Shakuntala (Shaku) Atre (born 1940) is an Indian data scientist and an American business woman. After a fourteen-year career with IBM, she began her own firm and became widely regarded as an expert on business technology and database use. Atre is best known for her books Database: Structured Techniques for Design, Performance and Management: With Case Studies (1980), one of the first books written on managing databases, and her co-authored book Business Intelligence Roadmap, written with Larissa Moss. She has served as an adjunct professor of data science at University of Pune and at several institutions in the United States. Her works have been used as university textbooks.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Shaku Atre
Born
Shakuntala Atre

1940 (age 83–84)
NationalityIndian
EducationUniversity of Poona
University of Heidelberg
Occupation(s)Scientist, businesswoman

Early life and education

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Atre was born in 1940 in India and grew up in Panvel, a village near Mumbai.[7][8] She earned a Master of Science from the University of Poona, studying mathematics and statistics.[9][10] During her education, she also studied languages, gaining proficiency in speaking five different languages.[1] Atre went on to begin her graduate studies in mathematics and physics at the University of Heidelberg, writing her thesis on astronomy.[9][10][11] Because she needed to make large scale calculations to develop her thesis, she began studying computer programming, which led to an interest in the field of computer technology.[10][12] During her studies, she was hired by IBM in 1967. When her student visa expired three and a half years later, Atre and her husband immigrated to the United States.[1][10]

Career

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When they arrived in New York City in 1971, IBM had implemented a hiring freeze, but Atre was able to convince them she was not a new hire because she had worked for the company in Germany.[1][12] They put her on staff as a systems programmer[1] and she worked for the company for the next ten years, moving up the ladder from installation and technical support, to trainer in IBM's Systems Institute, to branch office systems engineer and finally, as a program manager for international product releases.[1][10][Notes 1] During her tenure at IBM, from 1977 to 1981, she served as one of the referees for the company’s Systems Journal, selecting which articles would be peer-reviewed for the publication.[14] In 1980, she published Data Base: Structured Techniques for Design, Performance, and Management with Case Studies, which would be used as a university textbook. It was translated into several different languages and had sold more than 150,000 copies within its first two decades of publication.[1] During this period, she also began teaching as an adjunct professor at various universities, including the Polytechnic Institute of New York.[9][15]

In the last quarter of 1981, Atre left IBM and began operating her own business consulting firm and working part-time managing long-distance telephone databases for AT&T.[1][10][11][12] The following year, she began writing articles for Computerworld, which in 2003 would become a regular column for the magazine.[1][16] Her book Data Base Management Systems for the Eighties was published in 1983, and provided a discussion of eight different data systems, comparing features and business applications to assist readers in analyzing which systems best met their needs.[17][18] From 1984, her expert opinion of various data systems was regularly sought by trade magazines, such as Infosystems,[19] MIS Week,[20] Network World,[21] and Software News, among others.[15][22]

In 1988, Atre sold her firm, Atre International Consultants, of Rye, New York to Computer Assistance, Inc. of Hartford, Connecticut. She was retained as president of Atre International, which operated as a branch of Computer Assistance, and became a consultant to the fifteen other national branches of the firm.[23] The firm was acquired by Coopers Lybrand in 1989[1][24] and the following year, she negotiated a joint-venture with Intec, Inc. a software firm from Mumbai to develop utilities and training programs for use with Windows 3.[25] In 1991, Atre published Distributed Databases, Cooperative Processing, and Networking, which became the basis for a series of seminars of the same name, which she presented at the Technology Transfer Institute in 1992.[26][27] She became a contributing editor to the journal DBMS in 1994.[28]

