Tableau to Make Powerful Analytics Software Free to Students

Tableau Software today announced that it will make its flagship visual analytics product free to students currently enrolled at an accredited K-12 institution, college or university worldwide. Tableau for Students is a new program that provides licenses of Tableau Desktop Professional to students to enhance their studies and gain new skills. Tableau Academic Programs also include the Tableau for Teaching initiative, which offers educators software for their classrooms. Students should visit http://www.tableausoftware.com/academic/students to obtain a free product code and will be asked for information to verify their student status at an accredited institution.

Tableau has been used by educators and their students in coursework for some time, but this new initiative makes the software free to any current student. Used by more than 10,000 organizations across the globe, Tableau’s fast analytics and visualization software has helped companies such as Barclays, Deloitte, Ferrari, Intel, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Spacex and Unilever to easily analyze business and scientific data. Students using Tableau in the classroom setting will be able to enhance their learning and gain valuable analytical skills that will prepare them for their post-graduate experience.

“Tableau has been inspired by professors who’ve used Tableau in their courses to develop their students’ analytical skills,” said Christian Chabot, CEO and co-founder of Tableau Software. “We’ve always had close ties to the academic community and offering our product free to students is something we can do to help them build the skills they’ll need when entering the workforce.”

“My experience using Tableau in the classroom definitely helped me to get the position I’m in today,” said Mike Thurston, Senior HR Analytics Research Analyst at Intermountain Healthcare and a former Tableau user at Utah State University. “The posting for my job listed knowledge of Tableau and SQL as requirements, and I brought a Tableau work sample into my interview. On the next interview, they told me they wanted me to do for them what I had done with Tableau in my class. I now use Tableau every day.”

Tableau itself was spun out of an academic environment in 2003. Stanford University Professor Pat Hanrahan and his Ph.D. candidate in the University Computer Science department, Chris Stolte, took on a Department of Defense (DOD) project aimed at increasing people’s ability to analyze information. Chris and Pat invented a technology called VizQL, representing a foundational advancement in the area of data analysis and visualization. Stanford Business School graduate Christian Chabot joined Chris and Pat and the three formed a company that received a PC Magazine award for “Product of the Year” just one year after launch.

Tableau products are available in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Korean.

About Tableau Software
Tableau Software helps people see and understand data. Tableau helps anyone quickly analyze, visualize and share information. More than 10,000 organizations get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. And tens of thousands of people use Tableau Public to share data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableausoftware.com/trial.

Tableau and Tableau Software and VizQL are trademarks of Tableau Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.