Justin D. Norman

Justin D. Norman

PhD Candidate | ML/AI Leader

UC Berkeley

Hey! I’m Justin Norman.

I’m a fifth year PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, where I am advised by Hany Farid. My research interests include computer vision, generative AI (LLMs and VLMs) and machine learning engineering. I am a recipient of the Marcus Foster Fellowship and the FASPE Design & Technology Fellowship.

My PhD projects are focused on deepfake detection, content authenticity, improving the robustness of generative computer vision systems, and LLM hallucination detection, mitigation and prevention.

My latest role in industry is CTO and Head of AI at Vera AI. Previously I served as VP, Data Science, Analytics and Data Products at Yelp. Before that, I was the Director of Research and ML/AI at Cloudera Fast Forward Labs, Head of Applied Machine Learning at Fitbit, the Global Head of Cisco’s Enterprise Data Science Office and a Big Data Systems Engineer with Booz Allen Hamilton. In another life, I served as a Marine Corps Officer, with a focus in Systems Analytics and Intelligence.

Interests
  • Computer Vision
  • ML/AI
  • Machine Learning
  • MLOps | Data Engineering
  • ML Systems Design
Education

  • PhD in Computer Vision | Machine Learning, 2025 (expected)

    UC Berkeley

  • MBA w/ concentration in Business Analytics, 2015

    University of Southern California

  • Master's Certificate in Technology Commercialization, 2015

    University of Southern California

  • BS in Computer Science, 2007

    United States Naval Academy

Projects

Justin D. Norman, Cedric Deslandes Whitney (2024). Real Risks of Fake Data: Synthetic Data, Diversity-Washing and Consent Circumvention. (ACM FAccT).

DOI

Justin D. Norman, Hany Farid (2024). An Investigation into the Impact of AI-Powered Image Enhancement on Forensic Biometrics. (CVPR Conference Paper).

DOI

Justin D. Norman, Shruti Agarwal, Hany Farid (2023). An Evaluation of Forensic Facial Recognition. (ArXiv Pre-Print).

DOI

Justin D. Norman, Peter Skomoroch, Mike Loukides (2021). Product Management for AI. (O’Reilly Media, Inc.).

Project

Experience

 
 
 
 
 
Vera AI
CTO / Head of AI
Vera AI
Jun 2022 – Present California

As CTO, responsible for the entire Vera engineering team, technical consultants and design partners as well as the technical execution of the Vera product roadmap

As Head of AI, responsible for AI Research (LLM and Computer vision model training and eval) and ML Engineering

 
 
 
 
 
JDN & Associates, LLC
CEO
JDN & Associates, LLC
Jan 2022 – Present California

Head of a Machine Learning/AI Research and Data Systems Integration consultancy. Core competencies include:

  • Deepfake Detection
  • LLM Hallucination Detection and Mitigation
  • ML/AI Research
  • ML/AI System Design and Deployment
  • Computer Vision and Computational Photography
  • Large-Scale Data Systems Design
 
 
 
 
 
Yelp
VP, Data Science, Analytics & Data Products
Yelp
Nov 2019 – Dec 2021 California
As the head of Data Science and Data Product at Yelp, was responsible for five functional Data Science teams and the corporate Data Product Management team, as well as the Yelp DS/ML experimentation platform (Bunsen) and the Core Machine Learning Platform.
 
 
 
 
 
Cloudera Fast Forward Labs
Director, Research and Data Science
Cloudera Fast Forward Labs
Jul 2018 – Nov 2019 California
Served as the head of machine learning research at Cloudera, supervising a diverse team of over 30, composed of research engineers, Data Science Managers, Front-end Designer/Developers, Technical Program Managers and ML engineers.
 
 
 
 
 
Fitbit
Head of Applied Machine Learning
Fitbit
Jan 2018 – Jul 2019 California
Led a team of data scientists and machine learning engineers in the development of algorithmic applications for fitness and health monitoring.
 
 
 
 
 
Cisco
Senior Manager, Enterprise Data Science
Cisco
Apr 2012 – Dec 2019 California
As the Chief Data Scientist and Data Science Team lead at the Cisco Enterprise Data Science office, responsible for model selection, development, training and validation of analytical products.

Contact

  • justin - dot - norman - at - berkeley - dot - edu