On Friday, October 7th, the Office of the Provost sponsored a town hall discussion on data analytics and big data at chapman. The panel discussion was facilitated by Dr. Tom Piechota, Vice President for Research.  The panelists included:

  • Georgiana Bostean – Assistant Professor of Environment, Health & Policy
    Prof. Hesham El-Askary Speaking

    Professor Hesham El-Askary describes his research at the 2016 Fall Town Hall discussion.

  • Douglas R. Dechow – Digital Humanities and Science Librarian
  • Hesham M. El-Askary –Professor of Remote Sensing and Earth System Science; Director of Graduate Programs in Computational and Data Sciences
  • David Frederick – Assistant Professor in Health Psychology
  • Rene German – Instructor of Computer Science and Software
  • Erik Linstead – Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering; Principal Investigator, Machine Learning and Assistive Technology
  • Jana Remy– Associate Director of Digital Scholarship; Faculty in WCHSS, teaching in the areas of Environmental Humanities and American History
  • Daniel Tomaszewski –Assistant Professor, School of Pharmacy

 

Full House

A packed house for the panel.

Each panelist briefly discussed how data applies to their research, outlining the various ways that data can be impactful, from massive amounts of data tracking climate change, to smaller data sets that help students learn about the experiences of soldiers through their war letters.  The ensuing discussion ranged from topics regarding how to collect and store data to privacy and security issues that are naturally raised as more and more data becomes available. There was also a great deal of discussion regarding the role of the Library, IS&T and the Office of Research in managing this data. More importantly, as we move more and more into the era of big data and data analytics, the opportunities for interdisciplinary research are dramatically increased. While this change will allow us to tackle issues we never have before, it’s clear that it introduces a set of challenges to how we work and collaborate. The session was recorded, and is available for review here https://chapman.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=97c990d5-5623-4db3-a1ec-76b19ace794a.

The town hall was an appropriate follow on to a 2013 Symposium on Big Data and Analytics at Chapman, facilitated by Professor El-Askary.  This event, the Interface Symposium, was joint effort of Chapman University and the Interface Foundation of North America, and resulted from the Obama Administration’s Big Data Research and Development Initiative. For more information on the 2013 event, please visit https://www.chapman.edu/events/past-events/interface-2013/index.aspx

We hope to do follow up events to build on the work done both at the town hall and the Interface Symposium.  Stay tuned for more news.