Closing Plenary Sessions – Data-Intensive Discoveries in Science: the Fourth Paradigm; LACCIR: Results, Thoughts, and Opportunities

May 25, 2012
Alexander Szalay, Ignacio Casas, and Sergio Ochoa | The Johns Hopkins University, LACCIR

Data-Intensive Discoveries in Science: the Fourth Paradigm
Scientific computing increasingly revolves around massive amounts of data. From physical sciences, to numerical simulations, to high throughput genomics and homeland security, we are quickly dealing with petabytes if not exabytes of data. This new, data-centric computing requires a fresh look at computing architectures and strategies. We will revisit Amdahl’s Law establishing the relation between CPU and I/O in a balanced computer system, using this to analyze current computing architectures and workloads. We will discuss how existing hardware can be used to build systems that are much closer to an ideal Amdahl machine, and we will describe a hypothetical cheap, yet high performance, multi-petabyte system currently under consideration at Johns Hopkins. We will also explore strategies of interacting with very large amounts of data, and compare various large-scale data analysis platforms.

LACCIR: Results, Thoughts, and Opportunities
Since May 2007, the LACCIR Federation has been promoting collaborative research activities focused in ICT applications among Latin American and Caribbean researchers. This joint research work has allowed the development of innovative ICT solutions to address region-wide challenges in such areas as education, healthcare, environment, energy, and e-government. This presentation will provide an up-to-date account of LACCIR results and will highlight future opportunities for ICT research in the region. During the presentation, we will also announce the RFP (request for proposal) process for the 2012 LACCIR collaborative research programs.

Speaker Details

Alexander Szalay is the Alumni Centennial Professor of Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University and a professor in the Department of Computer Science. A cosmologist, he works on the statistical measures of the spatial distribution of galaxies and galaxy formation. He was born and educated in Hungary, and he spent postdoctoral periods at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago before accepting a faculty position at Johns Hopkins. Alex architected the Science Archive of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and was project director of the (US) National Science Foundation-funded National Virtual Observatory. His papers cover areas from theoretical cosmology to observational astronomy, spatial statistics, and computer science. He received an Alexander von Humboldt Prize in Physical Sciences in 2004 and the Microsoft Jim Gray Award in 2007. Alex is a Corresponding Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2008, he became Doctor Honoris Clausa of the Eötvös University.

Ignacio Casas is professor of information technologies in the Department of Computer Science (DCS), School of Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC Chile). His main research interests are business-driven technologies and technology-enhanced learning (TEL) environments and tools. Ignacio has been a leading figure in Chile’s information and communication technology (ICT) development, co-founding DCS-PUC Chile (1981) and serving as its head (1988–1992); co-founding and serving as president (1989–1990) of the Chilean Computer Science Society; and serving as chief technology officer at PUC Chile (1995–2005). He is responsible for introducing TEL systems, Wi-Fi, and e-learning services in his university. Ignacio is the co-founder and co-director of the 15-year-old RELATED network, which advocates the development and use of TEL in Latin America, and the executive director of the LACCIR, which works to advance ICT applied research in the region. He is a member of IEEE and Colegio de Ingenieros de Chile and serves on the board of directors of several technology development enterprises. He earned a PhD in computer science from the University of Toronto.

Sergio F. Ochoa is an associate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Chile. His research interests include computer-supported collaborative work, mobile/pervasive computing, and software engineering. Sergio is a member of IEEE, ACM, and the Chilean Computer Society, and he sits on the steering committee of LACCIR (the Latin American and Caribbean Collaborative ITC Research Federation). He also serves as an IT consultant for a number of public and private organizations in Chile. Sergio received his PhD in computer science from the Catholic University of Chile.