Samira Shaikh

Dr. Samira Shaikh is an accomplished professional in the fields of natural language processing, data science, computational sociolinguistics, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. She currently serves as the Director of Data Science at Ally, where she leads teams in designing, building, and optimizing chatbots, voice assistants, and natural language processing systems supporting multiple applications in banking and financial services. Previously, she worked as a Senior Research Scientist at the Research Foundation of the State University of New York and as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, conducting cutting-edge research and teaching courses in data mining, natural language processing, and machine learning. Her research has garnered funding from esteemed institutions, including DARPA, ONR, ARO, NSF, and AFRL, underscoring the importance and impact of her work. In 2016, Dr. Shaikh earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Albany.

• 2020–Present·Ally·Director of Data Science
  • Leads teams of data scientists and engineers to design, develop, and optimize chatbots, voice assistants, and natural language processing systems; collaborates with product managers and business analysts to define Ally's conversational AI vision, strategy, and roadmap.
• 2016–2020·University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte)·Assistant Professor
  • Conducted research and taught courses in computer science and cognitive science, focusing on data science, natural language processing, and machine learning.
• 2012–2016·State University of New York Research Foundation (SUNY Research Foundation)·Senior Research Scientist
  • Participated in multiple federally funded research projects, advancing the fields of data science and artificial intelligence.

• 2016·State University of New York at Albany·Ph.D.
  • Computer Science, focused on developing virtual chat agents capable of influencing opinions in online discussions.