{"id":2348,"date":"2012-05-03T09:47:42","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T14:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=2348"},"modified":"2015-10-26T12:14:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T17:14:11","slug":"daniel-spiewak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/","title":{"rendered":"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
Daniel Spiewak<\/dt>\n
Degree: BS Engineering, Computer Science<\/dd>\n
Hometown: Ashippun, Wis.<\/dd>\n
It\u2019s a fact: Computers are his instrument of choice, but Daniel Spiewak can also play piano, guitar and \u201cvarious woodwind instruments.\u201d Skiing is among his more recent interests.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Daniel Spiewak says the best coffee in the world can be found on Milwaukee\u2019s East Side.<\/p>\n

Believe him.<\/p>\n

Spiewak\u2019s \u201cdouble life\u201d as a full-time software developer and full-time student allowed him to travel and coffee-taste worldwide. He arrived at UWM in 2006 to major in Computer Science. He was a super-commuter who lived 60 minutes from campus and worked as chief programmer for a London (England) company.<\/p>\n

Finding work has never been a problem for Spiewak, an avid, inexhaustible, internationally known coder\/programmer. He started working with software at age 8 out of his home in sparsely populated central Wisconsin. He finished his homeschool curriculum at 16.<\/p>\n

Settling into college and finding academic opportunities to build on his experiences took a little more time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of chief technology officers don\u2019t have degrees. Computer science in academia is very divorced from the industry,\u201d Spiewak explains. \u201cBut you can learn a lot of other things in academic compsci: applied math, theoretical skills, things that help shape the way you think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spiewak credits UWM computer science professor John Boyland for helping him learn all of the above.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in lower-level courses, his teaching style was challenging,\u201d Spiewak says. \u201cAnd he does not grade on a curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spiewak\u2019s coursework wasn\u2019t lower level for long. Boyland waived four prerequisite courses to get him into a master\u2019s-level compsci course by sophomore year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came into CS 754 not knowing much, but it was so much fun. It was the hardest course I ever took. I highly recommend it.\u201d What Spiewak wouldn\u2019t recommend: four to five hours of sleep nightly, the daily commute to Ashippun, Wis., writing a book, publishing scholarly articles and editing an online compsci journal \u2013 all at about the same time.<\/p>\n

Coffee helped, and he\u2019s sampled a lot of it as an in-demand speaker on the tech talk circuit. Speaking at a dozen conferences yearly, Spiewak visited New York, London, Amsterdam, Oslo, San Francisco and more, all during undergrad.<\/p>\n

The support of his close-knit family (he\u2019s the eldest of six) and a move to Milwaukee also helped him through a college\/career combination that he says \u201cprobably took 15 years off my life.\u201d Expertise and exposure have earned him 3,400 Twitter followers, job offers and invites to Ph.D. programs. Graduate work may be in his future: Carnegie Mellon and EPFL (considered Europe\u2019s \u201cmost cosmopolitan technical university\u201d) are on his short list.<\/p>\n

But after years of traveling, studying and working, he\u2019s ready to take on deeper technical challenges and a new view. He\u2019s now a senior research and development engineer at Precog, a Boulder-based company tackling big-data analytics.<\/p>\n

How big? For example, says Spiewak, a Precog client might want to know how many of its 100,000,000 clients are of an age that is three standard deviations from the mean.<\/p>\n

Spiewak organizes those pedabytes of data into query language that gets clients the answers they seek.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about providing a big-data platform as a service,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Spiewak says he\u2019ll miss the Milwaukee lakefront that inspires him, and world-class coffee at Rochambo and Alterra. But his notebook and iPad are always in hand \u2013 two desktop units handle heavy processing \u2013 for coding, writing and organizing research ideas.<\/p>\n

Inspiration and good coffee, he believes, are abundant in his new city.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be trading the lake for the mountains. Boulder is not in the foothills of the Rockies; the city is leaning on the Rockies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor’s degree. Now 23, he’s off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":588,"featured_media":2527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"section":[122,124],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-2348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","section-campus-community","section-students"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"\nCoding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor's degree. Now 23, he's off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor's degree. Now 23, he's off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UWM REPORT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-03T14:47:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-10-26T17:14:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/05\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UWMNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UWMNews\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-03T14:47:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-26T17:14:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":620,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/\",\"name\":\"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-03T14:47:42+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-26T17:14:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor's degree. Now 23, he's off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg\",\"width\":960,\"height\":500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/daniel-spiewak\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"UWM REPORT\",\"description\":\"News from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/41\\\/2017\\\/02\\\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg\",\"width\":225,\"height\":224,\"caption\":\"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/UWMNews\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uwm.edu\\\/news\\\/author\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad","description":"Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor's degree. Now 23, he's off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad","og_description":"Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor's degree. Now 23, he's off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.","og_url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/","og_site_name":"UWM REPORT","article_published_time":"2012-05-03T14:47:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-10-26T17:14:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":960,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/05\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UWMNews","twitter_site":"@UWMNews","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad","datePublished":"2012-05-03T14:47:42+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-26T17:14:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/"},"wordCount":620,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/05\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg","articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/","name":"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/05\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg","datePublished":"2012-05-03T14:47:42+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-26T17:14:11+00:00","description":"Daniel Spiewak worked fulltime, wrote a book and traveled the international tech-conference circuit as a sought-after speaker while earning his bachelor's degree. Now 23, he's off to a Boulder startup to make his name in big-data analytics.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/05\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2012\/05\/daniel-spiewak-lg-1u73781.jpg","width":960,"height":500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/daniel-spiewak\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Coding, caffeinating, keynoting fuel CEAS grad"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/","name":"UWM REPORT","description":"News from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#organization","name":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/02\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/02\/uwm-seo-logo.jpg","width":225,"height":224,"caption":"University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/UWMNews"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/author\/"}]}},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-18 04:23:22","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2348"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22248,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2348\/revisions\/22248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"display_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_categories?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"related-coverage","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/related-coverage?post=2348"},{"taxonomy":"uwmnews-feed","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/uwmnews-feed?post=2348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}