Today's Messages

The Spring 2026 Data Science and Analytics Seminar Series presents "Applying Machine Learning in the Real World: Lessons from Retail and Marketing" with invited speaker Utkarsh Agrawal, principal data scientist at Walmart, on Monday, April 6, from 4:30 to 5: 45 p.m. in Bacon Hall 117 (Zoom: 718-6340613). 

The presentation will focus on:

• How machine learning is used in retail and marketing (real-world examples)
• Differences between classroom ML models and industry applications
• The role of business context in building successful ML solutions
• How experimentation helps validate and improve ML-driven decisions
• Q&A 

Utkarsh Agrawal is a principal data scientist at Walmart, where he leads applied machine learning, experimentation, and measurement initiatives in the retail and marketing domain. He has over 12 years of experience building ML-driven solutions across organizations spanning advertising, customer science, and analytics, with a focus on audience targeting, customer analytics, and decision systems. Mr. Agrawal specializes in applying machine learning in real-world business settings, bridging the gap between statistical models and practical constraints such as data limitations, scalability, and stakeholder needs. He holds a master’s degree in machine learning and AI and has received multiple internal awards for his contributions, including the “Breakthrough Impact” award for applied machine learning work.