Data sets are growing in size. According to Martin Hilbert, a researcher at the University of Southern California, “The amount of data stored is growing 25 percent a year”. Companies from IBM to Google are already on board, seeking the sunken treasure waiting in large data sets. Still, the question on the minds of many remains: “What’s the big deal about “Big Data”?

On a day-to-day basis, “Big Data” holds the possibility to change your daily routine in ways even better than any app currently available for your Smart Phone. Mark Lewis of EMC Corporation put forth this example: “Imagine that when you setup an appointment for lunch 20 miles away, a program automatically calculates the drive time looking at both the predicted weather and the traffic delays for the time of day and day of the week, and then automatically allocates the time block on your calendar.”

For healthcare, “Big Data” offers the potential to accelerate disease research and elevate personalized medicine to the next level. With Super Computers on the scene, the capacity to process and analyze “Big Data” brings within reach, the ability for companies with analytic expertise to uncover valuable new insights and predict future outcomes with greater accuracy. As both private industry and government look for answers to health care issues, “Big Data” might just uncover the sunken treasure and deliver answers to our most critical healthcare issues.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Qforma, today announced its first-ever Qforma Computational Thesis / Dissertation Award, in the amount of $5,000, has been presented to Nicholas Dylan Pattengale, who received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of New Mexico (UNM) in Albuquerque at commencement ceremonies on May 15.

The Qforma Award is presented to a UNM School of Engineering student from either the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department or the Computer Science Department, for the most outstanding computational master’s thesis or Ph.D. dissertation within that academic year. Dr. Pattengale’s award-winning dissertation is entitled “Efficient Algorhythms for Phylogenetic Post-analysis.”

“In reviewing the candidates for this award, we considered the technical depth, sophistication and innovation of their work, the importance of the problem that the dissertation addressed and the impact it is likely to have on the field of computer science,” said Stephanie Forrest, professor and chairman of computer science at the University of New Mexico and research professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Dr. Pattengale’s dissertation was superb on all three counts, and we are delighted that he was chosen to receive the first Qforma Dissertation Award.

Qforma also funds a $5,000 Lectureship for an extraordinarily promising junior faculty researcher in Computer Science at UNM, which was awarded to Shuang Luan, Ph.D. last fall. The Lectureship and Thesis / Dissertation competitions, which will be held annually, support the quality of UNM educational programs by attracting top talent to the school.

“At Qforma we create intelligent data software solutions for the healthcare industry based on technology developed at Los Alamos National Laboratories in New Mexico,” said Roger D. Jones, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Qforma. “We believe it is important to support students who share our passion for computer science, here in the state that has
already made such significant contributions to the field, and we are pleased to honor Dr. Pattengale with the first Qforma Dissertation Award.”

Download Press Releease (pdf)