UK Happenings

Faculty, Staff Encouraged to Join 'Big Data' Discussion on Tuesday

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 16, 2012) — University of Kentucky Information Technology (UKIT) invites UK faculty and staff to a "Big Data" discussion with IT futurist Thornton May from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 17, in the Student Center Worsham Theater.

High-speed analytics, or "Big Data" technology, enables the university to aggregate huge amounts of data from across the enterprise, continually update that data, and perform high-end analysis in real-time, 1,000 times faster than conventional data processing. Reports and analysis that would once have taken weeks or even months to compile — only to be out-of-date as soon as they were completed — can now be generated “on the fly.”

This session will separate hype from reality regarding Big Data systems and will dig deeper into real-world issues and solutions. Attendees should leave with an understanding of what UK is doing currently with Big Data analytics and how UK might implement future Big Data solutions.

A special welcome will be given by UK President Eli Capilouto. This event will also feature insights from UK Chief Information Officer Vince Kellen.

Thornton May has visited companies and IT leaders across the United States and worldwide and will share his experiences regarding the use of analytics and business intelligence. Thornton is the author of "The New Know" and has appeared before Congress serving as an expert witness on large technology implementations. He is an executive education faculty member at the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and Carnegie-Mellon University. Thornton’s insights have appeared in the Harvard Business Review; The Financial Times; The Wall Street Journal; the MIT Sloan Management Review; USA Today; Business Week and on NPR. Thornton is a columnist at Computerworld.