Data sets are growing rapidly. Yahoo, Google, and Amazon, work with data sets that consist of billions of items. The size and scale of data, which can be overwhelming today, will only increase as the Internet of Things matures. Data sets are also increasingly complex.  It is becoming more important to increase the pool of qualified scientists and engineers who can find the value from the large amount of big data. The National Academies released a report on training students to extract value from big data based on a Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics (CATS) workshop that occurred in April 2014. From the report: Training students to be capable in exploiting big data requires experience […]

Could robots really aid in the Ebola fight? On November 7th, robotics researchers from around the country will come together to try to answer that question. They will see if robots can prevent the spread of Ebola by possibly decontaminating infected equipment and or even burying victims. Robin Murphy, a professor of computer science and engineering at Texas A&M University and former CCC council member, is helping to set up this Safety Robotics for Ebola Workers workshop. The workshop will bring together health care workers, relief workers and roboticists. It is co-hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Texas A&M, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the University of California, Berkeley. The goal of the workshop is […]

The following is a guest post by Margo Seltzer, Herchel Smith Professor of Computer Science at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Science. Her collaborators were Regina Herzlinger of Harvard Business School and Kevin Schulman of Duke University School of Medicine.  A computer scientist, doctor, and business professor all walked into a MOOC… Well, not exactly, but it is not far off from the HarvardX MOOC on healthcare innovation organized by Regina Herzlinger of Harvard Business School and featuring domain experts such as Dr. Kevin Schulman of Duke and me. Called “Innovating in Healthcare,” our goal was to engage participants in “evaluating opportunities and the elements of viable business models for […]

The National Science Foundation (NSF) requested that the National Research Council (NRC) carry out a study examining anticipated priorities for advanced computing infrastructure in support of NSF-sponsored science and engineering research. The study encompasses advanced computing infrastructure activities and programs throughout NSF, including but not limited to, those of its Division on Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI). In response to this request, the NRC established the Committee on Future Directions for NSF Advanced Computing Infrastructure. The committee has begun its work by gathering and reviewing relevant materials, receiving testimony and comments from individuals, and identifying additional experts to receive testimony from along with additional information. Information is still being collected, but some important […]

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has announced an initial investment of nearly $32 million for NIH’s Big Data to Knowledge (BD2K) initiative which is projected to have a total investment of nearly $656 million through 2020. The BD2K initiative, launched in 2013, is a trans-NIH program that will develop new strategies to analyze and leverage the explosion of increasingly complex biomedical data sets, referred to as Big Data. Currently, biomedical data generation is exceeding researchers’ ability to capitalize on all the available data. The BD2K awards will support the development of new approaches, software, tools, and training programs to improve access to these data and the ability to make new […]

The following is a special contribution to this blog from CCC Chair Gregory Hager (Johns Hopkins University). These days, there are daily prognostications about the world-changing implications of devices, computing, data, and networking interacting with the physical world – the internet of things, cyber-physical systems, robotics, agile manufacturing, smart infrastructure and a host of other sexy-tech terms. There will be countless opportunities in this space, from home to factory floor to transportation and cities, and beyond. A vibrant entrepreneurial community has already formed around apps that connect and control home devices. GE has talked about how the Industrial Internet of Things will influence the factory floor, and they have more recently […]