The chair was established in 2009 through an endowment from information security firm Symantec. Term chairs are reserved for junior faculty and acknowledge distinguished service or teaching.
Condie joined the UCLA faculty in 2013 and was previously a principal scientist at Microsoft Research and a research scientist at Yahoo! Research. Condie’s research centers improving the performance and usability of systems that process Big Data – an umbrella term to describe extremely large datasets, often with millions and billions of data points. Typically the size and complexity of the datasets, coupled with a desire for real-time analysis, puts them beyond the processing power of common computing systems. Improvements in Big Data tools will enable a range of new applications in science, engineering, national security, healthcare and business.
Specifically, Condie focuses on large-scale data analytics, distributed systems, Internet-scale query processing and optimization, and declarative language design and implementation. He is also a member of the Scalable Analytics Institute at UCLA.
Symantec, based in Mountain View, Calif., focuses on providing information security, storage and systems management solutions to customers around the world. The company was founded in 1982 and employs more than 21,000 people.
Said Condie, “I am thrilled to be named the Symantec Term Chair. Symantec’s generous contribution will enhance my research efforts at UCLA. I look forward to many future opportunities to interact with Symantec’s world-class team of researchers.”