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Altamira announces partnership with GMU Engineering School
[April 18, 2014]

Altamira announces partnership with GMU Engineering School


MCLEAN, Va. --(Business Wire)--

Altamira Technologies Corporation is pleased to announce a partnership with George Mason University's Volgenau School of Engineering to develop and support industry-grounded big data and cloud computing expertise.

The Volgenau School of Engineering provides graduate and undergraduate education, as well as contract programs, focused on and responsive to the unique technology, management, and leadership needs of government and the business community. Examples include a set of two-day, non-credit courses that raise understanding around massive data analytics and systems engineering topics, and a full master's degree in Data Analytics Engineering, each delivered at the customer's offices.

Altamira is a leader in data science and in building big data and cloud computing technology, from the foundational layer to the user experience rooted in a deep understanding of the knowledge discovery process. Altamira's extensive experience serving the United States intelligence community and long history of partnering with academic institutions, combined with Mason's leadership in innovation and corporate engagement make this a perfect match.

"Altamira's accomlishments in developing game-changing technologies and performance navigating complex policy, security, and enterprise data issues, will provide our students practical applications that enhance the learning experience," said Maj Gen (ret) Robert H. Latiff, Ph.D., Director of Intelligence Community Programs at Mason's Volgenau School of Engineering and Department of Applied IT.



It is because of their experience in big data and cloud technology throughout the national security space that Mason joined forces with Altamira.

"Our data scientists and engineers are fully credentialed academic faculty working directly with George Mason to help educate the broader community," said Chris D'Agostino, Altamira's President and Chief Technology Officer.


Mr. D'Agostino has been an Adjunct Faculty member at Mason for more than three years, teaching software engineering and big data courses. Joining him as instructors are Dr. Dan Law and Charles Greenbacker. Dr. Law earned his Ph.D. in plasma physics from the University of Oxford and serves as Altamira's Chief Scientist. He brings to this partnership nearly 20 years of multi-disciplinary research and technology development experience. Mr. Greenbacker is Altamira's Director of Data Science and an expert in natural language processing, having co-authored over a dozen academic publications in peer-reviewed journals and research conference proceedings. Together, this team provides a course of study giving students a solid understanding of the foundational elements of big data combined with the ability to apply this knowledge through the design and implementation of solutions.

"We've successfully completed several courses already and have a full calendar set for 2014," added D'Agostino.

"Education and training opportunities also occur outside the classroom, so we've teamed with George Mason University to host our annual cyber hack-a-thon, following the success of our inaugural event last year," said Craig Parisot, the company's Chief Strategy Officer. "This and our success partnering with the university on customer-funded advanced research projects is a model for Academic-Corporate partnering."

Altamira is currently accepting applications for their summer internship program.


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