Social Impact Tech: Scott Mackaro of AccuWeather On How Their Technology Will Make An Important Positive Impact
An Interview With Jilea Hemmings
Today, it is my aim to leverage the latest in technology and data from across the globe to improve our ability to forecast weather impacts. Technology offers a variety of approaches to address our goal of improving weather forecasts. Machine learning offers an opportunity to fill in gaps of purely physics-based solutions. This requires massive amounts of data and the corresponding technology and data engineering to leverage it. Perhaps more importantly, we are also using technology to help us deliver this in real time. Weather can’t wait.
In recent years, Big Tech has gotten a bad rep. But of course many tech companies are doing important work making monumental positive changes to society, health, and the environment. To highlight these, we started a new interview series about “Technology Making An Important Positive Social Impact”. We are interviewing leaders of tech companies who are creating or have created a tech product that is helping to make a positive change in people’s lives or the environment. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Scott Mackaro.
Scott Mackaro is the vice president of science & innovation at AccuWeather where he leads teams and strategies required to meet global consumer and business needs while ensuring strong meteorological and data science foundations across all products and offerings. Some of the technology development he has driven includes strengthening AccuWeather’s machine learning capabilities, improvements and expansion of AccuWeather MinuteCast®, various meteorological applications including indoor humidity and weather-derived indices, and improvements to AccuWeather’s world class maps.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory and how you grew up?
I am an East Coast kid who grew up in Baltimore, MD in the 80s and 90s. Interested in science from a young age, my parent bought me a relevant multi-volume encyclopedia that I read front to back (when I wasn’t outside exploring nature). That was a catalyst for a lot of self-discoveries as I worked my way through many of the classic Earth science options; Paleontology, Space science(s), Geology and Volcanology, Meteorology, etc.
Meteorology was something I discovered in high school. Paired with my interest in doing impactful work and a hobby in photography, I was known for ‘chasing’ weather (by Baltimore standards), notifying my friends of dangers, and taking every opportunity to explore the science.
In the late 90s in Baltimore (at least in my world), support in choosing a career was somewhat limited and a holistic view of how technology was rapidly changing the world wasn’t something at our fingertips. So, it was the movie Twister, released my junior year, that cemented my decision to pursue this profession. Regardless of its realism, it was a serendipitous decision that has allowed me a rewarding career to date.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I once brought down a multi-million-dollar supercomputer with an incorrectly placed FOR loop. Fun times before best practices.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I am lucky enough to say that there are so many people I’m grateful for. Off the top of my head, names like Richard Clark, William Hooke, William Lapenta, Brent Shaw, and Kevin Petty have all been major catalysts in my life. William Hooke, in particular, shifted my entire life with a simple story. At times when I was struggling to understand what I wanted to do in my career, I asked Bill for some perspective. I was under the impression that I had to choose a line of work that was focused on a particular technology, or problem set. I asked him to tell me about his biggest accomplishment. He responded by explaining that the people he had the opportunity to lift up was his greatest professional accomplishment. His response resonated with me more than any other perspective I had received in my career. So I’ve set out to do the same. When you lift up people, you can become a force multiplier for impact.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I have a book of them that I keep around. One of the first quotes is by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” This quote reminds me not to just delegate and tell people what to do, but to inspire them and help those around me understand how their work fits into a bigger, more meaningful picture. To do this, I always seek to understand how my (and others’) efforts are making an impact, even if very small.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Adaptability, Relentlessness, and people-centric.
My ability to adapt quickly has been key to many of the successes I’ve enjoyed in my career. Technology changes fast, markets change fast, life changes fast. It’s been important that I don’t stick to only what I’ve known to position myself, my team, and the organizations I’ve been part of for the future.
I’m a relentless individual. I’m always looking for more problems to solve, ways to improve, and better approaches to leading people. I used to shy away from this trait, thinking it was a flaw. Rather than ignoring it, I’ve embraced it and instead focused on celebrating wins along the way (mine and those around me). It has helped me push boundaries.
In my field, science & technology dominate the conversation. It’s the people, however, that make things happen. So, I’ve spent my career being people-centric and focusing on lifting up those that come along in life. Whether it’s a student, a colleague, a customer, or someone that you meet randomly, there are few impacts you can have greater than improving the lives around you.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the tech tools that you are helping to create that can make a positive social impact on our society. To begin, what problems are you aiming to solve?
Weather impacts the lives of every living creature on this planet. The challenges we face because of weather (and the long-term climate) are immense. It could be as simple as making daily decisions for comfort and health or as complex as decisions that prepare us for mitigating catastrophe. Weather, however, is an imperfect science. There are gaps in the observing systems, imperfections in the models, and technology challenges at every turn. Further, technology is greatly out pacing science and humanity’s ability to leverage it. There is no shortage of problems to solve.
Today, it is my aim to leverage the latest in technology and data from across the globe to improve our ability to forecast weather impacts.
How do you think your technology can address this?
Technology offers a variety of approaches to address our goal of improving weather forecasts. Machine learning offers an opportunity to fill in gaps of purely physics-based solutions. This requires massive amounts of data and the corresponding technology and data engineering to leverage it. Perhaps more importantly, we are also using technology to help us deliver this in real time. Weather can’t wait.
Can you tell us the backstory about what inspired you to originally feel passionate about this cause?
I was part of an early-stage start-up focused on improving application specific forecasting solutions. We had an amazing team that was pushing weather modeling and data assimilation to its limit. Our technology allowed us to produce a solution that was statistically better than anything available. Statistically better did not mean good enough to change the market. That experience left me hungry for better (and faster) solutions. There had to be a way.
How do you think this might change the world?
Quite the grandiose question. Depending on your perspective, you could argue that saving a life is changing the world.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this technology that people should think more deeply about?
Our technology is deeply reliant on the quality and quantity of data. As we continue to improve the forecast, people will put more and more trust in the result. Life and death decisions are made. Decisions with enormous financial consequences are made. Weather data, while often very trustworthy and reliable, is not without its limitations.
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, can you please share “Five things you need to know to successfully create technology that can make a positive social impact”? (Please share a story or an example, for each if possible.)
- Start with the problem, not the technology — When you truly understand the problem you are trying to solve, you can work your way backwards to the technology. There are countless companies with technology looking for a problem.
- Understand how the problem changes depending on where you are in the world — the very phrase ‘social impact’ can be defined very differently depending on where you are in the world. I’ve seen several technologies that could only offer social impact in places that could afford it.
- Consider what data and subsequent data technology is required to be successful. Save everything — sometimes the problem you are solving doesn’t come with clean and plentiful data. If you are creating it, save everything. If you are gathering it, gather it all.
- Choose technology that can be delivered in the time frame required, at scale — there are plenty of studies showing amazing results from simulations that take weeks to run. It is my experience that many social impacts need results on a more real-time timescale.
- Build technology that is adaptable — technology changes fast… often faster than social impacts are achieved. If your goal is the social gain, then building technology that can improve and adapt with time will keep you at the forefront of the social impact.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
There is a saying I like to repeat. Leave it better than you found it. It’s a great saying for camping and equally as great when trying to find purpose in life. You can impact generations that follow you by leaving this planet better than you found it.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why?
Almost definitely, but rather than focusing on one, I take the opportunity to meet with anyone that will take the time. I’ve learned some of the most important lessons from individuals that I least expected it from.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Download the AccuWeather app to check out all the latest updates. They can also follow @accuweather on Twitter to find out about new product announcements and more.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational, and we wish you continued success in your important work.
Social Impact Tech: Scott Mackaro of AccuWeather On How Their Technology Will Make An Important… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.