Bringing People Closer to Data
Chris Stolte (Tableau Software)
CSE Distinguished Lecture
Tuesday, January 17, 2017, 3:30pm
Atrium
Abstract
Data today is everywhere. It is in spreadsheets, emails, PDF documents, corporate databases, large Hadoop clusters, and cloud data warehouses. This data has the potential to have large positive impact on how people make decisions, run their business, and tackle society's most challenging issues. However, it is too hard for most people to access and understand their data. The challenge is making data accessible to the people who are experts in the domain of the data rather than experts in technology. To give those people the power to extract meaning from that data, to discover insights, and to tell "data stories," we need to rethink the technology stack for data analysis. In this talk, Tableau co-founder Chris Stolte will discuss the approach that Tableau has taken to bringing people closer to data, the three pillars of Tableau's technology for data analytics, and the big open challenges in making data accessible to everyone.
Bio
Chris Stolte is a co-founder of Tableau and served as its original Chief Development Officer from inception until August 2016. It was Dr. Stolte's seminal work as a Ph.D. candidate in the Stanford University Computer Science department that formed the basis of the patented technology behind Tableau, VizQL. Working with Professor Pat Hanrahan, Stolte developed VizQL as the core invention of his thesis project, Polaris. Funded by a Department of Defense (DOD) project, Polaris aimed at increasing people's ability to analyze information visually. In 2003, Stolte, together with Hanrahan and Christian Chabot, decided to commercialize Polaris under the name Tableau Software. Chris then led product development at Tableau for 13 years. He has served as a member of Tableau's board of directors since 2003. His early career as a database programmer helped him see the problems with existing data analysis tools.
Chris currently serves as Tableau's Technical Advisor. Prior to joining Tableau, he was the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of BeeLine LLC. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford University and a B.S. from Simon Fraser University.