Being Thankful in 2020
A look back at founding NeuML in a year we’ll never forget
NeuML was founded in January 2020. Entering the year, our initial focus was neuspo, a fact-driven, real-time sports event and news site. neuspo was released in February with analysis focused on the upcoming NCAA basketball tournament. This work developed a following and algorithms were ready to predict the matchups.
In early March, it’s safe to say the world went to crap. Sports were cancelled and everything changed.
NeuML in 2020
Instead of waiting for normalcy to return, NeuML made the best of the situation. We refocused on “Applying machine learning to solve everyday problems”. The Natural Language Processing (NLP) methods and algorithms in neuspo had a much broader scope than just sports.
To date in 2020, NeuML has accomplished the following:
- Worked with an international team of epidemiologists, doctors, data scientists and machine-learning engineers to analyze COVID-19 research articles. An AI-powered index was used to identify and aggregate common risk-factors, successful therapeutics and interventions across 100,000’s of medical articles. This work assisted the medical community in improving patient outcomes early on in the pandemic. This effort was cited in the Wall Street Journal and received 7 awards in the Kaggle CORD-19 Challenge (proceeds were donated to COVID-19 relief funds).
- Released 10 open-source Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine-Learning focused applications, receiving over 1,000 stars on GitHub
- Developed txtai, an AI-powered search engine. txtai established a common framework for all of NeuML’s NLP applications.
- Developed a pipeline of potential customers interested in our work. Built an audience on social media and other online channels.
- Published 14 Medium articles with over 60,000 views and 2,000 claps
- Released neuspo, a fact-driven, real-time sports event and news site
Much of this still feels like an alternate reality. In no way, shape or form was this the script for 2020. Note that neuspo is the last bullet in the list above. Would I trade this reality and go back to what I thought 2020 would be? Am I thankful for 2020? Those are tough questions.
What to make of 2020
2020 in many ways sucked, no way around that. We spent months in isolation, things still aren’t back to normal and we’re still unsure when and what normal will be.
In this environment, those who took the initiative to create something new and/or pivoted their efforts towards the new reality will be rewarded for it. The good news is it’s never too late, the world doesn’t need to shutdown to find your purpose. We can’t always control the path we go down but we can control making the best of it.
Keeping a positive outlook, even when times are tough is important. Taking advantage of the opportunities we get is crucial, even when it’s not what we set out to do.
Giving Thanks
I’m immensely proud of what NeuML has accomplished this year. To be part of the global effort towards defeating COVID-19, however small, is a noteworthy achievement. Creating a wide range of open-source applications to solve real-world problems is rewarding. Sharing technical knowledge and experience is enjoyable. This work all leading down a path towards a successful business model is something special.
The NeuML vision is clear. There is a foundation to grow and expand on. 2021 has great promise that is only possible given the events of 2020.
I am thankful for opportunities that were presented, the contributions we were fortunate to make and the exciting potential that lies ahead!
