Data Warehouses Hold Big Opportunities For University Of Arkansas Students

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - University of Arkansas students will soon have the opportunity to work with one of the largest enterprise-class computers in the world. A grant from NCR and Wal-Mart will provide a massively parallel computer system that will give students hands-on experience with data warehousing technology, a critical component of today’s large businesses. The grant has a value in excess of $7 million.

The grant includes an NCR WorldMark computer system with 20 gigabytes of memory and 1.7 terabytes of storage. A terabyte is equivalent to 250 million pages of text. NCR Teradataâ Warehouse database software, enabling software utilities, on-site maintenance, training and consultation are also included in the grant.

This grant significantly expands the Enterprise Computing Initiative at the University of Arkansas. Students will now have the opportunity to learn by using every class of computer currently in use in large commercial enterprises. This includes low-end PCs, mid-level servers, mainframes and massively parallel systems.

"This puts the University of Arkansas in a very small, but elite class of educational institutions," said Bob Crisp, professor of computer science and computer engineering. "Very few universities can offer the full spectrum of computer education, from PCs to servers to enterprise computers."

Crisp is a member of the team of four U of A computer professionals who collaborated to generate the Wal-Mart/NCR grant proposal. David Douglas, professor of computer information systems and quantitative analysis, Bob Zimmerman, director of University IT Services, and David Merrifield, associate director of University IT Services, worked jointly with Crisp on preparing the proposal.

Data warehousing is a critical concept in business, higher education, government services and many other enterprises. It uses enormous databases to allow knowledge workers to answer complex questions and perform sophisticated analyses of the database to extract information to use in managing the enterprise.

With over 101 terabytes, Wal-Mart’s data warehouse is believed to be the largest commercial database in the world. The NCR WorldMark system runs NCR Teradataâ Warehouse, the core component of Wal-Mart’s data warehouse.

"NCR is happy to partner with Wal-Mart to help improve data warehousing education in America’s colleges and universities," said Tony Fano, senior vice-president of the retail solutions group at NCR. "Our goal is to help today’s students better understand how data warehousing, e-commerce and other technology trends are enabling key business processes such as supply chain management and web-enabled collaboration between companies and their suppliers. Data warehousing, which is at the core of 'relationship technologies,’ allows businesses to build and maintain relationships with their customers."

Data mining, the extraction and analysis of data from a data warehouse, has applications in many areas of business. Buyers can use it to keep the shelves adequately stocked, marketers can use it in store design and advertising and business analysts can use it for stock projections.

Operating these systems will allow University of Arkansas students to see firsthand the opportunities and challenges associated with very large databases. A system of this size is larger than 88 percent of the Teradata systems installed worldwide and, in many cases, larger than those used by major corporations.

"Programming and maintaining a large database will allow students to get practical experience in data warehousing and to enter the job market with real-world experience," said Douglas. "If you graduate knowing this technology, your market value increases dramatically."

A series of curriculum revisions will provide University of Arkansas students with a broad range of educational opportunities. Existing courses will be modified and new courses introduced to provide students with a broad range of options.

"The key for students is flexibility," Crisp explained. "Students can choose to take a basic course and learn a little about the system, or they can develop a specialization in enterprise computing and graduate with substantial expertise. Courses will be offered to both graduate and upper-level undergraduate students."

Another significant advantage for students is the opportunity to work in multidisciplinary groups. Courses will include both engineering and business students, giving students first-hand knowledge of how these two critical elements work together in the business enterprise.

"There are many, many students using the small systems as part of their educational programs, but a limited number of students receiving educational experiences on enterprise systems," explained Zimmerman. "Most large business and organizations have enterprise systems installed as their primary information processing systems. Since the number of students with education and experience with enterprise systems is limited and the need for personnel to support the large installed base of enterprise systems is great, there is tremendous demand for students with credentials with enterprise systems."

Wal-Mart and NCR awarded six Teradata grants through a competitive process, receiving proposals from a wide range of universities. In addition to the University of Arkansas, grants were awarded to Cameron University, Kansas State University, Purdue University, University of South Carolina and University of Texas Pan-American.

"We are confident that resource technology issues can be solved through universities and corporations working together," said Randy Mott, chief information officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. "This combined effort was designed to create more qualified entries into the IT job market, and by offering a system large enough for Fortune 500 business needs, we are helping prepare tomorrow’s leaders. Wal-Mart and the University of Arkansas have a strong relationship that will continue to grow through the productive use of the Teradata technology."