The emergence of "Big Data" provides us with some of the biggest challenges and opportunities. The challenges include the capture, storage, sharing, search, visualization, analysis, understanding, and processing of massive amounts of data that are complex and heterogeneous and are being gathered at rates that exceed our current capacity for handling such data. The opportunities stem from the potential for extracting useful knowledge from Big Data for more informed decisions, helping accelerate discovery and innovation, and supporting their transition into practice to benefit society. To address the challenges and opportunities of "Big Data", the U.S government has launched, in March 2012, the National Big Data Research and Development Initiative. But making the most of Big Data requires a joint effort from all the stakeholders: the government, industry, universities, and non-profits.
The workshop "Making the Most of Big Data: Current and Future High-impact Collaborations" aims to examine high-impact collaborations and identify additional areas for possible collaboration between the public and private sectors, with a special emphasis on projects and initiatives that: advance technologies that support Big Data and data analytics; educate and expand the Big Data workforce; develop, demonstrate and evaluate applications of Big Data that improve key outcomes in economic growth, job creation, education, health, energy, sustainability, public safety, advanced manufacturing, science and engineering, and global development; demonstrate the role that prizes and challenges can play in deriving new insights from Big Data; and foster regional innovation.
The workshop engages the key Big Data stakeholders from academia, government, and industry: representatives of the many federal agencies that support significant Big Data projects, leading academics engaged in Big Data research, leading Big Data innovators from industry, as well as participants from the state and local governments, non-profits, foundations and other organizations engaged in Big Data research, applications, workforce development, and technology transfer activities. Discussion of existing high-impact collaborations, keynote addresses on Big Data topics, privacy and ethical issues, a plenary panel and in breakout sessions covering critical Big Data issues (such as Workforce Development, Big Data Research and Development, Issues of Public Concern, and Big Data Innovation) is expected to lead to a better understanding of the current status of the Big Data efforts, and the identification of the best ways to address the challenges that remain and leverage the combined resources of private and public sectors to more fully realize the potential of Big Data.
Anticipated broader impacts of the project include recognition and appreciation of current high-impact collaborations; increased collaborations among the multiple Big Data stakeholders leading to transformative advances in the core Big Data technologies of capturing, storing, sharing, searching, visualizing, analyzing, understanding, and processing of huge, diverse, complex, and distributed data sets; and fostering of innovation in science, engineering, and education necessary for advancing national goals and priorities in economic growth, education, health, clean energy, and security.
The Big Data workshop took place on November 12, 2013 at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, DC, under the title "Data to Knowledge to Action: Building New Partnerships". This event was co-sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Networking and Information Technology R&D (NITRD) program, which represents the information technology portfolios of 18 Federal agencies. It was attended by the key Big Data stakeholders: representatives of the many federal agencies that support Big Data projects, leading academics engaged in Big Data research, leading Big Data innovators from industry, as well as participants from the state and local governments, non-profits, foundations and other organizations engaged in Big Data research, applications, workforce development, and technology transfer activities. The event included a plenary session with several invited talks and a partnership panel discussion. It featured an array of collaborations among corporations, educational institutions, professional organizations, Federal departments and agencies, state and local governments, and others, all involving sharing resources to derive greater value and accelerate progress in a wide range of scientific, social, and economic domains making use of big data. The plenary session was followed by three parallel breakout sessions (Education and Workforce Development; Research and Development; and Innovation), and a sessions’ report to the entire audience. The event ended with a poster session which featured 20 Big Data projects presentations and demonstrations. The event covered a wide range of Big Data projects and initiatives that: (1) Advance technologies that support Big Data and data analytics; (2) Educate and expand the Big Data workforce; (3) Develop, demonstrate and evaluate applications of Big Data that improve key outcomes in economic growth, job creation, education, health, energy, sustainability, public safety, advanced manufacturing, science and engineering, and global development; (4) Demonstrate the role that prizes and challenges can play in deriving new insights from Big Data; and (5) Foster regional innovation. We consider that this event has led to: (1) A better recognition and appreciation of the current high-impact collaborations; (2) Increased collaborations among the multiple Big Data stakeholders to facilitate transformative advances in the core Big Data technologies of capturing, storing, sharing, searching, visualizing, analyzing, understanding, and processing of huge, diverse, complex, and distributed data sets; and (3) Fostering of innovation in science, engineering, and education necessary for advancing national goals and priorities in economic growth, education, health, clean energy, and security. More details about this event are available at http://lac.gmu.edu/bigdata/
