VLDB 2019: Keynote Speakers

Graph Processing: A Panaromic View and Some Open Problems M. Tamer Özsu (University of Waterloo) Slides Abstract: Graphs are not new in database community – we have long used them to model and reason about database operations and some of our earliest systems were built on graph models. There has been a renewed interest in the last decade in using graphs model real-life phenomena in many domains. Recent studies suggest that there is interest among the user community in using graphs to model applications and data that have traditionally been considered the domain of relational systems. Despite intense research and development efforts in graph processing, these efforts are fragmented, and general purpose, scalable solutions are not yet available. In this talk, I will provide a systematic look at the field and highlight some of the open research issues. Bio: M. Tamer Özsu is a University Professor in the Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo where he also holds a Cheriton Faculty Fellowship. Before Waterloo, he spent 16 years at the University of Alberta. His research is on distributed data management and the management of non-conventional data. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, American Association for the Advancement of Science, ACM and IEEE, an elected member of Academy of Science of Turkey and a member of Sigma Xi. He is the recipient of the CS-Can/Info-Can (Canadian Computer Science Society) Lifetime Achievement Award, ACM SIGMOD Test-of-Time Award, ACM SIGMOD Contributions Award and the Ohio State University College of Engineering Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is the recipient of two best paper awards and a paper with honourable mention.

Getting Rid of Data Tova Milo (Tel Aviv University, Israel) Slides Abstract: We are experiencing an amazing data-centered revolution. Incredible amounts of data are collected, integrated and analyzed, leading to key breakthroughs in science and society. This well of knowledge, however, is at a great risk if we do not dispense with some of the data flood. First, the amount of generated data grows exponentially and already at 2020 is expected to be more than twice the available storage. Second, even disregarding storage constraints, uncontrolled data retention risks privacy and security, as recognized, e.g., by the recent EU Data Protection reform. Data disposal policies must be developed to benefit and protect organizations and individuals.
Retaining the knowledge hidden in the data while respecting storage, processing and regulatory constraints is a great challenge. The difficulty stems from the distinct, intricate requirements entailed by each type of constraint, the scale and velocity of data and the constantly evolving needs. While multiple data sketching, summarization and deletion techniques were developed to address specific aspects of the problem, we are still very far from a comprehensive solution. Every organization has to battle the same tough challenges, with ad hoc solutions that are application specific and rarely sharable.
In this talk I will discuss the logical, algorithmic, and methodological foundations required for the systematic disposal of large-scale data, for constraints enforcement and for the development of applications over the retained information. I will overview relevant related work, highlighting new research challenges and potential reuse of existing techniques, as well as the research performed in this direction in the Tel Aviv Databases group. Bio: Tova Milo received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1992. After graduating she worked at the INRIA research institute in Paris and at University of Toronto and returned to Israel in 1995, joining the School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv university, where she is now a full Professor and holds the Chair of Information Management. She served as the Head of the Computer Science Department from 2011-2014. Her research focuses on large-scale data management applications such as data integration, semi-structured information, Data-centered Business Processes and Crowd-sourcing, studying both theoretical and practical aspects. Tova served as the Program Chair of multiple international conferences, including PODS, VLDB, ICDT, XSym, and WebDB, and as the chair of the PODS Executive Committee. She served as a member of the VLDB Endowment and the PODS and ICDT executive boards and as an editor of TODS, IEEE Data Eng. Bull, and the Logical Methods in Computer Science Journal. Tova has received grants from the Israel Science Foundation, the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, the Israeli and French Ministry of Science and the European Union. She is an ACM Fellow, a member of Academia Europaea, a recipient of the 2010 ACM PODS Alberto O. Mendelzon Test-of-Time Award, the 2017 VLDB Women in Database Research award, the 2017 Weizmann award for Exact Sciences Research, and of the prestigious EU ERC Advanced Investigators grant.

Awesome Data Use Cases from Hollywood: How data is changing everything about the entertainment experience Eric Iverson (CIO, Creative Artists Agency) Abstract: For more than 75 years, movies and television have engaged our imagination with gripping stories highlighting the impact of technology on the world and the worlds we create. And while Hollywood has always found the importance of data and technology in storytelling, its role in the business has been persistent, but understated. That has all changed. From music to sports to TV to the movies, data is changing everything about how entertainment works. Data now plays important roles in what content we make, where we show it, how we make it, who sees it, and how we can improve the overall experience when audiences engage with entertainment. In this session we will explore the surprising and fascinating ways data is changing all aspects Hollywood and the entertainment industry both now and into the future. Bio: Eric Iverson is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA). Iverson is based in the Los Angeles office and oversees the Information Technology department. His responsibilities include IT technology support, cybersecurity, data analytics engineering, application solutions, and digital media solutions.
Prior to joining CAA in 2016, Iverson spent more than 17 years as CIO at Sony Pictures Television where he was responsible for the global systems portfolio and led strategic technology change initiatives for television production, distribution, and network channels.
He graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in music composition.