Prof. Dr. Jens Dittrich

Overview

Jens Dittrich is a Full Professor of Computer Science in the area of Databases, Data Management, and Big Data at Saarland University, Germany. Previous affiliations include U Marburg, SAP AG, and ETH Zurich. He received an Outrageous Ideas and Vision Paper Award at CIDR 2011 (conference on Innovative Data Systems Research), a BMBF VIP Grant in 2011, a best paper award at VLDB 2014 (Conference on Very Large Data Bases), four CS teaching awards in 2011, 2013, 2018, and 2021, as well as several presentation awards including a qualification for the interdisciplinary German science slam finals in 2012 and three presentation awards at CIDR in a row (2011, 2013, and 2015). He has been a PC member and area chair/group leader of prestigious international database conferences and journals such as PVLDB/VLDB, SIGMOD, ICDE, and VLDB Journal. From 2017 to 2019 he was on the scientific advisory board of Software AG. His research focuses on fast access to big data including in particular: data analytics on large datasets, scalability, main-memory databases, database indexing, reproducability, and scalable data science. From 2017 to 2021 he worked on a start-up at the intersection of data science and databases (daimond.ai), from 2018 to 2021 on a second startup on permissioned blockchain technology (chainifydb.com). At Saarland University he coordinates the BSc- and MSc-programs „Data Science and Artificial Intelligence“. He runs a youtube channel on database technology.

CV

• 2018-2021: working on chainifydb.com
• 2017-2021: co-founder of d:AI:mond.ai GmbH
• 2017-2019: Member of the scientific advisory board of Software AG
• since 2012: Full Professor
• 2016-2018: Dean of Computer Science
• 2010-2012: Dean of Teaching for Computer Science
• 2008-2012: Associate Professor, CS, Saarland University, Chair of Information Systems Group
• 2004-2008: Senior Research Associate ('Oberassistent'), ETH Zurich, Systems Group, Prof. Kossmann
• 2003-2004: Software Engineer, SAP AG, OLAP and IR Technology, BI Accelerator
• 1999-2002: Ph.D., CS, U Marburg, DB Research Group, Prof. Seeger
• 1993-1999: Diplom, CS, U Marburg
• born 1972, five children

Selected Professional Activities

1. PCs

   • 2022: SIGMOD (associate editor)
   • 2021: SIGMOD CIDR
   • 2020: SIGMOD (area chair) PVLDB/VLDB ICDE (track chair) CIDR
   • 2019: PVLDB/VLDB (research and demo track) ICDE BTW BCDL
   • 2018: PVLDB/VLDB SIGMOD ICDE (PC chair, Europe) aiDM
   • 2017: SIGMOD BTW
   • 2016: PVLDB/VLDB SIGMOD
   • 2015: PVLDB/VLDB SIGMOD (Group Leader) ICDE BTW
   • 2014: SIGMOD ICDE SoCC
   • 2013: CIDR SIGMOD DBTest VLDB PhD Workshop BTW SOCC
   • 2012: PVLDB/VLDB ICDE DBTest
   • 2011: ICDE EDBT BTW CIKM
   • 2010: VLDB ICDE
   • 2009: VLDB VLDB PhD Workshop BTW ICDE EDBT
   • 2008: VLDB SIGMOD WWW EDBT PIM
   • 2007: VLDB  VLDB PhD Workshop BTW ICDE 
   • 2006: ICDE CIKM

2. Referee for Conferences

   • 2012: PVLDB/VLDB
   • 2009: SIGMOD 
   • 2007: SIGKDD SIGMOD ICDE 
   • 2006: VLDB SIGMOD
   • 2005: SIGMOD
   • 2004: VLDB

3. Referee for Journals

   • 2011: VLDB Journal
   • 2010: TKDE
   • 2009: VLDB Journal TKDE ACM Computing Surveys
   • 2007: TODS
   • 2006: CACM TODS
   • 2005: TODS

4. Associate Editor

   • 2013-2017: VLDB Journal
   • 2014: PVLDB Experiments and Analysis Track

5. Other Admin Stuff

   • 2017: VLDB (public relations)

Selected Talks/Awards/Grants

• Busy Beaver Teaching Award (best undergrad lecture in computer science) for our lecture: Big Data Engineering, summer term 2021
• Von Science Fiction zu Science: Der Studiengang „Data Science and Artificial Intelligence“.
  youtube
• Buzzword Bullshit Bingo für Anfänger, VL Perspektiven der Informatik
  U Saarland, December 17th, 2018, youtube
• KI in der Praxis: das Data Science Startup d:AI:mond
  saaris, ikt saarland, November 27th, 2018, slides
• Thunderbolt anfd Lightning aren't Really Frightening me
  Frankfurt Data Science Meetup, November 2018, youtube
• Panel: Big Data and IoT: For a better future or infinite Surveillance?
  code.talks, Hamburg, October 2018 youtube
• Big Data Systems Performance: The Little Shop of Horrors
  
