Dr. Valerie E. Taylor spoke about the recent partnership between The Texas A&M University System and IBM at the Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable meeting on October 15, 2014 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C.
"The Big Data Revolution: What Does It Mean for Research?" was the topic of the meeting. GUIRR was established in 1984 by the National Academies to facilitate discussion among top leaders of government and non-government research organizations.
Taylor, senior associate dean of academic affairs in the Dwight Look College of Engineering and the Regents professor and Royce E. Wisenbaker professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, presented details of the partnership, which is a broad joint research collaboration based on shared and complementary research expertise and capabilities. Taylor discussed the long-term research collaboration that is focused on Grand Challenges, which require fundamental research, applied development, educational reach, and sustainable commercial activities.
Many of the Grand Challenges involve big data research. Proposed research staff engagement with the partnership includes participating in roundtable sessions to explore shared interest and capabilities; providing ongoing technical and research support for an HPC Institute; developing fellowship, internship, and experiential learning opportunities; encouraging research collaborations that include mutual exchange of personnel; and holding joint workshops organized by IBM and faculty of the A&M System.
Dr. Dilma M. Da Silva, Ford Motor Company Design Professor II and head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering attended the meeting with Taylor.
"I felt like many kids do on their first visit to a theme park: in awe of how cool science and engineering are," said Da Silva. "Several speakers from universities, funding agencies, and industry labs highlighted the multi-disciplinary aspect of big data research. Computer scientists need to get deeply involved in other domains in order to advance the state of the art.
"The event had three excellent speakers discussing privacy aspects in big data. They presented different views on how to attack the issues, demonstrating how complex the problem is: society can benefit from knowledge derived from large data sets about people, but allowing access to such data comes with equally relevant challenges."