Jennifer Widom

Fletcher Jones Professor
Department Chair, Computer Science
Stanford University


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Frequently-asked Questions

From October-December 2011, I offered a version of my introductory database class free to students worldwide. Over 90,000 accounts were created, 25,000 students submitted at least some work for grading, and 6500 students did well enough to receive a "statement of accomplishment." Although I won't be offering a structured version of the course again for a while, all of the materials are still available on the Introduction to Databases website. Materials include prerecorded lectures (with in-video quizzes) and demos, multiple-choice quiz assignments, automatically-checked programming exercises with an interactive workbench, midterm and final exams, a discussion forum, optional additional exercises with solutions, and pointers to readings and resources. We're currently working on the site to optimize it for "self-serve" learning until we offer the course again, and to cover several additional topics.
Biographical Sketch
Jennifer Widom is the Fletcher Jones Professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. She received her Bachelor's degree from the Indiana University School of Music in 1982 and her Computer Science Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1987. She was a Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center before joining the Stanford faculty in 1993. Her research interests span many aspects of nontraditional data management. She is an ACM Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences; she received the ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award in 2007 and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2000; she has served on a variety of program committees, advisory boards, and editorial boards. Complete CV here

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