Purdue News

February 4, 2000 Purdue receives $7 million in technology from Wal-Mart/NCR WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue and five other colleges and universities each will receive $7 million worth of computer hardware and software to help students gain practical experience in data warehouse technology. The grant, provided by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and NCR Corp., includes an NCR WorldMark massively parallel computer system equipped with approximately 1.7 terabytes of storage. A terabyte of information is the equivalent of 250 million pages of text. Training, consultation and enabling software utilities are also being provided by the two companies. "Purdue's computer science program has worked very hard to become and remain recognized as one of the leading centers of excellence. These generous gifts of equipment and training will help us in our efforts to excel," said Gary Isom, vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. "Corporate-university partnerships, like this one, afford our students opportunities to broaden their education, gain practical experience, and create career possibilities." The type of computer system being donated to Purdue is the same as the systems that run NCR's Teradata Warehouse, the core software component of Wal-Mart's data warehouse. With over 101 terabytes, Wal-Mart's data warehouse is believed to be the largest commercial database in the world. Wal-Mart uses this technology to help buyers and product suppliers merchandise stores to the specific needs of a particular community. The system Purdue will receive is larger than 88 percent of the Teradata systems installed worldwide. Programming and maintaining a very large database system will allow students to obtain hands-on education in a data-warehousing environment. "We are confident that resource technology issues can be solved through universities and corporations working together," said Randy Mott, chief information officer of Wal-Mart Stores. "By offering a system large enough for Fortune 500 business needs, we are helping prepare tomorrow's leaders." NCR, the industry leader in data warehousing, has nearly 150 customer installations with warehouses of one terabyte or more and has built nearly 1,000 data warehouses globally. "NCR is happy to partner with Wal-Mart to help improve data warehousing education in America's colleges and universities," said Tony Fano, senior vice president of the Retail Solutions Group at NCR. "Our goal is to help today's students better understand how data warehousing, e-commerce and other technology trends are enabling key business processes such as supply chain management and Web-enabled collaboration between companies and their suppliers." The Department of Computer Sciences at Purdue was established in 1962 as the first of its kind in the country. During the last academic year, enrollment in the computer science program increased more than 200 percent, to approximately 930 undergraduate students 160 graduate students. The department reports a 100 percent career placement rate for computer science majors who graduated in May of 1999. The average starting salary for computer science majors graduating with bachelor of science degrees continues to be more than $50,000 per year. For graduate students studying computer science, the average starting salary upon graduation jumps to almost $90,000 annually. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operates more than 2,400 stores and 450 Sam's Clubs in the United States. In 1998, the company raised and donated more than $127 million for charitable organizations. NCR Corp. is a recognized world leader in providing Relationship Technology solutions for the retail, financial, telecommunications, airline and insurance markets. NCR's Relationship Technology solutions include data warehousing, ATMs and point-of-sale systems. CONTACTS: Isom, (765) 494-6200; John Hourigan, media relations, NCR Corp., (937) 445-2078 Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu