CampusConnect: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Databricks Workshop
Join Databricks and Dow on January 28, 2026 for an evening of hands-on learning data and AI skills, in partnership with Women in Electrical & Computer Engineering (WECE).
Databricks Solution Architects will guide you through an intro session covering:
An overview of the Databricks platform, including how Dow uses it day-to-day
AI/BI Dashboards, Genie, Unity Catalog, and Lakehouse architecture
Hands-on demos and exercises
Who should attend?
This event is open to current University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign students. Content is especially relevant for students studying engineering, information science, statistics, or data science, but all majors are welcome.
Advance registration is required, please use your university email.
Food will be provided.
Why attend?
Build confidence working with Databricks
Learn practical, in-demand data and AI skills
Connect with Databricks and Dow engineers and leaders
Receive 1 month of free Databricks Academy Labs access
Get a head start preparing for the March UIUC Datathon 🌟
What to bring?
Your laptop (required)
Speakers
Tim Licquia is the Lead Data & ML Engineer in the Enterprise Data & Analytics organization at Dow. He defines strategy and helps drive modern development practices for both DataOps and MLOps in Dow's lakehouse platform, focusing on accuracy, reliability, maintainability, and speed-to-value of data solutions. He has worked as a professional data scientist in various functional areas, using AI/ML and advanced analytics to capture dozens of value opportunities across Dow's business units. He also has led several internal communities and strategic committees focused on data and AI. Tim earned his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Pittsburgh where he used ML and advanced statistical methods to make new discoveries in galaxy science.
Jesse Grekowicz is a Senior Solution Manager in the Enterprise Data & Analytics organization at Dow. Based in Midland, MI, Jesse specializes in Business Intelligence and Enterprise Data Platforms. Jesse is responsible for defining strategy, designing and architecting innovative solutions, collaborating with various business partners, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality and consistent solutions. Jesse is passionate about leveraging new technologies to enhance business processes to ensure the accuracy, reliability, maintainability, and speed-to-value of data solutions. Jesse earned his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Saginaw Valley State University in 2012 where he also taught as an adjunct professor for databases.
Elise Hollowed leads the Databricks University Alliance, where she works with universities and students around the world to help the next generation learn data and AI skills that translate into real jobs. Before Databricks, she led education programs at GitHub, including GitHub Campus Experts, and introduced millions of students to the power open source and developer communities. She’s passionate about making tech more social and inclusive. Outside of work, you’ll usually find her on a never ending quest to climb mountains in the Pacific Northwest.
Varun Mahajan is a Senior Solutions Architect at Databricks with 25+ years of industry experience, helping customers build and scale modern data, analytics, and AI platforms. Previously, he served as a Principal Solutions Architect at AWS, focusing on cloud adoption and large-scale database migrations, and as a Principal Consultant at Oracle, leading database strategy and performance initiatives. Varun has also held leadership roles at FedEx-GENCO and Westinghouse Nuclear and is a frequent speaker and author on cloud data platforms and analytics.
Eric Lind is a Solutions Architect at Databricks and has 12 years of experience delivering projects with data, analytics, and machine learning. He has prior experience working at Deloitte and Capital One as a Data Scientist. At Databricks, he currently supports enterprise customers in the Manufacturing industry. Some example projects include on-premise database migrations to the cloud, predictive maintenance for shop floor equipment, IoT analytics for vehicle telemetry data, and marketing mix model training. In addition to supporting customers, Eric is also a Databricks AI/BI SME and works closely with our product teams to improve the customer experience with Dashboards and Genie.
Himanshu Gupta is a Senior Solutions Architect at Databricks with 20+ years of experience in data and analytics architecture, cloud transformation, and large-scale analytics platforms. In his current role, Himanshu partners with customers to design and implement modern data and AI solutions, helping organizations adopt the Databricks Lakehouse platform to drive measurable business outcomes.
Prior to Databricks, Himanshu held data leadership and architecture roles at Cummins, where he led global analytics initiatives, cloud data platform strategy, and digital transformation programs.
Jen Quinlan is the Site Director of the Dow Delivery Center at UIUC and an IT Manager within Dow’s Analytics & AI Hub. Jen has 20 years of experience via digital consultancies, startups and global corporations. Her industry experience spans smart home device manufacturing, wearable tech for consumer fitness, agtech products, smart manufacturing solutions, and mobile software. Prior to Dow, she directed the Cargill Innovation Lab at UIUC and ran digital marketing for Cargill Food North America. In addition to her UIUC-focused role, Jen has been appointed to Dow’s AI Office where she focuses Dow’s AI capabilities roadmap and vendor solutions.
Dow Delivery Center at UIUC: The Dow Delivery Center at the University of Illinois: Urbana-Champaign opened in 2025 with a focus on data, analytics and AI solutions. Through this year-round program, Dow employees partner with interns to collaborate on Dow’s IT and business objectives. Initial internship positions based out of this location to include data platform engineering interns and data engineer interns. All active internship positions will be posted on the Research Park job board.