Recently, Upstart partnered with The Erdős Institute to host the Invitations to Industry Seminar at the Upstart Columbus office. The Erdős Institute provides support for students who are finishing their PhD programs and transitioning into their career. This allowed students to learn more about our company culture, the day-to-day life of an Upstarter, and how our team is making a direct impact on the credit industry.
At Upstart, the Machine Learning team plays a key role in building statistical and machine learning models that power Upstart’s lending marketplace. They work collaboratively with our engineering team to improve credit underwriting, fraud, pricing, and marketing models. This enables Upstart to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate the borrowing process and price credit.
Wondering what it’s like for a PhD candidate to attend this event?
Kung-Ching Lin (he/him), Research Scientist at Upstart, led a presentation on how Upstart goes beyond the traditional credit score as a determining factor to creditworthiness. By using non-conventional variables, such as employment and education, at scale, Upstart’s AI-model can expand access to affordable credit. He provided insights into how Upstart partners with banks and credit unions to serve more creditworthy borrowers by leveraging AI and ML.
Catherine Reynolds (she/her), Staff Machine Learning Recruiter at Upstart, discussed the organizational structure for the Machine Learning team. She also shared the importance of each sub-team’s focus area for goal-setting, and how that coincides with Upstart’s current open roles.
Following the presentations, a panelist of Upstart ML researchers held a live Q&A session about overcoming obstacles and hardships in their field of work, and highlighting important skills and information from when they were first transitioning into the industry.
“It was great to meet with the Erdős Institute members last month to discuss the work we do at Upstart and answer their insightful questions about how Upstart uses AI and machine learning models to better predict consumer risk and expand access to credit.” — Model Governance Lead at Upstart
Upstart looks forward to continuing to build the relationships with Erdős and their students, and open doors to career opportunities at Upstart.
