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UW’s eScience Institute to co-lead new big data innovation hub

UW eScience Institute logoThe National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that the University of Washington – a recognized leader in data management and visualization and data-intensive discovery – will co-lead the new Big Data Regional Innovation Hub for the western United States. Members of the UW’s eScience Institute and UW CSE faculty will partner with colleagues at the University of California, San Diego and UC Berkeley on the new initiative, which is one of four university-led hubs established by NSF to catalyze big data solutions to real-world problems.

From the UW media release:

“The ability to access, analyze and draw insights from massive amounts of data is already driving innovation in fields from medicine and manufacturing to the way cities are managed. To accelerate this emerging field, the NSF is establishing four ‘Big Data brain trusts’ to catalyze new collaborations among university researchers, tech companies, national labs, local and state government and non-profits.

“‘Our selection to help lead the West’s Big Data Hub affirms our position as a leader in data science and our track record in building successful partnerships,’ said Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering and director of the UW eScience Institute. ‘The Puget Sound region in particular is an excellent laboratory for this.'”

Lazowska is joined by Bill Howe, associate director and senior data science fellow at the eScience Institute; data scientist Ariel Rokem; and program director Sarah Stone on the UW’s hub leadership team. The western hub will focus on promoting collaborations and advancing solutions in five areas: big data technologies, managing natural resources and hazards, precision medicine, metro data science, and data-enabled scientific discovery and learning.

Read the full UW announcement here, and the NSF announcement here.

Check out the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s blog post on the new initiative here, and the Seattle Times article here.