Databricks Announces Plans to Unveil Highly-Anticipated Fifth Major Open Source Project at 2021 Data + AI Summit, Releases Final Keynote Lineup

Databricks co-founders Ali Ghodsi, Matei Zaharia and Reynold Xin slated to deliver keynotes on data and machine learning product innovations and the rise of the lakehouse architecture

SAN FRANCISCO, May 19, 2021 /CNW/ -- Databricks, the Data and AI company, today announced the full agenda and final lineup of featured speakers for the upcoming Data + AI Summit (formerly Spark + AI Summit), taking place virtually May 24-28. Data + AI Summit is the global event for the data community, where tens of thousands of data teams from more than 160 countries will come together to share best practices, learn from experts throughout the industry, and get a first-hand look at what's new in Databricks' Lakehouse Platform. This year, the Data + AI Summit theme is 'The Future is Open,' representing an ongoing commitment to the open source community and a nod to new product innovations that further enable an open, collaborative data ecosystem. Register for the free virtual conference, here.

Data + AI Summit will feature keynotes from Malala Yousafzai, co-founder of Malala Fund and Nobel Laureate, Michael Lewis, financial journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Moneyball and The Big Short, as well as Bill Nye, famed scientist, comedian, author and inventor, and the engineering leaders behind the Mars 2020 mission.

In addition, people will hear from a broad lineup of data and machine learning luminaries, open source pioneers and global thought leaders, including:

• DJ Patil, Former U.S. Chief Data Scientist
• Shafi Goldwasser, Turing Award winner and professor of EECS at UC Berkeley and MIT
• Bill Inmon, author and technology pioneer best known as the 'Father of Data Warehousing'
• Manuela Veloso, Ph.D., Head of AI Research, J.P. Morgan and Professor and former head of Machine Learning Department at Carnegie Mellon University
• Rajat Monga, co-creator of TensorFlow
• Clément Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face
• Dr. Moogega Cooper, Trailblazing Engineer of the famed Mars Rover 'Perseverance' Mission, NASA-JPL
• Adam Steltzner, Chief Engineer of the Mars 2020 Project, USC & NASA-JPL
• Sol Rashidi, Chief Analytics Officer, Estee Lauder
• Patrik Baginski, Senior Director of Data Science, McDonald's

This year's conference will also include industry-specific content tracks that dive into the power of data and AI within the Public Sector, Financial Services, Healthcare & Life Sciences, Media & Entertainment, and Retail sectors. Attendees can expect thought-provoking sessions, lively panel discussions and industry insights from leading companies like Atlassian, Condé Nast, H&M, McDonald's, Privacera, Shell and more.

"We're excited to welcome the global data community to this year's Data + AI Summit," said Ali Ghodsi, co-founder and CEO of Databricks. "Together, we are on a shared mission to tackle the world's toughest problems with data and AI. And this year, we're excited to lean into the critical role that open technologies and modern data architectures can and will play in achieving that mission."

With more than 200 sessions, Data + AI Summit will offer attendees an expanded training curriculum with highly technical content and hands-on training workshops. Breakout sessions will offer data scientists, data engineers, analysts, developers, researchers, and ML practitioners the chance to learn from experts as they share best practices for Apache Spark™, Delta Lake, MLflow, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Transformers, as well as deep dives into streaming architectures, SQL analytics and leveraging modern BI tools for the lakehouse. Attendees can also get certified with the Apache Spark 3.x prep course and certification exam.

The event will also offer engaging community activities, including:

• Women in Unified Data Analytics Panel: Hosted in collaboration with Women in Big Data, this industry panel will feature a discussion on the critical importance of allyship and fostering an inclusive data community and will be moderated by Shuchi Rana, Women in Big Data co-founder and head of GTM at Headspin.
• A donation program to support nonprofit organizations: To amplify support from the global data community, Databricks is also partnering with Care.org, Technovation and Natural Resources Defense Council to raise funds that will help address urgent crises around the world.
• Engaging activities for the developer community: The week-long program will feature 30+ ancillary activities tailored for developers and the open source community, with opportunities to network and learn, including hallway chatter rooms, AMAs, lightning talks and meetups with experts from around the world co-hosted by the Data + AI Online meetup group. 

Data + AI Summit is sponsored by over 30 companies from across the data and AI industry with sessions planned from Accenture, Avande, AWS, Collibra, Google Cloud, Fivetran, Immuta, Informatica, Matillion, Microsoft Azure, Privacera, Slalom, Qlik and more.

To learn more, see the full agenda and register to attend for free here.

About Databricks
Databricks is the data and AI company. More than 5,000 organizations worldwide — including Comcast, Condé Nast, H&M, and over 40% of the Fortune 500 — rely on the Databricks Lakehouse Platform to unify their data, analytics and AI. Databricks is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices around the globe. Founded by the original creators of Delta Lake, Apache Spark™, and MLflow, Databricks is on a mission to help data teams solve the world's toughest problems. To learn more, follow Databricks on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
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