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Q&A: Talking With the New Executive Director of the SFU Big Data Initiative
Friday, December 16, 2016Company Profile | Follow Company
Fred Popowich, Executive Director of the Big Data Initiative at SFU (Credit SFU)
Burnaby, BC, December 15, 2016--(T-Net)--Simon Fraser University recently welcomed Fred Popowich to the big-data team at SFU as part of their Big Data Initiative.
He will serve as the inaugural executive director of the Big Data Initiative and brings a wealth of expertise to this new role.
As SFU's representative for Canada's Big Data Consortium, he will work with industry and university partners to help Canada address some of the greatest challenges and opportunities in big data.
As a computing science professor, he has a strong academic record, and has collaborated with researchers from many of the faculties at SFU. He is also a seasoned administrator and currently serves as the associate director of research and industrial relations in the School of Computing Science and director of the Professional Masters in Big Data.
Popowich is also the president of the Canadian Network for Visual Analytics (CANVAC) and founding director of the Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics.
Popowich answers a few questions and shares about his passion for big data:
Why is big data important to you?
Because it has linkages to so many different areas of the University, and can have an impact on so many different parts of society. Big data is generated all around us in our everyday lives and around the world. It can't be ignored.
What is your number one goal for taking on this new role at SFU?
Allowing the community (and not just the University community, but the external community as well) to learn more about the many aspects of big data, then see how this knowledge can be applied to issues that are important to an individual or organization.
What do you hope to achieve in the future?
I aim to establish stronger ties between individuals and organizations that can help us deal with issues beyond those associated with big data.
Is there anything else about yourself and big data that you'd like to share?
I have always been interested in how interdisciplinary teams can solve complex problems. Although my home department is computing science, I am an also an associate member in linguistics, and an associate member in cognitive science. By creating a cluster of big-data expertise here at SFU that supports world-class research across all disciplines, we can train the next generation of research leaders. I look forward to working on increasing our research computing capacity that will help transform research and academic studies in innovative ways.
Imagine the possibilities!
See more details on the SFU Big Data Initiative here: http://www.sfu.ca/vpresearch/bigdatainitiative.html
Q&A Credit: Simon Fraser University
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