United States CIO Vivek Kundra Receives 2011 Data Hero Visionary Award

LAS VEGAS, May 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- EMC WORLD 2011 --

News Summary:

• EMC® announced the 2011 Data Hero Awards winners and finalists
• First annual Data Hero Visionary award goes to Vivek Kundra, the first Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States of America
• Winners and honorable mentions across Government, Public Service, Media, Energy, Consumer Services, Health Care, Life Sciences, Technology  

Full Story:

EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC), the world leader in information infrastructure solutions, today announced the winners of the 2011 Data Hero Awards, which honor those delivering unique and innovative solutions and techniques for using Big Data to profoundly impact individuals, organizations, industries and the world. Selected by a prestigious independent judge panel (listed further below) winners and finalists were revealed during today's EMC World keynote titled "Big Data. Big Opportunity," which was co-presented by EMC's Scott Yara and Sujal Patel.

For the multimedia version of this press release and related content, please go to: http://www.emc.com/about/news/press/2011/20110509-07.htm

The first annual Data Hero Award winners are:

• Data Hero Visionary award: Vivek Kundra, the first Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the United States of America, has been awarded the Data Hero Visionary award for his pioneering work under the Obama Administration to reform how the Federal government manages and uses information technology. Mr. Kundra has led the nation to seek innovative solutions to lower the cost of government operations, while exploring ways to fundamentally change the way the public sector and the public interact.
• Data Hero Technology Excellence awards:
  • GovPublic Service - Global Viral Forecasting Initiative  
    • Honorable mention - Ushahidi/Swift River  
  • Media - Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute's CREATE Lab
    • Honorable mention - Tableau Software
  • Energy - Silver Spring Networks
    • Honorable mention - Moon Express (MoonEx)
  • Consumer Services - LinkedIn  
    • Honorable mention - Zynga
  • Health Care - The Camden Coalition
  • Life Sciences - The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
  • Technology: IT Infrastructure - Apache Foundation, Hadoop  
    • Honorable mention - Data Scientist Tool Kit
  • Technology: Application - IBM Watson Computing System

Data Hero 2011 winners and honorable mentions were selected by a panel of independent judges, including:

• Tom Davenport, President's Distinguished Professor of Information Technology & Management, Babson College and Co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics
• Kevin Davies, Editor-in-Chief of Bio-IT World and the author of "The $1000 Genome: The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine"
• Edd Dumbill, Program Chair, O'Reilly Media
• Dr. Michael Freed, Program Director, AI Center, SRI
• Hadley Reynolds, Research Vice President, Search and Discovery Technologies, IDC

Quotes:

Vivek Kundra, Chief Information Officer, United States of America

"I'm truly honored to be recognized for this 2011 Data Hero visionary award. The modern economy is powered by data and technology. That's why we strive to find innovative paths to lower government cost, engage citizens and institute radical transparency to bring them closer to their government and to help move us all forward, together."

Scott Yara, Co-founder of Greenplum® and Vice President of Products for EMC's Data Computing Division

"These winners are the true heroes of the big data era, as their work is reshaping the world as we know it today. They are at the forefront of mining the volumes of data that surround us to find key insights that can be applied to current business and societal processes to improve everything from consumer packaged goods to medicines that treat and cure life threatening diseases."

Sujal Patel, Founder of Isilon® and President of EMC Isilon Storage Division

"Not only has the big data era arrived, but it already impacts our lives in many ways, from the drive toward truly personalized medicine to more efficient government. These real-life data heroes help show us all the power of information in driving positive change. Their commitment to that pursuit is what big data is all about."

For more information on this year's Data Hero Award winners, go to: www.dataheroawards.com

Follow EMC World Online

• To track the latest EMC World 2011 happenings visit www.emc.com/emcworld2011.  
• For continuous EMC World news and event updates, follow http://twitter.com/emcworld and http://twitter.com/emccorp.
• Video replays of all EMC World keynotes and super sessions will be available to EMC's Facebook fans at http://facebook.com/emccorp shortly after the live presentation.

About EMC

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) is the world's leading developer and provider of information infrastructure technology and solutions that enable organizations of all sizes to transform the way they compete and create value from their information. Information about EMC's products and services can be found at www.EMC.com.

EMC, Greenplum, and Isilon are registered trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.  All other trademarks used are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE EMC Corporation