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Lecture Series in AI: Jun Rao PhD, SEAS '00
by
Fri, Sep 11, 2026
10:30 AM – 12 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Private Location (sign in to display)
Registration
Note: There is a limit at 1 ticket per person for this event.
Details
10:30-11:00am Check-in
11:00-12:00pm Lecture
Advance registration required for both Columbia non-affiliates and Columbia affiliates.
About the Speaker
Jun Rao is a co-founder of Confluent, a company that provides a data streaming platform based on Apache Kafka. Before Confluent, he was a senior staff engineer at LinkedIn where he led the development of Kafka. Before LinkedIn, Jun Rao was a researcher at IBM’s Almaden research center, where he conducted research on database and distributed systems. Jun Rao is a committer of Apache Kafka and Apache Cassandra. Jun Rao obtained his PhD in computer science from Columbia University in 2000.
About the Lecture
"From Microservices to Analytics and GenAI, Data Streaming Unlocks Everything"
Data streaming is rapidly emerging as a mainstream platform for integrating data in real time, with Apache Kafka becoming the de facto standard for this architecture. Many event-driven applications have been built on Kafka to enable businesses to respond to real time events as they unfold. In this talk, I will explain how data streaming not only powers operational applications but also enhances analytics and generative AI by shifting processing closer to the source. I’ll also share our vision for what constitutes a complete and modern data streaming platform.
Campus Access
In accordance with the University's current visitor guidelines, all non-Columbia guests will receive a QR code within a few hours of the event date. The code will be sent to you via email from CU Guest Access and must be presented for campus entry, along with a government-issued ID.
Accessibility
Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend an event at Columbia University, please contact the Office of Disability Services at 212.854.2388 or access@columbia.edu.
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