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News

Prof. Andy Pavlo Wins 2026 IEEE TCDE Ramez Elmasri Outstanding Database Education Award

Posted: May 15, 2026 Category: Awards

Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Research Group is proud to announce that Prof. Andy Pavlo is the recipient of the 2026 IEEE Technical Committee on Data Engineering (TCDE) Ramez Elmasri Outstanding Database Education Award. The award is presented annually to an educator who has made exceptional contributions to database education. Over the last decade, Pavlo's freely available online courses and open educational materials have become foundational resources for students, engineers, and researchers worldwide studying database management systems. These Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Research Group is proud to announce that Prof. Andy Pavlo is the recipient of the 2026 IEEE Technical Committee on Data Engineering (TCDE) Ramez Elmasri Outstanding Database Education Award. The award is presented Read More

Carnegie Mellon Database Group Brings Database Knowledge Behind the Walls

Posted: May 6, 2026 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Group (CMU-DB) announced a new initiative to provide database systems education to incarcerated individuals across the United States (including all territories) completely free of charge. Through this program, any prisoner with an interest in learning about the design and implementation of database management systems can receive materials for CMU-DB's award-winning Database Systems (15-445/645) course via postal mail. The package includes printed lecture notes, course slides, homework assignments, and a paper-based version of the Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Group (CMU-DB) announced a new initiative to provide database systems education to incarcerated individuals across the United States (including all territories) completely free of charge. Through this program, any prisoner with an interest Read More

PostgreSQL vs. The World Seminar Series — Spring 2026

Posted: January 30, 2026 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon Database Research Group is proud to present the PostgreSQL vs. The World Seminar Series, a spring 2026 program examining the evolving landscape of database management systems. In an era where PostgreSQL compatibility has become a de facto baseline for modern data platforms, this series highlights both PostgreSQL-centric systems and alternative databases that challenge conventional assumptions about scalable data processing and system design. Hosted online via Zoom and open to the public, each seminar will Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon Database Research Group is proud to present the PostgreSQL vs. The World Seminar Series, a spring 2026 program examining the evolving landscape of database management systems. In an era where PostgreSQL compatibility has become Read More

Future Data Systems Seminar Series – Fall 2025

Posted: September 22, 2025 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon University Database Group is stoked to announce its Future Data Systems Seminar Series for Fall 2025. It is a forward-looking lecture series devoted to the evolving lakehouse ecosystem, especially Apache Iceberg and adjacent systems. This program offers an intellectual forum for exploring how next-generation architectures can better record, query, mutate, and maintain data at scale. Rather than spotlighting individual names, the series is conceived as a collective exploration of what the future of data Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon University Database Group is stoked to announce its Future Data Systems Seminar Series for Fall 2025. It is a forward-looking lecture series devoted to the evolving lakehouse ecosystem, especially Apache Iceberg and adjacent systems. Read More

Informatica & CMUDB Team Up on GenAI for Data

Posted: August 8, 2025 Category: Annoucements

Informatica has entered into a groundbreaking collaboration with CMUDB to drive innovation at the intersection of generative AI and data management. This is Informatica’s first partnership of its kind, allowing the company to work directly with CMUDB researchers to build the next generation of AI-powered data infrastructure from the ground up. The partnership will focus on jointly tackling current and future challenges in data exploration, understanding, cleaning, and analytics. A big shoutout to Zhihao Jia for helping us get this Informatica has entered into a groundbreaking collaboration with CMUDB to drive innovation at the intersection of generative AI and data management. This is Informatica’s first partnership of its kind, allowing the company to work directly with CMUDB researchers to build Read More

Will Zhang Wins 2025 MongoDB PhD Fellowship

Posted: April 5, 2025 Category: Fellowship

Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Mellon University announced that Will Zhang, the #1 ranked PhD student in the CMU Database Group, has been awarded the 2025 MongoDB PhD Fellowship. This Fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate researchers in the fields of data and data systems. Will’s groundbreaking research tackles a problem that has plagued developers for decades: how to automate the tuning and optimization of databases. His work develops AI-driven algorithms that learn to recognize patterns across database configurations, dramatically simplifying Pittsburgh, PA – Carnegie Mellon University announced that Will Zhang, the #1 ranked PhD student in the CMU Database Group, has been awarded the 2025 MongoDB PhD Fellowship. This Fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate researchers in the fields of Read More

SQL or Death? Seminar Series – Spring 2025

Posted: January 30, 2025 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon University Database Research Group is pleased to announce its wildest seminar series yet starting February 2025. “SQL or Death?” is no-holds-barred exploration of replacements for SQL and techniques to make SQL even better than it is. The schedule features legendary database researchers and industry stalwarts. Each session will challenge conventional wisdom with the kind of intensity that makes even seasoned DBAs break into a cold sweat. Even the late, great Ol’ Dirty Bastard (ODB) Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon University Database Research Group is pleased to announce its wildest seminar series yet starting February 2025. “SQL or Death?” is no-holds-barred exploration of replacements for SQL and techniques to make SQL even better than Read More

Announcing CMU’s Database Industry Affiliates Program

Posted: September 9, 2024 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Group is pleased to announce the launch of its new Industry Affiliates Program (IAP), designed to create stronger ties between academia and the tech industry. Through this initiative, industry leaders will collaborate with the group to drive cutting-edge research, contribute to database innovation, and help shape the next generation of database engineers. Members of the IAP have exclusive access to unique student recruitment opportunities, early-stage research, and an annual workshop aimed at solving Pittsburgh, PA – The Carnegie Mellon Database Group is pleased to announce the launch of its new Industry Affiliates Program (IAP), designed to create stronger ties between academia and the tech industry. Through this initiative, industry leaders will collaborate with Read More

ML⇄DB Seminar Series — Fall 2023

Posted: August 3, 2023 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon University Database Research Group celebrates the grand convergence of data storage and computational mastery with the ML⇄DB Seminar Series (Machine Learning for Databases + Databases for Machine Learning). Each speaker will present the implementation details of their respective systems and examples of the technical challenges they faced when working with real-world customers. CMU-DB's weekly meetings (Mondays @ 4:30pm EST) are available to the public on Zoom. Non-CMU affiliated members of the general public are Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon University Database Research Group celebrates the grand convergence of data storage and computational mastery with the ML⇄DB Seminar Series (Machine Learning for Databases + Databases for Machine Learning). Each speaker will present the implementation Read More

¡Databases! – A Database Seminar Series

Posted: August 17, 2022 Category: Annoucements

Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon Database Group is hosting another round of online database technical tech talks in the fall 2022 semester. ¡Databases! – A Database Seminar Series will feature talks from leading researchers and industry developers that are building state-of-the-art systems. CMU-DB's weekly meetings (Mondays @ 4:30pm EST) are available to the public on Zoom. Non-CMU affiliated members of the general public are invited to attend. The recordings are available on the CMU-DB Youtube Channel afterwards. Schedule September Pittsburgh, PA — The Carnegie Mellon Database Group is hosting another round of online database technical tech talks in the fall 2022 semester. ¡Databases! – A Database Seminar Series will feature talks from leading researchers and industry developers that are Read More