman of IEEE 1991 Annual Computer Communication Workshop.
> DARPA Overseeing Committees: Multi Satellite System Project, and High Speed Network Program.
> Elected Chairman of IEEE Communications Society's Technical Committee on Computer Communications.
> Editor for Network Architecture, IEEE Trans. Communications. Member Editorial Board, IEEE/ACM Trans. Networking.

Teaching
> UC Berkeley: Communications Theory (grad courses)
> Stanford: Networks Theory and Protocols (grad courses)
> eBay: Data analysis using R

Education

> B.Sc.EE (cum laude) Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
> M.Sc.EE Technion, Israel Institute of Technology
> Ph.D. EECS University of California, Berkeley

Publications
Over 80 publications in archived Journals, including: IEEE Trans. Communications, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Trans. Computers; and in refereed conferences proceedings, book chapter, technical reports.