Our presenters

Paul Rodrigues, PhD, serves as the CEO and Principal AI Scientist at MagicSpark, LLC, bringing a wealth of experience and leadership in the field of artificial intelligence and natural language processing. Before starting MagicSpark, Dr. Rodrigues was Principal Director of Data Science Innovation and the Natural Language Processing Science Director at Accenture Federal Services, where he coordinated NLP efforts across Accenture’s clients. His leadership extended to leading the AFS NLP Community of Practice, a group comprising over 300 members. Dr. Rodrigues played a pivotal role in training upwards of 700 professionals, including data scientists, machine learning engineers, and data visualization specialists, within the AFS Data and AI Practice. His expertise was recognized on a global scale during his tenure as Accenture’s NLP Ambassador.

Prior to his commercial work, Dr. Rodrigues was an Associate Research Scientist at two Department of Defense University Affiliated Research Centers (UARCs) – the University of Maryland Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS) and the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL). In academia, he continues to shape the future of AI as an instructor of Big Data Analytics in the University of Maryland’s Master of Professional Studies in Machine Learning Program. Dr. Rodrigues has led 10 federally funded research projects, authored over 25 peer-reviewed research papers, and produced more than 20 comprehensive technical reports for U.S. government clients. He holds a Ph.D. in Computational Linguistics from Indiana University, a M.A. in Computational Linguistics from Indiana University, and a B.S. in Computer Science from Stockton University.