{"id":20677,"date":"2017-01-23T14:46:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-23T19:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=20677"},"modified":"2024-08-15T12:17:45","modified_gmt":"2024-08-15T16:17:45","slug":"alumnus-holds-key-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/alumnus-holds-key-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumnus Holds Key To Big Data"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jenna Marina<\/em><\/p>\n

\"lee-and-family\"

Big Data Symposium\u2019s keynote speaker Lee Odess \u201999 alongside his family<\/p><\/div>\n

In the past, the biggest threat from a data breach was to the individual. But now with the onset of Big Data, there are much bigger threats and even bigger opportunities.<\/p>\n

Few people, however, understand what Big Data is or how it can be used, said Lee Odess, \u201999, vice president of UniKey<\/a> and the keynote speaker for UCF\u2019s Big Data Symposium on Jan. 26 at the UCF FAIRWINDS<\/em> Alumni Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of my presentation is, more or less, to give real life examples of what Big Data is and the impact it can have,\u201d Odess said. \u201cTypically you are either super smart on Big Data and have a hard time communicating it, or you are a person who has heard of it but isn\u2019t too sure how to get started. My goal is to bridge the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Practical examples of Big Data are everywhere and can be implemented by both big and small companies. For instance, a company can analyze marketing impacts via its social media reach; predictive analytics can narrow in on customers\u2019 shopping preferences; or it can help analyze where a business should open up its next retail location.<\/p>\n

Big Data\u2019s role in our society is one of the reasons UCF\u2019s Colleges of Science, Business and Engineering and Computer Science came together to host the symposium. UCF business professors Robert Porter, \u201981, \u201910, Ph.D., and Amit Joshi, Ph.D.; statistics professor and chair Shunpu Zhang, Ph.D.; and Ivan Garibay, \u201900, M.S., \u201904, Ph.D., director of UCF Research Information Systems and chief information officer at the UCF Office of Research and Commercialization, are among the speakers who will talk about practical ways companies, nonprofits and individuals can tap into Big Data to benefit their communities and society.<\/p>\n

Odess was a natural choice for the talk because of his familiarity with the use of Big Data within his own profession.<\/p>\n

“For UniKey we didn\u2019t wake up one day and say, \u2018Hey, we need Big Data.\u2019 We did however say, \u2018Hey, we need to start understanding exactly how, when, where our customers are using the locks and mobile applications powered by UniKey,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we put the systems and tools in place to be able to collect every bit of data we could. Then once we had it, we spent the time to come up with the algorithms and dashboards to easily digest the information. Now, with a touch of a button we are no longer guessing how, when and where customers are using the product. We are 100 percent clear on it.”<\/p>\n

In 2012, Odess was the director of sales operations for security company Brivo Systems when he was watching \u201cShark Tank\u201d on television one night and saw fellow UCF alumnus Phil Dumas, \u201905, pitching his smart lock. It was the first time in Shark Tank history that all five investors wanted to buy into an idea.<\/p>\n

Odess reached out to Dumas after the show and said that given their UCF roots and similar industries, they should get to know each other. Dumas agreed.<\/p>\n

They kept in touch over the years, and when Brivo Systems was sold in 2015, Odess wanted to join with a startup that had growth opportunity. He saw UniKey as that opportunity.<\/p>\n

His day-to-day responsibilities as vice president include business development, human resources, participation in the overall strategy for the company and its existing customer base.<\/p>\n

Dumas and Odess aren\u2019t the only Knights with UniKey. Odess said 80 percent of the company\u2019s 50 employees are alumni.<\/p>\n

\u201cInitially people think we\u2019re from Silicon Valley. When we tell them we\u2019re from Orlando, we explain to them we have some hidden gems here, one of them being the university,\u201d he said. \u201cWe look for people that want to be in this area. We think the school does a really good job preparing the students for work. It just makes sense. There isn\u2019t a need for us to look outside what\u2019s in front of our face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Odess speaks from experience.<\/p>\n

Born in Cleveland, he grew up in South Florida before he moved to Pittsburgh, where he graduated from high school. He considered nearly two dozen universities and picked UCF because he said it just felt right.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seemed to be a lot of history to be written,\u201d he said. \u201cI liked that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The day after he graduated with his bachelor\u2019s in business, he packed up his car and started driving toward Pennsylvania, where a job with Lutron Electronics awaited him.<\/p>\n

After eight years with Lutron, he moved to Washington D.C. and worked for a variety of companies, including several startups of his own, Fresh Confections and energy + light + control llc.<\/p>\n

In order to become more acclimated to a new city, he rekindled his relationship with UCF by joining the D.C. alumni chapter.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s back in Orlando, he is happy to have an opportunity to further his relationship with his alma mater by lending his time to the symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of the fact that I have an opportunity to make a difference,\u201d Odess said. \u201cThere\u2019s a true partnership with the university \u2013 it has aspirations and goals, and I feel like it realizes that the people that have come out of it are going to help carry it in that direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Symposium will be held Jan. 26 from 6-8 p.m. at the UCF FAIRWINDS<\/em> Alumni Center. The event is free, but RSVP <\/a>online is required. To learn more about the event,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

View the original story on UCF Alumni Today.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jenna Marina In the past, the biggest threat from a data breach was to the individual. But now with the onset of Big Data, there are much bigger threats and even bigger opportunities. Few people, however, understand what Big Data is or how it can be used, said Lee Odess, \u201999, vice president of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":20678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,38,6,39,13,6491,27,28,29],"tags":[4091,4096,4092,4087,4097,4090,3071,4088,4089,3553,4094,4093,4095],"class_list":["post-20677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-breaking-news","category-events","category-faculty-news","category-news","category-statistics-data-science","category-stem","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-amit-joshi","tag-brivo-systems","tag-ivan-garibay","tag-lee-odess","tag-phil-dumas","tag-robert-porter","tag-shunpu-zhang","tag-ucf-big-data","tag-ucf-big-data-symposium","tag-ucf-fairwinds-alumni-center","tag-ucf-office-of-research-and-commercialization","tag-ucf-research-information-systems","tag-unikey"],"yoast_head":"\nAlumnus Holds Key To Big Data - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/alumnus-holds-key-big-data\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Alumnus Holds Key To Big Data - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jenna Marina In the past, the biggest threat from a data breach was to the individual. 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