National Science Foundation1

BIG DATA REGIONAL INNOVATION HUBS& SPOKESOverview of the Program for the AI Community

Fen Zhao

Nov 18, 2016

National Science Foundation2

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Brings together domain scientists, computer

scientists, and end users to use data to solve

challenges

01 THE PROGRAM

Encourages collaborations with industry, state & local governments, non

profits, and others that are not typical NSF participants

02 THE STAKEHOLDERS

AI is a critical part of accelerating science and innovation using Big Dat

03 PARTICIPATION

National Science Foundation3

WHAT IS THE HISTORY BEHIND BDHUBS?The National Big Data R&D Initiative & Data to Knowledge to Action (Data2Action)

MAR2012

MAY2013

LaunchOSTP and NITRD Agencies (lead by NSF) kick off the National Big Data R&D Initiative with new federal programs totaling $200M

Big Data Partnerships WorkshopIndustry, academia, and government representatives gathered to learn about current Big Data partnership and brainstorm new ideas

NOV2013

Data2Action90 organizations announce 29 new Big Data partnerships supported by $100M in non-federal funds

JUN2014

Partnerships Bear FruitPartnerships update NITRD on midterm outcomes from announced projects

MAR2015

BDHubsNSF initiates BDHubseffort to sustain and scale up collaborative Big Data innovation activities

National Science Foundation4

WITHIN THE BIG DATA PORTFOLIO OF PROGRAMS

RESEARCHCritical Techniques & Technologies for … Big Data (BIGDATA)

INFRASTRUCTUREData Infrastructure Building Blocks (DIBBS)

EDUCATIONNational Research Traineeship (NRT)

PARTNERSHIPSBig Data Regional Innovation Hubs: Spokes (BD Spokes)

Within the broader portfolio, BD Hubs and BD Spokesfocuses on building partnerships around Big Data

National Science Foundation5

THE HISTORY BEHIND BD SPOKESBD Spokes is the second phase of a long term NSF agenda for Big Data Partnerships

MAR2015

APR2015

BD Hubs LaunchedBD Hubs solicitation to fund four regional Hubs is released

Big Data Regional Charrettes HeldIndustry, academia, and government representatives gathered in four charrettes around the country

JUN2015

Hubs Proposals SubmittedLarge collaborative proposals submitted to NSF

SEPT2015

Hubs Awards MadeAwards made to coordinating institutions

NOV2015

BD SpokesBD Spokes solicitation released before 5th DC national charrette (bdhubs.info)

National Science Foundation6

MIDWEST

SOUTH

Alaska & Hawaii are part of the West regionUS Territories can participate in any region 106 Personnel

79 Organizations12 states

UIUC/NCSA (PI)Indiana U (co-PI)

Iowa State (co-PI)

U of M (co-PI)

UND(co-PI)

NORTHEAST193 Personnel99 Institutions9 States

WESTUCSD/SDSC (PI)

Berkeley (PI)

UW (PI)

Georgia Tech (PI)

UNC/RENCI (PI)

86 Personnel 47 Organizations13 States

Columbia (PI)

University

Non-profit

Government

Industry

HPC Center

116 Personnel95 Organizations15 States + DC

BD HubsFounding organizations for BDHubs in 2015Points indicate affiliations of individuals named as steering council members and/or task leads or senior personnel.

National Science Foundation77

BD Spokes are not your typical R&D project

nor are they mini Hubs

The strategy behind

BD SPOKES

National Science Foundation8

MISSION DRIVEN SPOKESBD Spokes proposals must articulate a clear focus within a specific Big Data topic or application area, while highlighting their Big Data Innovation theme.

All BD Spokes must have clearly defined mission statements with goals and corresponding metrics of success.

National Science Foundation9

SPOKES TO DIRECTLY ADDRESS

SPOKESMAJORTHEMESThree different ways of slicing the Big Data Innovation problem

National Science Foundation10

AREAS OF EMPHASISSome NSF priority areas include

NEUROSCIENCE REPLICABILITY & REPRODUCABILITYIN DATA SCIENCE

SMART & CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

DATA PRIVACY DATA INTENSIVE RESEARCH IN THE SOCIAL, BEHAVIORAL, & ECONOMIC SCIENCES

EDUCATION

National Science Foundation11

Alaska & Hawaii are part of the West regionUS Territories can participate in any region

NORTHEAST

BD Spokes:Phase 1Includes lead and non-lead institutions for Spokes and Planning Grants

MIDWEST

SOUTH

WEST

Planning Grant LeadPlanning Grant Non-leadSpoke Lead

Spoke Non-Lead or Subaward

12

IBM WATSON + ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is the world's largest database of biological species and other biodiversity information. EOL also works closely with scores of other biodiversity datasets such as BISON, GBIF, and OBIS.

This project seeks to make EOL and related biodiversity data sources accessible, usable, and useful, by integrating extant artificial intelligence tools for information extraction, modeling and simulation, and question answering.

(1) Cognopsi: semantically annotate documents in EOL through controlled vocabularies for specific domains within ecological and environmental science

(2) MILA-S: constructs conceptual models of ecological phenomena and automatically spawns simulation models; use with EOL TraitBank, to generate and test explanatory hypotheses as well as make predictions about ecosystems

(3) Watson+: adds semantic processing to Watson to act as a virtual research assistant; will train Watson+ for answering questions about biological species using EOL.

“Using Big Data for Environmental Sustainability: Big Data + AI Technology = Accessible, Usable, Useful Knowledge!”

Georgia Tech & Smithsonian InstitutionLead Proposal: 1636848

National Science Foundation13

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Brings together domain scientists, computer

scientists, and end users to use data to solve

challenges

01 THE PROGRAM

Encourages collaborations with industry, state & local governments, non

profits, and others that are not typical NSF participants

02 THE STAKEHOLDERS

AI is a critical part of accelerating science and innovation using Big Dat

03 PARTICIPATION

National Science Foundation14

FOR FURTHER QUESTIONS CONTACTFen Zhao, fzhao@nsf.gov 703 292 7344

NSF Headquarters, Arlington VA