Francesca Lazzeri, PhD is Senior Machine Learning Scientist, Cloud Advocate at Microsoft on the Cloud AI team and expert in big data technology innovations and the applications of machine learning-based solutions to real-world problems. Her research has spanned the areas of machine learning, statistical modeling, time series econometrics and forecasting, and a range of industries – energy, oil and gas, retail, aerospace, healthcare, and professional services. Before joining Microsoft as Data Scientist, she was Research Fellow in Business Economics at Harvard Business School, where she performed statistical and econometric analysis within the Technology and Operations Management Unit. At Harvard, she worked on multiple patent, publication and social network data-driven projects to investigate and measure the impact of external knowledge networks on companies’ competitiveness and innovation.