(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-02-06)
Tompa, Martin
There are currently 575 bacterial species and 28 vertebrate species, ranging from primates to fishes, for which we know (nearly) their entire DNA sequences. These number will continue to increase rapidly over the next few years. Comparing these genome sequences has emerged as one of the most important areas of computational biology. For example, one way to predict functional portions of the human genome is to search among related genomes for sequences that appear to be remarkably similar due to selective pressure. I will discuss and demonstrate some of the methods and tools for such an approach, as well as some of the challenges and unsolved problems. This talk will be self-contained: no knowledge of biology beyond what you have heard in the news will be assumed.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008-01-23)
Berman, Francine
The Information Age has brought with it a deluge of digital data. Current estimates are that in 2006, 161 exabytes (10¹⁸ bytes) of digital data were created from cell phones, computers, iPods, DVDs, sensors, satellites, scientific instruments, and other sources, providing a foundation for our digital world. Migrating digital content through new generations of storage media, making sense of its content, and ensuring that needed information is accessible now and for the foreseeable future constitute some of the most critical challenges of the Information Age. The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is leading the development and deployment of a comprehensive infrastructure for managing, storing, preserving, and using digital data. In this talk, Berman discusses SDSC's approach to building and deploying data-oriented computational and data cyberinfrastructure, and describes the next generation of challenges and opportunities for the data that drives the Information Age.