Welcome! My name is Joel Wolfrath; I obtained my Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota while working with the Distributed Computing Systems Group. Prior to my doctoral work, I completed an MS in Statistics at Texas A&M University.

My academic research focuses on the impact of non-IID data in distributed analytics systems. Data generated and persisted in distinct geographical locations have very different statistical properties, which can affect the results of queries and other analytical tasks. My work seeks to mitigate the negative effects of data heterogeneity and, in some cases, exploit these differences to improve system efficiency.