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Governing Smart Cities and the Ethical Considerations of Big Data
By Ken Ogata From smartphones to surveillance cameras, to automatic doors and artificial intelligence, the cities we live in have become “smarter,” carrying the promise of productivity and modernization. While…
Data Centers for AI and Quantum Computing
By Jas Mehta In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, data centers stand as the backbone of our interconnected world. As demands for computational power, storage, and connectivity continue to…
BlueGAP: A Community-Driven Movement Against Nitrogen Pollution
By Shruti Gosain We all love the tranquility of our water bodies, but there’s a silent threat lurking beneath the surface. Nitrogen pollution! Nitrogen pollution is also called the hidden…
Reshaping Agriculture in a Changing Climate with Insights from Predictive Analytics
By Shruti Gosain We’re in a time where technology is moving faster than ever. In an age of rapidly advancing technology, the intersection of data science, climate science, and agriculture…
MBDH Summer Workshops: Opening Doors to Data Science Education
By Ken Ogata As the ferry boat steadily cruised over Lake Michigan, it marked the halfway point of Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) Outreach and Engagement Specialist J.D. Graham’s…
New NSF awards drive the future of quantum computing
By Jas Mehta Welcome to the realm of quantum computing, where the ordinary rules of the digital landscape no longer apply. In recent years, the burgeoning field of quantum computing…
NSF-Funded Hubs Partner to Develop the Water-Energy Nexus Open Knowledge Network
By Kimberly Bruch, San Diego Supercomputer Center Communications The National Science Foundation (NSF) has funded a three-year cooperative agreement award of $1.47 million to create the Water-Energy Nexus Open Knowledge…
Meet the MBDH Fall 2023 science communications interns
For Fall 2023, the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) has three new science communications interns joining the team to help tell the stories of people and data science projects…
Building CI Capabilities with the Minority Serving – Cyberinfrastructure Consortium
By Aisha Tepede The Minority Serving – Cyberinfrastructure Consortium (MS-CC) is an NSF-funded effort that promotes advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) capabilities through collaboration with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving…
From I, Robot to AIFARMS; AI Robotics for Sustainable Farming
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky The movie I, Robot came out in 2004, telling the story of a society in which a population of highly intelligent robots that worked public service positions…
Student Profile: Addison Graham
By Aisha Tepede The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) is committed to being a venue for outreach and engagement that increases the potential for benefitting society through the Priority…
Cultivating Change: Finding Answers with Sustainable Urban Farming
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky Most individuals native to Illinois would be shocked to hear that thousands of its residents reside in areas that are considered to be deserts. Not literal deserts,…
New NSF Convergence Accelerator Midwest disability-related awards
By Aisha Tepede The National Science Foundation (NSF) has taken a new approach to build upon basic research and discovery to accelerate solutions toward societal impact by providing award funds…
Overcoming Cybersecurity and Interoperability Challenges in the Water Sector
By Iishi Patel Cybersecurity threats to drinking water and wastewater systems have been a growing concern in recent years. The increasing use of automation and technology integration in these systems…
Workshop on Data for Good for Education for Faculty Opens for Registration
By Aisha Tepede The continued growth of the Data for Social Good (DSG) movement provides an opportunity to increase student motivation and persistence within courses and degrees in data science….
