Designing data systems is something few people understand, and it’s very hard and costly. But that, too, could be automated, says new research from Harvard, and we’re about to start seeing it in real life.

What if the huge design space for data-driven software could be efficiently mapped and explored in order to have tailor-made, optimized solutions? Researchers from Harvard combine analytical models, benchmarks, and machine learning to make this possible.

Stratos Idreos is an Assistant Professor at Harvard, and leads the Data Systems Laboratory (DASlab). Idreos also happens to be an old friend and colleague in research from the mid-zeroes, and it’s always a pleasure to catch up.

Idreos’ work in Harvard is featured somewhat atypically for an academic researcher. That is, in a visual, fairly easy to navigate, and compelling way. There are many things we could spend hours talking about, but the one that immediately gets attention is self-designing data systems.

Data structures are how we store and access data. A data structure design, as defined by Idreos and his team in a recent publication, consists of 1) the data organization, 2) an optional index, and 3) the algorithms that support basic operations (such as put, get, update).

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