VLDB 2021: Panel

Date: 17Aug

Time 18:30 - 20:00Diversity and Inclusion talk: What relationship between an author's ethics and their work? Chaired by Sihem Amer-Yahia (CNRS, Univ. Grenoble Alpes)

Talk by Gisèle Sapiro (CNRS, EHESS) Abstract: The question of the relationship between an author’s ethics and their work is not new. Ethics has become a growing concern for science. Since the feminist and civil right movements, increasing attention has been paid to sexual harassment and discrimination in academia as in other institutions. Should authors who misbehaved or expressed racist or sexist opinions be cancelled? Should they be sanctioned or can they be rewarded for their intellectual, artistic or scientific achievements? While some argue that they should be cancelled, or at least not rewarded, others contend that the work should be dissociated from its author. But is it possible?
Based on her book on this topic (Peut-on dissocier l’oeuvre de l’auteur, 2020), Gisèle Sapiro, professor in sociology at Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales and research director at the CNRS, will propose an analysis of the debate, and discuss some cases of scandals, from Heidegger to Polanski and Handke, including some reflections on the one which surrounded Jeffrey Ullman’s Turing award.
Bio: Gisèle Sapiro is a leading sociologist of literature, translation and intellectual life. She is research director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and professor at the L'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS), both in Paris. She is the author of La Guerre des écrivains, 1940-1953 (1999; English transl.: French Writers’ War, Duke UP, 2014), among many other publications.

Date: 19Aug

Time 17:00 - 18:30 The future of data(base) education: Is the "cow book" dead? [Download Abstract] Panel Chair: Zachary Ives
Bio: Zachary Ives is Professor and chair of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania and a co-founder of Blackfynn, Inc. Zack co-created Penn's MSE in Data Science, and co-developed the curriculum of the OpenDS4All project, a set of open-source materials for teaching data science.

Panelist: Rachel Pottinger

Bio: Rachel Pottinger is Professor of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC). As former Associate Department Head of the Undergraduate Program at UBC, Rachel helped lead the creation of a data science minor.

Panelist: Arun Kumar

Bio: Arun Kumar is Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and Halicioglu Data Science Institute (HDSI) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). Arun is a co-author of Data Management in ML Systems, a research-based textbook on systems for ML, and teaches courses on database system implementation, as well as systems for analytics and ML.

Panelist: Johannes Gehrke

Bio: Johannes Gehrke is Technical Fellow at Microsoft. Johannes is a co-author of the widely used textbook, Database Management Systems (a.k.a "the cow book”), and has hired many data scientists and engineers into his teams.

Panelist: Jana Giceva

Bio: Jana Giceva is Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Jana is a core member of the Munich Data Science Institute (MDSI), and teaches courses in data management, computer architecture and cloud computing.