In 1998, Atre relocated to Santa Cruz, California, where her son had begun a web-based business, using her name-recognition in the industry to start his firm. From her new location, Atre operated both Atre Group, Inc. and Atre Associates.[13] In 2003, she co-authored with Larissa Moss the book, Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete Project Lifecycle for Decision-Support Applications, which became frequently cited for its practical advice to business managers on how to integrate strategic company goals and varied business applications through database management.[29][30][31] That same year, Atre and Robert Blumberg, president of Blumberg Consulting, were hired by DM Review magazine to publish a five-part series of articles on business intelligence. The articles were designed to give information to business managers on how unstructured data could be transformed into usable content for their industries.[32]

Selected works

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  • Atre, S. (1980). Data Base: Structured Techniques for Design, Performance, and Management with Case Studies. New York, New York: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-471-05267-8.
  • Atre, Shaku (1983). Data Base Management Systems for the Eighties. Wellesley, Massachusetts: QED Information Sciences. ISBN 978-0-89435-053-5.
  • Atre, Shaku (1991). Distributed Databases, Cooperative Processing, and Networking (1st ed.). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-8306-2554-3.
  • Moss, Larissa Terpeluk; Atre, Shaku (2003). Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete Project Lifecycle for Decision-Support Applications. Boston, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0-201-78420-6.

