If every algorithm looked like "map reduce" and all data naturally fit a single data store, solving Big Data problems would be straightforward. The real world, however, is not so simple. Most big data problems require complex analytics over data that is spread out among multiple data stores. Current technology could be force-fit to address these problems, but only by sacrificing programmer productivity.

Research at the Intel Big Data Science and Technology Center (based at MIT with support from 4 other universities) is addressing this problem. Our central idea is a concept we call "polystore". In a polystore system, multiple database systems with potentially different data models are exposed to the programmer through a single framework. Middleware supports location transparency and semantic completeness through a uniform interface. Our reference implementation for this concept is the BigDAWG stack (Big Data Analytics working group). In this talk, we will discuss the motivations and vision for BigDAWG, the current state of its architecture, the progress we have made in implementing it, and highlight the major challenges that lie ahead of us.

An overview of some of the work is contained in http://livinglab.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/bigdawg-polystore-sy....

Tim Mattson is a parallel programmer (Ph.D. Chemistry, UCSC, 1985). Tim has been with Intel since 1993 where he has worked with brilliant people on great projects such as: (1) the first TFLOP computer (ASCI Red), (2) the OpenMP API for shared memory programming, (3) the OpenCL programming language for heterogeneous platforms, (4) Intel's first TFLOP chip (the 80 core research chip), and (5) Intel's 48 core, SCC research processor. Currently Tim is working in the Parallel Computing lab. He is (1) the PI for our Big Data science and technology center, and (2) leading a small group studying revolutionary approaches to runtime systems for exascale computers.

This joint meeting of the Boston Chapter of the IEEE Computer Society and GBC/ACM will be held in MIT Room 32-G449 (the Kiva conference room on the 4th floor of the Stata Center, buildng 32 on MIT maps) . You can see it on this map of the MIT campus.