Students, staff, computer enthusiasts and the just-plain-curious gathered in room 101 of Carver Hall on Thursday afternoon to better understand something they use every day.

The co-inventor of a computer database retrieval system known as Structured Query Language, which can be used in everything from ordering airline tickets to surfing the Web, gave a presentation about SQL and his latest project.

“Everyone is a relational database user,” said Don Chamberlin, an IBM software developer, as he explained that SQL was invented as a way to search tables of information quickly, almost like a Excel spreadsheet.

“It can store lots of information and search for it really rapidly,” said Shashi Gadia, associate professor in computer science. “It is one of the most stable – almost of all time – computer languages so far… Languages come and go but nothing has replaced it.”

Gadia said the technology has been growing leaps and bounds and has left footprints everywhere.

“It’s becoming an umbrella technology for all kinds of information,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling.”

Chamberlin described the databases SQL searches as “structured and neat,” while he described information retrieval used by Google as “wild and woolly.”

“Google has transformed our culture in ways we haven’t imagined yet,” Chamberlin said.

He said he is currently developing a newer technology that falls somewhere in the middle of the two extremes. XQuery, his new project, searches for information in trees or hierarchies.

“We’re witnessing a convergence of two mighty rivers that have historically been quite separate,” Chamberlin said of the new XQuery, which he said is undergoing testing.

He said this is the first time vast amounts of data have been at the fingertips of humans and have been in a usable format. He said now is the most exciting time for someone researching databases because of its potential future.

Bill Hoffa, junior in computer science, attended the lecture and said he found it informative.

“It’s interesting how he thinks data will move in the future,” Hoffa said. “How all three – SQL, XQuery and Google – will impact the use of the Internet.”