People, Data and Analysis

Big data is a hot topic in computing. Most research has focused on automatic methods of data processing such as machine learning and natural language processing. Another important direction of research is how to build systems that can store and process massive data sets.

Unfortunately, what has been lost in the discussion is how people should use data to perform analysis and make decisions. It is unlikely that people will be replaced completely by automated decision making systems in the near future. Hence, an important
question to ask is what should people do and what should computers do? In this talk, I will discuss promising approaches for building interactive tools that allow people to perform data analysis more easily and effectively.

Speaker: Pat Hanrahan, Stanford