Diving into Data: Tackling Aquatic Invasive Species with the Help of Illinois RiverWatch
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are freshwater or marine organisms that have been introduced beyond their native range. The word “invasive” speaks volumes, given the current state of…
New Opportunities for student data science enthusiasts: NSDC launches chapter in the Midwest
By Iishi Patel Data science awareness is becoming increasingly important in today’s world as the amount of data generated daily is growing exponentially. With the right skills and knowledge, data…
New NSF Awards to Accelerate Food and Nutrition Security
By Aisha Tepede Since 1951, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has been awarding academic institutions across the U.S. the opportunity to develop research projects. More recently, the Foundation has taken…
New working group focused on interoperability of agricultural data
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky In the face of increasingly challenging climate issues and an ever-growing population, digitization has played a large role in agriculture improvement throughout the years. Innovative technologies such…
Building hands-on data science skills with the Midwest Carpentries Community
By Aisha Tepede Science relies more and more on software and computing technologies, but researchers often don’t receive the training they need to effectively use these tools. A worldwide organization…
Meet the Artist: Ariann Rousu and the Native Dancer Project
By Isabel Alviar Art is how a culture records its life, how it poses questions for the next generation, and how it will be remembered. A team from the AI…
Building a Climate Asset Map with the Midwest Climate Collaborative
By Sasha Zvenigorodsky This story is part of a series on partnerships developed by the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub with institutions across the Midwest through the Community Development and…
MBDH Partners on New Data Science Workshop for Underrepresented High School Students
By Aisha Tepede This story is part of a series on partnerships developed by the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub with institutions across the Midwest through the Community Development and…
Data Science for the Public Good Young Scholars Program
By Isabel Alviar Data is the new science; it has the potential to answer the world’s problems if the right questions are asked. And some data science education programs are…
Unmanned Aerial Systems, Plant Sciences and Education (UASPSE) Project Featured in Special Section of Agronomy Journal
The Digital Agriculture community of the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) achieved a major milestone this week with a series of open-access publications on ag data. The Unmanned Aerial…
Meet the MBDH 2022–2023 science communications and outreach interns
For Fall 2022, the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) has four new interns joining the team to work on a variety of projects. One intern, Shruti Ravichandran, is focused…
New Precision Agriculture Initiatives in the Midwest
By Raleigh Butler Recently, there has been a large amount of U.S. federal funding directed toward next-generation precision-agriculture initiatives. This article summarizes a few such projects based in the Midwest….
Toward Building Quality Relationships: How Chatbots Can Help Us Practice Self-Disclosure
By Qining Wang Under the turmoil of social events, from global pandemics to wars and social unrests, mental health is becoming an increasingly greater concern among the public. According to…
Physics-Based Machine Learning for Sub-Seasonal Climate Forecasting
By Raleigh Butler We’ve all heard the old adage that if you don’t like the weather in the Midwest, wait a minute and it will change. So how can we…
Building an accessible agricultural data community with the National Agricultural Producers Data Cooperative
By Raleigh Butler Entities around the world gather data focused on various aspects of agriculture. Unfortunately, this information is not always accessible or easily available for those who need it….
I-GUIDE: Increasing Sustainability by Harnessing Data
By Raleigh Butler Sustainability is not just achieved through solar panels and windmills. Of course these help, but one organization is working to tackle sustainability on a larger scale: I-GUIDE…
Exploring Nature Through Imageomics with Professor Tanya Berger-Wolf
By Erica Joo and Qining Wang We recently spoke with Professor Tanya Berger-Wolf, a pioneer in the area of imageomics who is leading a team to start a new field…
Accelerating Data-Driven Materials Discovery at the Molecule Maker Lab Institute
By Qining Wang Despite being a fundamental process for innovations in chemistry, biology, pharmaceuticals, materials science, etc., molecular discovery can be a time-consuming and labor-intensive endeavor. The traditional trial-and-error approach…
Student Group Profile: DREAM at Minnesota State University, Mankato
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub is developing a community of data science student groups across the Midwest region to share their experiences and best practices. This story is part…
University of Nebraska researchers extend smart rural bridge health initiatives
By Raleigh Butler Did you know that, despite increases in technology, bridge health across the United States is decreasing? Bridges currently score a C on the country’s infrastructure report card,…
Water Data Forum Webinar Series
Water Data Forum, the virtual series presented by the Cleveland Water Alliance, Water Environment Federation, and Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub, is returning for a second season in 2022!In 2021,…
Student Group Profile: Girls Who Code, University of Michigan DCMB
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub is developing a community of data science student groups across the Midwest region to share their experiences and best practices. This story is part…
Student Group Profile: Iowa State University Data Science Club
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub is developing a community of data science student groups across the Midwest region to share their experiences and best practices. This story is part…
MBDH Learning Innovation Fellows Program Builds on Success with Second Cohort
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub and the Gala Sustainability Learning Initiative at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability continue to build on the success of last…
In Memoriam: Val Pentchev
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub team is saddened to announce the passing of our longtime colleague Valentin (Val) Pentchev on December 31, 2021. Val was most recently the PI…
Professor Kimberly Zarecor on Community-Based Research and Building Interdisciplinary Research Teams
By Qining Wang An expert in Eastern European Architecture, Professor Kimberly Zarecor tells us about her journey of building a highly interdisciplinary research team that takes data science into research…
New MBDH Community Development and Engagement partners
By Qining Wang The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub (MBDH) recently partnered with multiple institutions in the region for new data science activities under its Community Development and Engagement Program….
