Frans Berkelaar is a big data scientist who moved from South Africa to East Grand Rapids two years ago, bringing his big ideas in data analysis to establish a new business called Knowblet.
"In 2010, Knowblet incorporated as a break-away from my previous company, Metonymy. We are here to establish a development team for the South African market while seeking growth in data sciences in the U.S. We have some cool algorithms and methodologies around big data to work with."
Berkelaar elaborates on his firm's process and explains how big data can be used.
"We build algorithms to authenticate application forms for service and identify fraudulent ones. For this to work, you need to know everything about everybody and have the ability to identify patterns and read the messages in the data. Thus, we support both CIO and CMO in their efforts to make sense of the market they have and don't have (yet), abstracted from the available data streams."
Initial hiring plans for Berkelaar involve building his technology team.
"We are looking to employ a team of 'direct hires' who are able to take prototypes to product level. The nucleus of the team is an experienced web developer or java architect [who is] supported by junior developers. At least 40 percent of the time, we like to see the team work on researching and mastering new technologies such as Hadoop, NoSQL, Cassandra, and LMAX/Disruptor."
To learn more about Knowblet, you can visit their site
here. To contact Berkelaar, you can connect with him through
LinkedIn.
Source: Frans Berkelaar, Knowblet
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor
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