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NSF awards connect Midwest Big Data Hub and scientists to solve regional challenges


Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced $10 million in “Big Data Spokes” awards to initiate research in specific areas identified, supported, and organized by the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs). $2.4 million in Big Data Spoke, Early­ Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) and planning awards will connect the Midwest Big Data Hub (MBDH) and midwestern data scientists, to support digital agriculture; community-driven and sustainable neuroscience data infrastructure; improved sensor technologies; citizen scientists and real-time air quality monitoring; and new data-to-decision systems in hazards management by partnering data scientists with emergency personnel.

The Midwest Big Data Hub, based at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a partnership with the University of Michigan, Iowa State University, Indiana University, and the University of North Dakota that serves 12 midwestern states. MBDH builds relationships in academia, industry, and government to develop an effective cross-sector networks ready to utilize data and data science to solve shared problems of regional and societal interest.

“The NSF’s Spokes and EAGER awards will spur new or improved big data tools and methods to solve complex challenges important to the Midwest,” said Melissa Cragin, Executive Director of the Midwest Big Data Hub at NCSA. “The Midwest Big Data Hub will work with the community to develop and build new public-private partnerships to increase access to data and use of data science tools.”

The Big Data (BD) Spokes within the hub reflect the unique priorities and capabilities of the four disparate U.S. geographic regions (Midwest, Northeast, South, West). The Midwest Big Data Hub focuses on Digital Agriculture, Food-Energy-Water, Health and Biomedical Sciences, Network Sciences, Metropolitan Sciences, Transportation, Business Analytics and Advanced Manufacturing.

“The BD Spokes advance the goals and regional priorities of each BD Hub, fusing the strengths of a range of institutions and investigators and applying them to problems that affect the communities and populations within their regions,” said Jim Kurose, assistant director of NSF for Computer and Information Science and Engineering. “We are pleased to be making this substantial investment today to accelerate the nation’s big data R&D innovation ecosystem.”

The Big Data Spokes Awards granted to the midwest region:

Digital Agriculture — Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Plant Sciences and Education
Award Number: 1636865; Principal Investigator: William McGimpsey; Co-Principal Investigator: Joe Colletti, Gregory Monaco, Jennifer Clarke, Travis Desell; Organization: University of North Dakota Main Campus; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 10/01/2016; Award Amount: $995,739.00

MIDWEST: Collaborative: Advanced Computational Neuroscience Network (ACNN)
Award Number: 1636840; Principal Investigator: Richard Gonzalez; Co-Principal Investigator: George Alter, Ivo Dinov; Organization: University of Michigan Ann Arbor; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $343,263.00

BD Spokes: SPOKE: MIDWEST: Collaborative: Advanced Computational Neuroscience Network (ACNN)
Award Number: 1636893; Principal Investigator: Franco Pestilli; Co-Principal Investigator: Lei Wang, Andrew Saykin, Olaf Sporns; Organization: Indiana University; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $332,869.00

BD Spokes: SPOKE: MIDWEST: Collaborative: Advanced Computational Neuroscience Network (ACNN)
Award Number: 1636850; Principal Investigator: Satya Sahoo; Organization: Case Western Reserve University; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $164,912.00

BD Spokes: SPOKE: MIDWEST: Collaborative: Advanced Computational Neuroscience Network (ACNN)
Award Number: 1636846; Principal Investigator: Dhabaleswar Panda; Co-Principal Investigator: Xiaoyi Lu, Hari Subramoni; Organization: Ohio State University; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $166,454.00

BD Spokes: Planning: Networked Resilience of Communities Facing Natural and Social Emergencies
Award Number: 1636942; Principal Investigator: Marshall Poole; Co-Principal Investigator: Alex Yahja; Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $100,000.00

BD Spokes: Planning: Cyberinfrastructure to Enhance Data Quality and Support Reproducible Results in Sensor Originated Big Data
Award Number: 1636891; Principal Investigator: Elisa Bertino; Co-Principal Investigator: Sorin Matei; Organization: Purdue University; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $99,938.00

BD Spokes: Planning: Big Data Innovations for Bridge Health
Award Number: 1636805; Principal Investigator: Robin Gandhi; Co-Principal Investigator: Brian Ricks, Deepak Khazanchi, Daniel Linzell, Chungwook Sim; Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha; NSF Organization: IIS Start Date: 09/01/2016; Award Amount: $99,959.00

EAGER Award granted to the midwest region today:

EAGER: Incorporating Citizen Science into Real-Time Sensor-Based Estimates of Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposure
Award Number: 1645226; Principal Investigator: Andrew May; Co-Principal Investigator: Ayaz Hyder; Organization: Ohio State University; NSF Organization: CBET Start Date: 08/15/2016; Award Amount: $99,613.00

About the Midwest Big Data Hub

The Midwest Big Data Hub (MBDH) is designed to address grand challenges by building a sustainable and enabling data environment to support evolving cross-sector networks. Our focus is on specific strengths and themes of importance to the region: Society (including smart cities and communities, network science, business analytics), Natural & Built World (including food, energy, water, digital agriculture, transportation, advanced manufacturing), and Healthcare & Biomedical Research (spanning genomics to patient care). The Hub supports activities that aggregate expertise, projects, and resources, enabling communities to assemble and function along multiple spokes, including specific themes of importance to the Midwest (across three broad themes of society, natural/built environments, and biomedical sciences). Integrative rings connect all spokes and are organized around data sciences, tools, and services needed to collect, store, access and analyze complex data collections; and, educational activities to advance the knowledge base and train a new workforce in the use and applications of data to create actionable knowledge and guide decision-making. The 12 states served by the MBDH are: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

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