Agroterrorism: Cybersecurity Incidents Affect Agriculture and Water
By Raleigh Butler You may not think that agriculture and cybersecurity, both themes of the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub, are linked, but recent events demonstrate there are connections between…
Climate Change Affecting Crops in Iowa
By Raleigh Butler In 2010, the University of Minnesota received a grant from the National Science Foundation to study climate change using data-driven methods. The project included Midwest Big Data…
How Do Scientists Help AI Cope with a Messy Physical World?
By Qining Wang When we see a stop sign at an intersection, we won’t mistake it for a yield sign. Our eyes recognize the white “STOP” letters printed on the…
Teaching During a Pandemic
By Raleigh Butler This story is part of a series on coronavirus research in the Midwest region. To explore other NSF-funded research addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, please visit the COVID…
Community Engagement through Open Watersheds
By Qining Wang Many living in and outside of the USA presume clean water to be universally accessible in the USA. In reality, many people are living in a water…
Midwest researchers address food insecurity and transportation access during the pandemic
By Raleigh Butler and Qining Wang This story is part of a series on coronavirus research in the Midwest region. To explore other NSF-funded research addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, please…
Big Data Neuroscience Workshop Brings Together a Transdisciplinary Research Community
By Erica Joo Researchers working at the interface of computational neuroscience, big data science, and health analytics held the latest in a series of workshops designed to virtually bring together…
Building a Midwest Carpentries Community
By Raleigh Butler The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub is committed to building data science instructional capacity in the Midwest region, particularly at smaller colleges and universities, such as predominantly…
Meet the MBDH Fall 2021 science writing and coordination interns
For Fall 2021, the Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub has four new interns joining the team to work on a variety of projects. One intern, Sushma Mahadevaswamy, will be working…
Researcher Profile: Aditya Kulkarni
By Raleigh Butler On May 19, 2021, five researchers joined the COVID Information Commons (CIC) “Lightning Talks” webinar hosted by the National Science Foundation-funded Big Data Innovation Hubs. Each speaker…
Integrating Regional Water Quality Data with the Upper Mississippi Information System (UMIS) Project
By KJ Naum As the Mississippi River flows from its source in northern Minnesota to its mouth on the Louisiana coast, its waters cross the boundaries of ten states, picking…
Big data aids PPE research
By Barbara Jewett This story is part of a series on coronavirus research in the Midwest region Many researchers in the Midwest received awards from the National Science Foundation last…
MBDH Learning Innovation Fellows program – first cohort projects
The Midwest Big Data Innovation Hub Learning Innovation Fellows Program, housed at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, enables teams to form for work toward better understanding…
Profile: Crystal Lu
Nitrogen reduction in the Upper Mississippi River Basin By Katie Naum As extreme climate events become more frequent, some of their impact is visible—like the derecho that tore through Iowa…
Midwest water researchers explore COVID-19 in wastewater
This story is part of a series on coronavirus research in the Midwest region Researchers in the Midwest are looking in a surprising place for clues about the COVID-19 pandemic:…
Guest post – Diverse programs from ISU address sustainable cities challenges
By Iowa State University’s Sustainable Cities team Researchers with the Sustainable Cities team at Iowa State University recognize the difficulty that public officials face in transforming vast amounts of climate…
Guest post – Data Science Education at Two-Year Colleges
By Matt Fall Executive Director, Center for Data Science, Lansing Community College Recently, the American Statistical Association (ASA), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), hosted a two-day summit…
Guest post – URSSI: Conceptualizing a US Research Software Sustainability Institute
First URSSI workshop attendees (Credit: Mike Hucka) Contributed by Daniel S. Katz, Jeff Carver, Sandra Gesing, Karthik Ram, Nic Weber The NSF-funded conceptualization of a US Research Software Sustainability Institute (URSSI) is making the case for…
Welcome to the new MBDH Community Blog
Greetings! Today we are launching a new MBDH Community Blog, which is intended to extend information sharing around events and projects, as well as expand our channels for Community conversation….