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The Data Science Incubator: a unique environment for geospatial data science education
Anthony Arendt, eScience Institute Data Science Fellow and Applied Physics Laboratory Senior Research Scientist, contributed an American Geophysical Union blog post about two Earth sciences projects that were part of the recently completed 2016 Winter Data Science Incubator. He notes that this program provides a novel approach to addressing the urgent challenge of offering education…
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Panama Papers Leak
USA Today quoted eScience Associate Director Bill Howe in an April 5th article about the 11.5 million documents recently leaked from a Panamanian law firm pertaining to hidden offshore accounts and business transactions. Howe notes that cloud computing as well as openly available software for translation, indexing, and data mining now make quick work of…
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Community-level data science and its spheres of influence: beyond novelty squared
Brittany Fiore-Gartland and Anissa Tanweer Data science has many characterizations, but in academia it is often talked about as pushing the limits of both methodological and domain science, what Josh Bloom, a Professor of Astronomy at U.C. Berkeley, has referred to as “novelty squared”. Bloom sees this as the “great challenge of modern interdisciplinary scientific…
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Damage Speaks: Acoustical Monitoring Framework for Structures Subjected to Earthquakes
Project Lead: Travis Thonstad, Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Washington Project Collaborators: Marc O. Eberhard; John F. Stanton, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington; Islam Mantawy; David H. Sanders, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Nevada, Reno eScience Liaison: Valentina Staneva Currently, the assessment of the integrity and safety of structures subjected to earthquakes relies on a…
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AralDIF: A Cloud-based Dynamic Information Framework for the Aral Sea Basin
Project Lead: Amanda Tan, Department of Oceanography, University of Washington eScience Liaisons: Rob Fatland, Anthony Arendt A dynamic information framework (DIF) is a decision support structure centered on earth system science models and data resources used to address policy challenges in water resources caused by population growth, socio-economic development and climate change, particularly in developing nations. This decision…
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Improved Stimulation Protocols for Sight Restoration Technologies
Project Leads: Ione Fine, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington; and Geoffrey M. Boynton, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington eScience Liaison: Ariel Rokem Our goal is to develop a neurophysiologically inspired algorithm for improved electrical stimulation protocols in patients implanted with electronic prostheses. By 2020 roughly 200 million people will suffer from retinal diseases. Electronic prostheses,…
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Target Detection for Advanced Environmental Monitoring of Marine Renewable Energy
Project Lead: Emma Cotter, Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington Project Collaborators: Brian Polagye, Paul Murphy eScience Liaison: Bernease Herman It is necessary to reduce the uncertainty surrounding the environmental effects of marine renewable energy for the industry to advance. The Adaptable Monitoring Package (AMP) is an instrumentation platform for that combines sonar, cameras, and hydrophones in a centrally…
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Methods for Characterizing Human Centromeres
Project Lead: Siva Kasinathan, UW School of Medicine eScience Liaisons: Andrew Fiore-Gartland, Bryna Hazelton Despite an explosion in DNA sequencing technology, many genome projects, including the Human Genome Project, remain fundamentally unfinished. Gaps in genome assemblies occur in regions composed of repeated sequences. Human centromeres, which are loci that ensure proper partitioning of genetic material at each cell…
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Developing a Workflow for Managing Large Hydrologic Spatial Datasets to Assist Water Resources Management and Research
Project Lead: Nicoleta Cristea, Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington Project Collaborators: Jessica Lundquist, Ryan Currier, Karl Lapo eScience Liaisons: Anthony Arendt, Rob Fatland Large, spatially distributed datasets have increasingly become more abundant, but there is currently no workflow that efficiently manages, analyzes and visualizes these datasets, ultimately dampening their usability and assistance in water resource management/research. Within the…
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Mayor Murray Signs Historic Open Data Executive Order
On February 26th, Mayor Ed Murray signed an Executive Order instituting a new open data policy for all City of Seattle departments. Bill Howe, Associate Director of the eScience Institute, noted, “The City’s leadership in instituting this transformative new policy — one that balances the need for open data with the critical sensitivities around privacy,…