This month we rolled out the first of many Snap Talks (think TED Talks but with a specific tie-in to our employees, company, and industry) where we invite an esteemed speaker to visit SnapLogic HQ and discuss interesting topics, industry experience, and more. We kicked off the series with Brian McClendon, current Research Professor at the University of Kansas. He previously spent two years at Uber leading its Maps and Business Platform efforts. Before Uber, he spent, ten years at Google leading the entire Geo business unit including Google Maps, Street View, and Google Earth.
A particular draw to having Brian kick off this series was his role in the creation of Michelangelo, Uber’s Machine Learning Platform, and the parallels in machine learning to those of our own artificial intelligence capabilities (Iris) being used to power self-driving integrations.
During his Snap Talk, Brian covered a lot, including why he got into the world of mapping from a technology standpoint, what made GoThiogle Maps more successful than Apple (the idea of quality vs. “close enough”), all the variables that go into accurate tracking within the UberEATs app, and his predictions for self-driving cars (they will be a standard within five years!).
It was such a treat to hear about Brian’s role in the development of technologies many of us rely on daily, along with his perspective on the future of mapping data, augmented reality, and transportation innovations. We can’t wait to see where things go from here.
What a great way to start off our Snap Talk series. Thanks, Brian!
