Hi All,
I hope that the summer is finding you well. You will see from the
message below that we need to put together a few lines for the college's
Turing Institute submission. While I will write the HEP part, however,
there are certainly other groups that use big data (horrible phrase) and
so I would welcome any contributions that fit the bill.
Best,
david
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: The College's Turing Institute submission
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2014 10:00:21 +0000
From: Head of Physics Department <ph.hod(a)imperial.ac.uk>
To: Colling, David J <d.colling(a)imperial.ac.uk>
Hi David,
The College will be taking part in the national Turing institute.
I've been asked to provide some descriptions of activities in the
department.
Could you provide me with a few sentences as requested below?
Thanks,
Jordan
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Hand, David J"
<d.j.hand(a)imperial.ac.uk<mailto:d.j.hand@imperial.ac.uk>>
Subject: The College's Turing Institute submission
Date: 5 August 2014 10:22:43 BST
Dear Head of Department/Institute,
The College has asked me to lead its Turing Institute proposal. The
Turing Institute is to be a national centre aimed at ensuring “that the
UK remains at the forefront of the analytical methods which underpin our
ability to exploit publicly or privately owned large datasets.” The
Government has committed £42 million to this venture, and expects
additional financial support from other sources.
The initial EoI notice requests information on “the University’s
strengths in mathematics and computer science, particularly those that
are relevant to the analysis of big data, drawing on evidence such as
performance in past research assessment exercises, a description of the
expertise of key staff in the relevant fields, the publications
generated by key staff and their citation impact, and any other evidence
that might be considered relevant”.
Although statistics and computing science will lie at the heart of the
Institute, the aim is to solve problems which arise in other
disciplines. With this in mind, I need to get a picture of the College’s
strengths and requirements in the area of what has come to be called
“big data” outside the mathematics and computing departments. I know,
for example, that we have particular strengths in signal processing,
image processing, and many other areas, but I don’t know the details.
I would therefore be most grateful if you could send me a brief
description of
(i) particular challenges and opportunities arising from large data sets
in your discipline (do not struggle over what “big” means in “big data”:
big to one person may be small to another, and it’s the challenge and
opportunity which counts).
(ii) particular strengths and reputations of groups within your departments.
(iii) any links your department has with other big data exercises, both
inside and outside the UK.
Please bear in mind that I have to condense the awesome strengths of the
entire College down to just 3000 words, so please don’t drown me in
information: one page will be quite sufficient. If I need more details
I will get back to you.
I would be most grateful if you could reply by 31st August.
Many thanks
David Hand
______________________________
Professor David J. Hand
Imperial College, London
PA: Anna Lisowska 020 7594 2843