  • PyCon Karlsruhe 2018, October 2018, youtube
  • code.talks 2018, October 2018, youtube
  • PyData Frankfurt, October 2018
  • PyData Berlin 2018, July 2018, abstract, slides youtube (best sound and video of all talks)
  • Big Data Meetup Frankfurt, July 2018
• Keynote: Data Science ≠ Machine Learning: Some Thoughts on the Role of Data Management in the new AI-Tsunami
  DEEM@SIGMOD 2018, June 2018
• Why everything in Database Research has already been done (and why this is good for you)
  SIGMOD New Researcher Symposium 2018, June 2018
• Data Science ≠ Machine Learning
  AI-panel at ICDE 2018
• Busy Beaver Teaching Award (best seminar in computer science) for our proseminar: Einführung in Data Science, April 2018
• Keynote: Deep Learning (m)eats Databases
  VLDB 2017, August 2017
• 4th Data Science Summer School
  D3S, September 2017
• An Experimental Evaluation and Analysis of Database Cracking accepted at VLDBJ 2015
  special issue on best papers of VLDB 2014
• The Case for Small Data Management (youtube)
  BTW 2015, Hamburg, March 2015,
  keynote, long version of CIDR 2015 talk
• The Case for Small Data Management
  CIDR 2015, Gong Show, Asilomar, January 2015,
  Best Presentation Award
• Best paper award at VLDB 2014 for our paper The Uncracked Pieces in Database Cracking
• Mit Sicherheit geCloud. Cloud Computing und Big Data im Jahre 0 nach Snowden
  Symposium Cloud Computing, December 2013
• Big Data is Watching You! But who is watching Big Data? (oder: Warum Daten wie Uran sind.), Vorlesung Perspektiven der Informatik (youtube), November 2013
• Busy Beaver Teaching Award (best undergrad lecture in computer science) for our inverted classroom: Informationssysteme,
  summer term 2013; see also datenbankenlernen.de
• NSA, Überwachung, Big Data und warum Daten wie Uran sind (Science Slam, youtube)
  August 2013
• Was ist eigentlich ein Science Slam? (youtube)
  Februar 2013
• say No! No! and No! (NoSQL Parody, youtube)
  CIDR 2013, Gong Show, Asilomar, January 2013,
  Best Presentation Award
• Efficiently Indexing AND Querying Big Data in Hadoop MapReduce slides
  
  • CNRS, France, December 2012
  • TUM, Germany, November 2012
  • USI, Switzerland, October 2012
• Ich will doch nur spielen! (Science Slam)
  
  • 2 of 3 rounds, CeBit Science Slam, 09-03-13 (youtube)
  • German Science Slam Finals, Karlsruhe, ZKM, 09-11-12 (entire event in ARD Mediathek, JD @36:15)
  • 1st place, Southern German Science Slam Finals, Ulm (JD); qualification for federal finals on Nov 9 at ZKM in Karlsruhe (press: swp)
  • 1st place, Saarbrücken Science Slam, 18-09-12 (press: SR2 Radio)
  • 1st place, Stuttgart Science Slam, 30-06-12
  • 1st place, IdeenExpo Science Slam, Hannover, 11-06-12, qualification for finals at IdeenExpo 2013 (youtube)
  • 2nd place, Saarbrücken Science Slam, 01-06-12 (press: SR TV, starting at 16:48; SBZ)
  • 2nd place, Köln Science Slam, 31-05-12
  • 1st place, Berlin Science Slam, 28-05-12
  • 2nd place, Ulm Science Slam, 16-05-12
  • 1st place, Trier Science Slam, 11-05-12
• Busy Beaver Teaching Award for best advanced lecture in computer science: Database Systems, SoSe 2011.
• BMBF VIP Grant for OctopusDB covering 1.1 million Euros; Press release: German English Nov 2011 - Oct 2014
• 
  Panel on "Developing and realizing your big idea"
  SIGMOD 2011, New Researcher Symposium, Athens, June 2011.
  
• One Size Fits All?
  Panel on '"One Size Fits All": An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?'
  BTW 2011, Kaiserslautern, March 2011.
  
• Towards a One Size Fits All Database Architecture (youtube).
  CIDR 2011, Asilomar, January 2011,
  Best Outrageous Ideas and Vision Paper Award
• The Bowyers (youtube).
  CIDR 2011, Gong Show, Asilomar, January 2011,
  Best Presentation Award
• OctopusDB: Towards a One Size Fits All Database System
  
  • Teradata, Rancho Bernardo, January 2011
  • SAP Research, Palo Alto, December 2010
  • Microsoft Research, Redmond, December 2010
  • EMC/Greenplum, San Mateo, December 2010
  • Oracle, Redwood Shores, December 2010
• Hadoop++: Making a Yellow Elephant Run Like a Cheetah (Without It Even Noticing). slides
  
  • TU Berlin, DBIS Group, January 2011
  • Yahoo! Research, Santa Clara, January 2011
  • IBM Research Center, Almaden, December 2010
  • Oracle, Redwood Shores, December 2010
  • Microsoft Research, Redmond, December 2010
  • MPI-SWS, Saarbruecken, December 2010
  • VLDB 2010, Singapore, September 2010
• Invited Tutorial: "The iMeMex Dataspace Management System: Architecture, Concepts, and Lessons Learned".
  26th British National Conference on Databases (BNCOD), Birmingham, July 7-9, 2009. slides
• Keynote: "Aktuelle Trends: Eine Reise von Hauptspeicherdatenbanken zu Dataspace Management Systemen".
  Conference on Ultra Large Databases ULDB 2007, Offenbach, Germany, July 2, 2007. slides
  Selected Best Talk