ATLANTA and CHAPEL HILL, N.C., Nov. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Georgia Institute of Technology and University of North Carolina's Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) will co-direct a new Big Data Regional Innovation Hub serving 16 southern states and the District of Columbia.

The South Big Data Regional Innovation Hub (South BD Hub) — jointly housed at Georgia Tech and UNC-Chapel Hill — is part of the National Science Foundation's Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs announced today. The initiative will address regional challenges through data analysis.

"The award of the South BD Hub to Georgia Tech and UNC-Chapel Hill provides the right context for collaboration among 75 stakeholders in academia, industry and the nonprofit sectors, which will allow us to address large-scale challenges facing many southern states," said Srinivas Aluru, co-principal investigator at Georgia Tech and professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering. "Data science touches all aspects of the human experience, and the Hub will enable us to bring data together in a complementary way for better problem solving in our communities. It already is initiating new collaboration and dialogue among many large stakeholders in a way that would not have happened otherwise." 

Projects will include:

• Health Care - disparities, care and outcomes; precision medicine; genomics.
• Coastal Hazards - understanding and mitigating natural and manmade disasters.
• Industrial Big Data - cyberphysical systems; Internet of Things; data-driven management of infrastructure such as utilities.
• Materials and Manufacturing - bridging the gap between materials science and manufacturing practice.
• Habitat Planning - smart cities, transportation, rural-urban infrastructure and wildlife habitats.

"The important problems of our time — from solving disparities in health care to understanding the risks of coastal storms and floods — involve making sense of massive amounts of data," said Ashok Krishnamurthy, deputy director at RENCI and co-principal investigator on the South BD Hub. "The chance to lead this project with Georgia Tech means we will be at the forefront of using data for the public good."

The South BD Hub will serve Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

Initial funding for the South BD Hub is $1.25 million over three years.

SOURCE Georgia Institute of Technology

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