Industry Day

Industry Day at ECIR will bring together IR researchers, practitioners, analysts, and consumers to achieve knowledge transfer across academia and industry.

Industry Day at ECIR will be held on Friday 17th April 2020.

Program

Session 1

09:20‑09:40 Lessons from Large-scale Deployment of Transformer Models
09:40‑10:00 Searching the Law: a Doctrine case study
10:00‑10:20 The Unique Challenges of IR in the Industry:
Personalized Recommendations at eBay
10:20‑10:40 Discussion about Papers in the Session
The Industry Day is an online meeting, times are Lisbon time.

Session 2

11:20‑11:40 Search User Behaviour within the Procurement Contracts Domain
11:40‑12:00 Leveraging Masked Language Models at Unbabel
12:00‑12:20 Enabling the Power of Information Retrieval at Farfetch
12:20‑15:20 Discussion about Papers in the Session
The Industry Day is an online meeting, times are Lisbon time.

Session 3

15:20‑15:40 New Generation of AI-Powered Media Monitoring Tools
15:40‑16:00 Building Graphs Queries Using Structured Natural Language
16:00‑16:50 Keynote: Academic and Product Research: The Right Recipe for Innovation
16:50‑17:00 Wrap-up Discussion
The Industry Day is an online meeting, times are Lisbon time.

Keynote

Academic and Product Research: The Right Recipe for Innovation

Keynote address by Ashlee Edwards

Ashlee Edwards
Ashlee Edwards

Abstract: Academia and product research can at times seem like two completely separate worlds. In academia, bodies of research and theoretical frameworks are developed over time, while in product research we more quickly investigate questions in the service of business goals. However, academic and product research can often blend together and support each other in a seamless and complementary way, and product especially can be uniquely enriched with the introduction of academic learnings. In this talk, I will explore the ways in which academic research has informed my research experience at both Instagram and Netflix. I will argue that academic research helped inform some of my most impactful product research, and has provided useful frameworks through which I’ve enabled product innovation. I’ll also cover some areas where academic and product research has disagreed, and how I’ve reconciled these differences.

Bio: Ashlee Edwards is a Senior Product Researcher at Netflix leading research efforts for accessibility, language experience, and international growth. While at Instagram, her work focused on growing and engaging Instagrams user base, crafting a safe and comfortable space for teens on the platform, and understanding international markets. Prior to working in industry, Ashlee’s academic research centered around understanding engagement and frustration with search systems and interactive information retrieval.

Industry Day Chairs (industry-day_at_ecir2020.org)

Vanessa Murdock
   Amazon, USA

Bruno Martins
   Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal