Today@Dal

Posted March 12 by University Affairs:

Not long after Dalhousie University launched its Institute for Big Data Analytics last year, the new research unit struck up an innovative partnership with the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development and an Ottawa-based firm, GSTS. The goal, says Stan Matwin, a computer scientist and the Dalhousie institute’s director, is to sift through massive amounts of satellite data on ship movements as a way of analyzing typical and atypical trajectories of large freighters and other sea-bound vessels. Since satellites gather about four million readings per day, says Dr. Matwin, “This, by definition, is a big-data problem.”

If scientists can use the data to develop models for normal ship movements along a particular ocean route, they will be in a better position to identify ships that are travelling erratically – due to inclement weather, for example, or for more nefarious reasons like piracy. Coast guard agencies can use the information to deploy security vessels or assist ships navigating into busy ports of call, explains Dr. Matwin. It’s an exciting opportunity, he says, for the institute’s data scientists and graduate students to apply sophisticated technical solutions to real-world problems.

Such undertakings reveal a sharp uptick in interest – among both academics and their students – in big-data research at universities in Canada and around the world. Computer science faculties have been teaching and researching very technical topics related to database management, data mining and machine learning for many years, but the potential of big data and its applications go well beyond these bounds.

Read the rest of this article at the University Affairs website.