Notes

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  1. ^ Michael Iacuessa in his 2002 article says she worked for IBM for a decade. Both the Daily Item (1982) and Iacuessa in his 2001 article state it was 14 years;[11][13] however, because she was already consulting in 1982, the fourteen year figure indicates her cumulative history including her work in Germany.[10][11]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Iacuessa, Michael (10 December 2002). "Organization Woman: New Book Covers Care, Feeding of Data". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Santa Cruz, California. p. 30. Retrieved 10 May 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ Byte. McGraw-Hill. 1980. p. 197.
  3. ^ Halper, Stanley D. (1985). Handbook of EDP Auditing. Warren, Gorham & Lamont. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-88712-267-5.
  4. ^ Conley, Diane, ed. (1981). Peterson's Annual Guides to Graduate Study. Peterson's Guides, Incorporated. p. 372. ISBN 978-0-87866-218-0.
  5. ^ Chernow, Barbara Ann; Vallasi, George A.; Durbin, Paul T.; Kaplan, Fred; Charney, Maurice; Kaufman, Paula T. (1986). The Reader's Adviser: A Layman's Guide to Literature. R.R. Bowker. p. 149. ISBN 978-0-8352-2149-8.
  6. ^ Handbook of EDP Auditing: Cumulative supplement. Warren, Gorham & Lamont. 1988. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-7913-0198-2.
  7. ^ Moss & Atre 2003, p. iv.
  8. ^ Atre, Shaku (11 February 2016). "Memoirs". worldwomanwarrior.com. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  9. ^ a b c "Computer Science: Adjunct Faculty". Catalog: 1981-1983 (PDF). Brooklyn, New York: Polytechnic Institute of New York. 1983. p. 89. Archived (PDF) from the original on 27 April 2021.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Snyders, Jan (October 1984). "Create That Opportunity: An Interview with Shaku Atre, President of Atre International Consultants, Inc". Infosystems. 31 (10). Wheaton, Illinois: Hitchcock Publishing Co.: 104. ISSN 0364-5533. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  11. ^ a b c d "Dinner Meeting". The Daily Item. Port Chester, New York. 4 February 1982. p. 31. Retrieved 10 May 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ a b c Stoltenberg, John (May 1988). "Turning Problems into Profits". Working Woman. 13 (5). New York, New York: Hal Publications: 63–64, 68–69. ISSN 0145-5761. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  13. ^ a b Iacuessa, Michael (14 March 2001). "Web Design Company CEO Finds Best of Both Worlds Here". Santa Cruz Sentinel. Santa Cruz, California. p. 29. Retrieved 10 May 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Referees". IBM Systems Journal. 20 (3). Yorktown Heights, New York: International Business Machines Corporation: 365. 1981. doi:10.1147/sj.203.0365. ISSN 0018-8670. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  15. ^ a b Radding, Alan (2 May 1988). "The Education of an Expert". Computerworld. 22 (18). Framingham, Massachusetts: C W Communications Inc.: 74. ISSN 0010-4841. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  16. ^ Atre, S. (1 September 1982). "End-User Designed/Driven Data Bases". Computerworld. 17 (35a). Framingham, Massachusetts: C W Communications Inc.: 61–63. ISSN 0010-4841. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  17. ^ "Data Dictionary, DBMS Guides Out from QED". Computerworld. 17 (12). Framingham, Massachusetts: C W Communications Inc.: 28 21 March 1983. ISSN 0010-4841. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  18. ^ "QED Sciences Releases Reports on Software". Computerworld. 17 (13). Framingham, Massachusetts: C W Communications Inc.: 31 28 March 1983. ISSN 0010-4841. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  19. ^ Snyders, Jan (December 1984). "Let's Talk DBMS". Infosystems. 31 (12). Wheaton, Illinois: Hitchcock Publishing Co.: 36, 38, 40. ISSN 0364-5533. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  20. ^ Conlon, Theresa (16 March 1987). "'Ramis/PC Workstation' Bows". MIS Week. 8 (11). New York, New York: Fairchild Publications: 35. ISSN 0199-8838. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  21. ^ Cummings, Joanne (11 January 1993). "Analysts Contemplate Office of the Future". Network World. 10 (2). Framingham, Massachusetts: IDG Communications: 95. ISSN 0887-7661. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Update on Mid-Range DBMS Players". Software News. 7 (12). Westborough, Massachusetts: Sentry Publishing Company Inc.: 64, 66–67 November 1987. ISSN 0279-9782. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  23. ^ "Computer Assistance Buys Atre". Computerworld. 22 (4). Framingham, Massachusetts: C W Communications Inc.: 30 25 January 1988. ISSN 0010-4841. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  24. ^ Brown, Jim (18 September 1989). "CA Uncovers Details of Its Distributed DBMS Strategy". Network World. 6 (37). Framingham, Massachusetts: IDG Communications: 7. ISSN 0887-7661. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  25. ^ Bride, Ed; et al. (November 1991). "Atre, Indian Firm Form Joint Venture". Software Magazine. Vol. 11, no. 13. Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Custom Publishing, LLC. p. 14. Gale A11505323.
  26. ^ Atre 1991.
  27. ^ "Explaining Emerging Database Technologies". Network World. 9 (41). Framingham, Massachusetts: C W Communications Inc.: 51 12 October 1992. ISSN 0887-7661. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  28. ^ "DBMS". DBMS. 7 (11). San Francisco, California: Miller Freeman, Inc.: 12. October 1994. ISSN 1041-5173. Retrieved 11 May 2022.
  29. ^ Serghie, Dan; Balan, Ana Maria (2010). "Business Intelligence Systems in the business strategy - an approach to the Romanian reality" (PDF). Studies and Scientific Researches. 15 (Economic). Bacău, Romania: Alma Mater Publishing House for the Vasile Alecsandri University: 453. ISSN 2066-561X. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  30. ^ Bustamante Martínez, Alexander Armando; et al. (December 2011). "Soluciones de inteligencia de negocios en la práctica: apoyo a la toma de decisiones en proyectos educativos para población infantil vulnerable en el caribe Colombiano" [Business Intelligence Solutions in Practice: Support for Decision-Making in Educational Projects for Vulnerable Children in the Colombian Caribbean]. UIS Ingenierías (in Spanish). 10 (2). Bucaramanga, Colombia: Facultad de Ingenierías Fisicomecánicas de Universidad Industrial de Santander: 126. ISSN 1657-4583. OCLC 8207461276. Archived from the original on 16 April 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
  31. ^ Loshin, David (2012). Business Intelligence: The Savvy Manager's Guide (2nd ed.). Waltham, Massachusetts: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers. p. 53. ISBN 978-0-12-385890-0.
  32. ^ "Atre, Blumberg to Publish Series in DM Review". PR Newswire. 23 January 2003. Gale A132128916.