Making an impact with a research project: DuckDB

0:00The design, sort of the inspiration of DuckDB really came from talking to data practitioners. You have a real problem to solve, you're not just designing into thin air. They will tell you whether they like it or not. The thing is, this kind of process is sometimes missing in the academic world. Yeah, that's true, it's rare. That's, it's a bit of an accident, baby, it's not supposed to happen.

0:20For me as a researcher, my definition of success is not to write papers, it's to have impact. And how do you have impact? Well, especially in data systems research, you have impact by making systems. I mean, we have a Turing Award in computer science for Mike Stonebraker, not because he writes amazing theoretical paper, but because he made systems like Ingres and Postgres.

0:43I think in this particular space, it is actually, how should I say, it's actually required to see, you know, to make something that will see widespread use in order to achieve impact. And that's exactly what we're doing.