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Kevin Horecka
Distinguished Architect - Machine Learning & Data Science at Walmart Global Tech
Kevin Horecka is a distinguished architect specializing in Machine Learning and Data Science at Walmart Global Tech, based in Austin, Texas. He has been in this role since April 2022, having previously served as a Principal Data Scientist and Machine Learning Engineer at Walmart Technology since April 2020. His career at Walmart began in June 2019 as a Lead Machine Learning Engineer/Data Scientist.
Horecka holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he focused on computational neuroscience and memory. His research involved using techniques such as Virtual Reality and neuroimaging to explore human memory and cognitive functions. He also has a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Texas Tech University, with a concentration in Image Processing and Machine Learning.
In addition to his professional roles, Horecka has received several awards for his work in cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence, highlighting his contributions to the field. His academic publications reflect his expertise in neural systems modeling and computational neuroscience.123
Highlights
We've all seen the dramatic changes in housing availability and stability since COVID, and people with pets, especially renters, have unique challenges when they encounter housing related struggles to get to stay with their pets, whom they often consider a part of their family. This paper (a collaboration between myself, Jennifer W. Applebaum, Lauren Loney, and Dr. Taryn M. Graham) had a really cool, really large data set on housing related relinquishments among a bunch of amazing (high survival rate) shelters.
A few takeaways:
- 14% of relinquishments are due to housing in these shelters from Dec 2019 - Dec 2023, which is 28,424 animals in this sample
- Some animals (pitbulls, large dogs, and dogs of unhoused persons especially) are more likely to die as a result of these relinquishments
- Relinquishments due to housing instability seem to be increasing while other housing related relinquishing reasons may be improving
- Intakes of the more at risk animal types due to housing seem to be decreasing
So this paper isn't all bad news! While housing situations may be worsening, the community of animal sheltering's efforts to keep pets with their families may be working. That said, there's still lots of room for improvement in policy to help people and their pets stay together.
Check out this eBook that myself, Julie Levy, E Susan Amirian, PhD, and Peter Wolf edited together: fro.ntiers.in/17444 - Reimaging Animal Sheltering: Support Services and Community-Driven Sheltered Methods . There's an incredible breadth of topics in this space that are in desperate need of careful research attention. The authors in this eBook did a great job of spearheading several of those topics, and I'm really excited to have been involved in helping to get their work into the public eye! #animalwelfare #research
