This week the University of Washington and Carnegie Mellon University announced a multiyear collaboration effort to create new software platforms to analyze large astronomical datasets generated by the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The open-source platforms are part of the new LSST Interdisciplinary Network for Collaboration and Computing — known as LINCC — and will fundamentally change how scientists use modern computational methods to make sense of big data. eScience Institute Director and Astronomy Professor Andrew Connolly said, “Tools that utilize the power of cloud computing will allow any researcher to search and analyze data at the scale of the LSST, not just speeding up the rate at which we make discoveries but changing the scientific questions that we can ask.” The platforms are supported by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative whose work in astrophysics aims to accelerate our knowledge about the universe by supporting the development of software and hardware platforms to facilitate research across the field of astronomy. In addition to UW and Carnegie Mellon, LINCC will have hub sites at Northwestern University and the University of Arizona. Read the full article here.