Rushen Patel - Head of Enterprise Data Science at Marks & Spencer

Our guest today is Rushen Patel, Head of Enterprise Data Science at Marks & Spencer (M&S), a major British retailer with around  £10 billion in annual revenue. 

In our conversation, we discuss the key steps in Rushen's career.  We start with his PhD in Control Theory at Imperial College London, going over the similarities and differences between this field and AI. We then discuss his experience in vehicle simulation and modelling at Red Bull Racing and the impact that his work had on Formula 1 races. We then focus on how he founded a new Data Science team at M&S and how he applied AI to sales pricing in order to make the company save millions of pounds. We finally talk about ProGrad, a new startup which uses AI to revolutionise student loans.  Throughout the conversation, Rushen also gives various advice on how to become a good Data Scientist and progress further in your career.