Brad Rubin (@bradrubin) - Director of the Center of Excellence for Big Data, Hadoop User Group

Summary: Brad Rubin has been a professor in the Graduate Programs in Software department in the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas for the past 13 years. He is also Director of the Center of Excellence for Big Data, and teaches a course in Big Data Architecture, along with courses in Computer Security and Scala. He co-leads the Twin Cities Spark and Hadoop User Group. Previously, he spent most of his industry career at IBM in Rochester, MN. Brad has degrees in Computer and Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana and a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Interviewer: Rajib Bahar Agenda: - You are one of the organizers of TC Spark & Hadoop user group. What motivated you to start it? When did it start? We would love to hear about it's history. - In your role as Director of "Center of Excellence for Big Data" in the Graduate Programs at the University of St. Thomas, how do you make sure your program is actually relevant to the industry? In early 2000, computer science curriculum were generally behind from industry trend. Do you find your program having similar struggle? - What is the difference between your Data Science Certificate & Master of Data Science program? - Is your Big Data curriculum technology agnostic? I am just wondering... Do they employ only open source framework or both commercial and open source? - How many Big Data and Data Science experts have graduated from University of St Thomas's program? - Now, back to TC Spark & Hadoop User group... What has been the most interesting presentation? - How can we get connected with you online or social media? Music: www.freesfx.co.uk