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‘Big Data in an Open World’ is topic of April 11 Wolfpack your Lunch program

Triangle area professionals are invited to the April 11, 2014, Wolfpack your Lunch discussion on the topic, “Big Data in an Open World.” 

The “Wolfpack your Lunch” series is open to NC State alumni and Triangle-area professionals as an outreach of the NC State Executive Education team at the Poole College of Management. Registration is required and may be completed at the NC State Executive Programs website. Registration costs $12 for this session, and includes a box lunch from Players Retreat, served at the Carol Johnson Poole Clubhouse. Registration is required by April 9.

About the speaker

This lunch and learn session will be led by Christian Hölljes, an award winning designer, inventor and serial entrepreneur who has pioneered, patented and created lucrative new markets in active learning and audio steganography.

Hölljes joined the NC State University faculty in fall 2013 as a Chancellor’s Faculty Excellence Program cluster hire in Innovation + Design and professor in the College of Design in conjunction with the Poole College of Management. In this position, he is focusing on developing streamlined online and traditional curriculum for entrepreneurial students and faculty who want to bring new ideas to market. Hölljes will build on existing partnerships to help develop a new incubator that provides an onramp for students and faculty seeking to develop a marketable product, method or system.  

At the April 11 Wolfpack your Lunch program, he will draw on his extensive experience with the online multimedia market space, metadata encoding, and entrepreneurship to show how the massive amounts of data generated daily are meaningful and useful to the masses, “especially in efforts to educate the bourgeoning world population, underscoring how we harvest and manage Big Data,” said Dan McGurrin, director of NC State Executive Education based in Poole College. “He also will float a big idea to the group,” McGurrin said.

Prior to joining NC State, Hölljes worked with Apple, Machina, Inc., and other companies that he cofounded to invent and harness groundbreaking electronic technologies. 

Hölljes graduated from Duke University with a degree in zoology (biomechanics), mechanical engineering and fine arts. While at Duke, he also studied Renaissance architecture and urban design with Syracuse University in Florence, Italy, completed an independent study at NC State’s College of Design, and then went on to earn a master’s degree in industrial design. While a student at NC State, he was commissioned by the African Fund for Endangered Wildlife to design the world-renowned Giraffe Center and Sanctuary outside Nairobi, Kenya. 

About the Wolfpack your Lunch series

Wolfpack your Lunch was launched by NC State Executive Programs to provide NC State alumni and professionals in the Triangle area an opportunity to discuss topics relevant to their careers in a casual setting. Two sessions are held each month, as follows:

Upcoming topics are announced as they are scheduled on the Executive Education website.

Networking begins at 11:45 a.m., followed by Hölljes' presentation and discussion from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

For additional details about this event, contact Ashley Black, NC State Executive Programs coordinator.