Agenda

Day One: Tuesday, November 24, 2020

11:10 EST

20 min

Break

11:30 EST

60 min
Mandeep Flora

Transforming Data and Analytics in Ontario’s Social Services: A Five-Year Retrospective

Mandeep Flora, Director, Data Strategy & Solutions Platform, Ministry of Children, Community & Social Services, Government of Ontario

Learn about the multi-year journey of the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services (MCCSS) and its cultural and organizational transformation to enhance how data and analytics inform social policy planning and service design and delivery.  A number of strategic data activities and case studies will be presented, as well as lessons learned in executing an enterprise data and analytics strategy in the midst of a transformative ministry agenda, demonstrating how MCCSS:

  • Implemented a data strategy and a new organizational model to better deliver analytics in supporting decision-making
  • Designed modern data governance and analytics infrastructure to improve data quality and access
  • Co-led efforts to introduce new Ontario legislation to enable ministries to integrate data, as well as developing partnerships across governments and partners and answer large social policy questions
  • Used collaborative, agile processes to better and more quickly serve business needs, including in response to COVID-19

12:30 EST

60 min

Break

13:30 EST

60 min
Ayse Rumeysa Mohammed

Remote Sensing for Large Animal Detection in St. Lawrence

Ayse Rumeysa Mohammed, Data Scientist, Transport Canada

  • Remote Sensing / Image Classification / Object Detection description
  • Transport Canada Whale Detection project description
  • Project phase 1 applications with Kaggle Dataset
  • Project phase 2 applications with TC dataset
  • The challenges of Transport Canada dataset
  • Current model performances
  • How to improve the performances / image transformations and filtering
  • What are we doing currently and what we will do in the future

14:30 EST

60 min
Carlos Jabour

Predictive Targeting for Regulatory Enforcement

Carlos Jabour, Senior Data Scientist, Environment and Climate Change Canada

  • Applying a risk-based methodology: propensity and impact of noncompliance
  • Linking historical compliance records to intradepartmental, interdepartmental and external datasets
  • Modelling drivers of noncompliance over time
  • Applying Machine Learning and Deep Learning approaches for predictive targeting
  • Field testing model results

15:30 EST

15 min

Break

15:45 EST

60 min
Dr. Alma Barranco-Mendoza

Developing an Information Strategy for Effective Data Governance and Performance Management

Dr. Alma Barranco-Mendoza, CEO, Infogenetica Solutions Ltd.

  • Understand the key elements that conform an effective Information Strategy within the public sector
  • Identify the common challenges we need to address when managing Big Data
  • How to align an organization’s data with the organization’s strategic objectives
  • Understand what constitutes effective data governance and how it can be implemented within the public sector
  • Identify and avoid common pitfalls in data analysis

Day Two: Wednesday, November 25, 2020

10:10 EST

60 min
Anthony Mantione

Improving the Timeliness, Localness, and Granularity of Labour Market Information with Web Scraped Data

Anthony Mantione, Senior Economist, Labour Market Information Council

  • Understand the role of labour market information (LMI) in making career, training, and education related decisions
  • Appreciate the controversy surrounding skills shortages in Canada
  • Learn about the current strategies using web scraped data to identify the skills needed by Canadians to succeed in the changing workforce
  • Discover what the federal government is doing to help improve the discussion surrounding skills training and development in Canada
  • Understand the importance of data transparency

11:10 EST

20 min

Break

11:30 EST

60 min
Sid Tobias

From Data to Decision Making during Uncertainty: Seconds Count

Sid Tobias, Director, Digital Standards Office, Technology and Business Transformation, Advanced Education and Skills Training, Government of British Columbia

  • Unprecedented urgency for decision support tools: Climate change vs predictive weather forecast (BC Wildfire Case Study)
  • Choosing the right decision framework based on complexity theory: uncomplicated data does not address complicated problems
  • From data to prediction ensuring your data is applicable: could you be dangerously making inferences on base data
  • From prediction to modeling: trying my decision before applying my decision
  • From modeling to evidenced based decision making

12:30 EST

60 min

Break

13:30 EST

60 min
Ajay K. Sood

Who’s Afraid of Unmanaged Devices?

Ajay K. Sood, Regional Vice President, Country Manager, Armis

  • We all have seen the statistics about the growth of unmanaged devices, sometimes called the “Enterprise of Things”. This includes building management systems (lighting, cooling), security systems (cameras, badge readers), office equipment (smart TVs, headsets, phones, printers), and specialized devices used in environments such as retail, manufacturing and healthcare
  • Is it time to worry about these devices from a security perspective? Can attackers use these devices to undermine our carefully constructed cyber defenses? If so, what kind of defenses do we need that we don’t already have?
  • This presentation will explore the realities of Enterprise of Things devices, including their inherent security weaknesses and the attacks that are currently targeting them. Some common-sense models of security will then be proposed that could help mitigate the security risks

15:30 EST

15 min

Break

15:45 EST

60 min
Erik Balodis

Our Journey: Data and Analytics Strategy at a Central Bank

Erik Balodis, Program Director, Enterprise Data & Analytics Strategy, Bank of Canada

  • The Bank of Canada  is keenly aware of the rapid pace of change of the Canadian economy, and we understand the value of improved data and analytics to improve policy, research and business decision making
  • In 2018, we set out to capture a data and analytic strategy that would meet the evolving needs of Bank staff, and of Canadians.  This strategy had to address a range of data maturity levels, and was finalized in 2019.
  • Over the last 18 months, we’ve made significant progress to drive change across the Bank’s people, processes, and technologies; all with the objective of strengthening our data foundation, and improving our ability to undertake advanced data work.
  • COVID-19 has provided a new backdrop to our strategic efforts, and has placed an emphasis on digital transformation and the data capabilities that support our digital ambitions
  • This talk will discuss our journey, where we’ve made progress, and where we’ve encountered challenges.