The Fourth Paradigm: Particle Physics, Astronomy, Jim Gray and Open Access: Special Colloquium: Professor Tony Hey - Microsoft Research Connections

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The Vice President of Microsoft Research Connections Professor Tony Hey is to give a special colloquium at Swansea University that focuses on the challenges and solutions to the research data deluge.

Professor Tony HeyTitle:  The Fourth Paradigm: Particle Physics, Astronomy, Jim Gray and Open Access

Date:  Friday 24 January 2014 

Time: 10 am

Venue:  Swansea University, Faraday Lecture Theatre ‘A’

Professor Hey has strong personal and professional relations with Swansea University. His father Colin, grew up in Sketty, attended Swansea University and was Student Union President, while his uncle, Donald Holroyd Hey FRS, who was amongst the first to study ‘free radicals’ in chemistry, also studied at Swansea and was awarded a Honorary Fellowship from the University. Professor Hey has also authored a number of books with the recently retired Swansea University physicist, Dr Patrick Walters. 

In his lecture, Professor Hey will examine how the emerging data deluge is altering the way research is being conducted in many academic disciplines. The Fourth Paradigm refers to the emergence of 'data scientists' who use the technologies and tools needed to manipulate, visualize and manage large amounts of scientific data.

In terms of open science, the particle physics and astronomy communities have played a leading role in both research publications and research data.

He will also review the state of the global 'Open Access' movement and the importance of Machine Learning technologies, Visualization tools and the Cloud for data-intensive research.

Swansea University is an extensive user of High Performance Computing and is a partner in the pan Wales HPC Wales initiative. The University has recently launched an MSc in HPC, while its researchers use various HPC clusters to suit their different research requirements including:-

  • The Blue C cluster used by the Health Informatics and medical researchers which is being developed to support the new Data Science building project, involving a move to large data and includes new large servers.
  • The Sandybridge cluster at the Dylan Thomas Centre (DTC) that supports the Bloodhound project
  • The Blue Ice 2 at Blaenavon which is used by the climate researchers;
  • The Fujitsu cluster at the Dylan Thomas Centre (DTC) used in the extreme storm initiative project, which is involved the recoding of the MET office unified model, and simulations of the interactions of quarks in particle physics research.