Citizens of Silopolis: Hissu Hyvärinen, Senior AI Scientist at Silo AI

Hissu is an experienced AI scientist who excels at simplifying complex concepts and understanding the human aspect of things. With an academic background in computational linguistics from the University of Helsinki and a PhD from the IT University of Copenhagen, she has gained a deep understanding of the intersection between technology and human language. She is also an active advocate of work-life balance.

Early career and academic background

Hissu has always been passionate about languages and found them to be the most interesting subject in school. This passion led her to study Computational Linguistics at the University of Helsinki. Her educational path has allowed her to develop a deep understanding of natural language processing and computer science, particularly in the area of how machines interpret human language and derive meaningful insights.

She received her PhD degree from the IT University of Copenhagen, where she defended her doctoral thesis on the expression of emotions on social media. Despite her love for research, she realized that academia was not the best fit for her in the long run. She stumbled upon client work and consultancy through a friend and quickly developed a passion for using AI to create tangible business value, enjoying the diversity and practicality of this work. In client work, she takes great pride in helping clients find solutions to their problems while learning more about data science in different domains.

Hissu's role as a solution-oriented data science expert

Hissu's primary area of expertise is data science, where she excels at simplifying complex concepts and understanding the human aspect of things. As a solution-focused data science expert at Silo AI, Hissu's role involves guiding clients through the design, implementation, and evaluation of machine learning models, alongside tasks like building pipelines and experimenting with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

Hissu's guiding principle in client work centers on creating practical solutions that enhance user experience and usability.

"The true value of a solution lies not just in its technical prowess but whether it is suitable for the person who uses it and whether it solves the problem that needs to be solved." - Hissu Hyvärinen, Senior AI Scientist at Silo AI

Project ownership and championing work-life balance at Silo AI

Since beginning her journey at Silopolis, Hissu has grown within her role, and nowadays, in addition to her data scientist work, she has the added responsibility internally referred to as Project Owner. As a Project Owner, Hissu leads expert teams in client projects. She gets to deepen her understanding of the business side of things as she participates in discussions where the scope and desired outcome of a client collaboration are defined. This added responsibility also allows her to develop her team leadership skills, which she finds particularly meaningful. 

As a leader, Hissu describes her purpose to be two-folded; on one hand, she considers it essential to ensure her team has a mutual understanding that as our client's strategic AI partner, the core purpose of Silo AI's work is to ensure that everything we do is a valuable contribution to the client's business and competitive edge, solving the issues that we're set out to be solved. On the other hand, when working with highly skilled and ambitious AI experts, Hissu finds it crucial to remind her team that individual wellbeing and work-life balance are the prerequisites for success.

Hissu encourages her team to do their best every day, even when that best can look different depending on the day. She encourages her team to ask the following question daily, taking into account their capabilities and the client's needs: "Within the circumstances that I have today, how can I best help the customer?"

Passion for human-centric AI

Hissu's passion for developing cutting-edge AI solutions for business use cases that solve actual problems and make users’ lives easier is evident and directly aligned with Silo AI's vision of building AI for people – a world with safe human-centric AI that frees the human mind for meaningful work. When asked about Silo AI's values, Hissu subscribes to all of them and resonates most with "Be Good," a testament to her belief in kindness and collaborative success.

When Hissu is not busy working, she likes to fill her spare time with a large variety of hobbies. Singing in a choir is one of her hobbies, and it allows her to enjoy music while experiencing how it feels to collaborate seamlessly as part of a bigger whole. Additionally, she enjoys singing, playing, and dancing folk music as they are all about living in the moment, improvising, and collaborating with others to create something unique – which also holds true for live-action role-playing, another one of Hissu's hobbies. Hissu started climbing when she lived in Switzerland, and a significant part of its appeal is the puzzle-solving aspect. Climbing has also taught her to approach difficult tasks without getting discouraged and enjoying them.