Communications of the ACM

Connecting Data Scientists with Regional Challenges

The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded $10 million to 10 "Big Data Spokes" projects to initiate research on specific topics identified by the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs, or BD Hubs.

Project topics range from personalized education to precision agriculture. The data spokes reflect the unique priorities and capabilities of the four BD Hubs, which represent consortia from the Midwest, Northeast, South, and West of the United States.

"The BD Spokes advance the goals and regional priorities of each BD Hub, fusing the strengths of a range of institutions and investigators and applying them to problems that affect the communities and populations within their regions," says Jim Kurose, assistant director of NSF's Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate. "We are pleased to be making this substantial investment today to accelerate the nation's big data R&D innovation ecosystem."

NSF is also making available an additional $1 million toward planning efforts and Early-Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) awards in support of the United States' big data innovation ecosystem.

In March 2012, the Obama Administration launched the Big Data Research and Development Initiative to improve the ability to solve some of the United States' most pressing challenges by extracting knowledge and insights from large, complex collections of digital data. The BD Hubs, announced last year, are one way NSF is addressing this need by fostering multi-sector collaborations among academia, industry, and government, and bringing together a wide range of stakeholders to solve regional challenges.

Like the BD Hubs, the BD Spokes will take on a convening and coordinating role, as opposed to directly conducting research. Each will gather important stakeholders, engage end users and solution providers, and form multi-disciplinary teams to tackle questions no single field can solve alone. However, unlike the BD Hubs, which aim to span the full range of data-driven challenges and solutions in a geographic region, each BD Spoke will have a specific, goal-driven mission.

An example of the types of activities the awards will support includes an effort, led by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Brown University, and Drexel University, to develop a data licensing approach and automated platform that will allow individuals and organizations to share data. The platform will ensure that data sharing conforms to the imposed licensing restrictions. Partners on the project include Elsevier, Intel, Microsoft Research, Oracle, Rhode Island Hospital, and Thomson Reuters.

"The Big Data Hub and Big Data Spokes have been a great way to connect those of us working in Big Data in the Northeast," says Samuel Madden, professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator on the project. "As a computer scientist focused on software for sharing data, I've been able to connect to a diverse group of researchers and leaders interested in a wide range of broader issues, ranging from hardware infrastructure to software architectures to the legal, ethical, and societal implications of data sharing."

Another project, led by Gari Clifford, associate professor of Biomedical Informatics at Emory University, will investigate how to use data from diverse sources, including fitness trackers and environmental monitors, to improve patient care. As its first pilot, the project will focus on African-Americans and Latinos diagnosed with cardiovascular disease. Partners include Amazon, Emory Critical Care Center, Cerner, Relus Technologies, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

There are 10 BD Spokes projects. Details of the grants are linked to each institution's name:

• NORTHEAST: A Licensing Model and Ecosystem for Data Sharing (MIT; Brown University; Drexel University)
• NORTHEAST: Grand Challenges for Data-Driven Education (University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Worcester Polytechnic Institute; University of Pennsylvania)
• NORTHEAST: Integration of Environmental Factors and Causal Reasoning Approaches for Large-Scale Observational Health Research (Harvard University; Columbia University; University of Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania State University)
• SOUTH: Large-Scale Medical Informatics for Patient Care Coordination and Engagement (Emory University)
• SOUTH: Smart Grids Big Data (Texas A&M; Temple University; Georgia Institute of Technology)
• SOUTH: Using Big Data for Environmental Sustainability: Big Data + AI Technology = Accessible, Usable, Useful Knowledge (Georgia Institute of Technology; Smithsonian Institution)
• MIDWEST: Advanced Computational Neuroscience Network (University of Michigan; Indiana University; Ohio State University; Case Western University)
• MIDWEST: Digital Agriculture – Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Plant Sciences, and Education (University of North Dakota)
• WEST: Accelerating and Catalyzing Reproducibility in Scientific Computation and Data Synthesis (Arizona State University)
• WEST: MetroInsight: Knowledge Discovery and Real-time Interventions from Sensory Data Flows in Urban Spaces (University of California, San Diego; University of California, Los Angeles; Arizona State University)

• NORTHEAST: Big Data Literacy: Building Capacity for Regional Collaboration in Closing the Big Data Divide (New York Hall of Science)
• NORTHEAST: Cross-Organization Big Data Cyber Attack Awareness (Pennsylvania State University)
• NORTHEAST: Planning for Privacy and Security in Big Data (Rutgers University; Pennsylvania State University)
• NORTHEAST: Partnerships for Energy Cycle Innovation through Big Data (University at Buffalo)
• SOUTH: Rare Disease Observatory (North Carolina State University; University of North Carolina)
• MIDWEST: Big Data Innovations for Bridge Health (University of Nebraska)
• MIDWEST: Cyberinfrastructure to Enhance Data Quality and Support Reproducible Results in Sensor Originated Big Data (Purdue University)
• MIDWEST: Networked Resilience of Communities Facing Natural and Social Emergencies (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
• WEST: Big Data for Policing in the Western United States (Boise State University)
• WEST: Increasing Collaborations in Proteogenomics Applications of Genetic Data (Institute for Systems Biology; University of California, San Diego)

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