Monday, April 2, 2012

Big Data is a Big Deal - Obama now a HPC Sponsor

On March 29, 2012, the Obama White House announced that it is signing up to be a sponsor of  the HPC Hunger Game (blog).

The announcement declares the intention "to help accelerate the pace of discovery in science and engineering, strengthen our national security, and transform teaching and learning", in other words, help building the killer weaponry that will give our nation the upper-hand in the race of next-gen information technology.

The initiative is called “Big Data Research and Development Initiative" with goal for improving ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data. According to the Tom Kalil, the Deputy Director for Policy at OSTP, these capabilities include tools and techniques needed to access, organize, and glean discoveries from large data sets.

The initiative has serious money behind it (even not as much as the Mega Lottery).  Six Federal departments and agencies will announce more than $200 million in new commitments that, together,

Finally in its announcement, Tom Kalil challenged industry, research universities, and non-profits to join with the Administration to make the most of the opportunities created by Big Data.  "Clearly, the government can’t do this on its own.  We need what the President calls an 'all hands on deck' effort", said Tom.
It was interesting that the White House announcement highlighted two aspects of HPC that I also mentioned.  One is the capability (the weaponry) and the other is the ability (the skills) to win and survive the Hunger Game of 21st Century. The announcement ends with the following:  

"Some companies are already sponsoring Big Data-related competitions, and providing funding for university research.  Universities are beginning to create new courses—and entire courses of study—to prepare the next generation of “data scientists.”  Organizations like Data Without Borders are helping non-profits by providing pro bono data collection, analysis, and visualization.  OSTP would be very interested in supporting the creation of a forum to highlight new public-private partnerships related to Big Data."

So welcome White House, to be a sponsor of the HPC Hunger Game!

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