The morning session at Thursday’s Washington Innovation Summit focused on “big data.” It began with a keynote by Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith – a rousing call for greater focus on computer science education. UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska then introduced the “big data” topic. Lazowska then emceed a panel with Christian Chabot (CEO, Tableau Software), Mike Fridgen (CEO, UW CSE startup Decide.com), Cameron Myhrvold (Founding Partner, Ignition Partners), and UW CSE alum Ruben Ortega (Engineering Director, Google). This was followed by short presentations by UW CSE professor Shwetak Patel (on the smart home), PNNL’s Carl Imhoff (on the smart grid), and Sage Bionetworks’ Mike Kellen (on smart discovery), and a Q&A session moderated by Lazowska. Isilon’s Bill Richter then introduced the Information Technology Coalition.
Washington Governor-elect Jay Inslee and President of the Washington DC – based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation Rob Atkinson provided luncheon keynotes. A panel discussion on regional competitiveness was followed by a panel discussion on education and workforce issues featuring UW CSE Chair Hank Levy and UW CSE alum (and UW Regent) Jeremy Jaech.
Seattle Times coverage here, here, and here. GeekWire coverage here. Lazowska’s talk here.