The world is experiencing an explosion in data
In just the last two years we have produced more data
than all human history. It's set to become one of the greatest sources of power in
the 21st century.
Analysing data sets in novel ways will unleash new waves of productivity,
consumerism and innovation in the world.
It's a new way of looking at information. A data gold mine
that will enable the world to make rapid advances in a range of fields.
Researchers at Imperial College London are harnessing the power
of data at the college's new Data Science Institute.
Data is the new major resource. The new
currency in the 21st century. The establishment
of the Data Science Institute at Imperial College London
represents our full commitment to helping
bring this data revolution into the world
Imperial College London's Data Science Institute is a focal point for
coordinating data science research across The College
and place to educate new generations of data scientists.
When fully established Imperial West
the college's newest London campus will provide another important environment
for researchers and industry
to collaborate together in this field. Studying how our genes interact with our
environment to cause disease
is a major emerging field of research called phenotyping.
Imperial researchers are at the forefront of this work,
mining huge swathes of information that could end up
revolutionising the way we treat diseases.
Modern systems medicine requires the measurement of deep
aspects of patient biology using advanced technologies which generate information
almost on the scale of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN
so that requires huge amounts of data storage, huge amounts of mathematical processing.
Imperial is also capitalising on the data revolution
to develop the next-generation of handheld and wearable devices
to improve health and well-being.
We're entering this fantastic new wave of big data inspired by lifestyle,
healthcare and course personalisation. For example,
the Digital Sensium Plaster: a little band-aid that sticks on the chest
that can measure your ECG, your heart rate, your temperature
wirelessly anywhere in the world. So you can imagine a situation now where
patients can leave hospitals earlier rather than later,
go into the comfort of their own home knowing that doctors can now
wirelessly monitor their medical future rather than their medical history.
The world's population is set to double by 2050
we are adding seven cities the size of New York to the planet
every year, making our world more urban.
The rapid rise in population will stretch resources, such as public services
transport and utilities. Imperial is harnessing the power of data
to make cities and regions more intelligent and responsive to the
challenges that lie ahead.
So we're deploying a large number sensors in environments like flood plains
and cities and so on
which produces data that allows us to predict their usage
and better protect them. One example of this is the water network
where we have sensors monitoring that network and this allows us to predict
faults, for example leakage, and also allows us to better control that network
to make it more robust.
The world of finance has been radically altered by the data revolution.
David Hand, Emeritus Professor at Imperial and Chief Scientific Adviser to one of
Europe's largest investment management companies,
will play a pivotal role at the Institute as the Chairman of it's Research Board.
He will guide research to where it can be of most benefit to business.
Data are the life blood of the financial sector. The financial markets carry out
millions of transactions every second
the credit card industry carry out billions of transactions a year,
then you have the insurance industry, mortgages, personal loans,
auto finance. Data underlies all of this.
Researchers at Imperial College Business School
are also working to ensure that businesses and communities are well
positioned
to reap the benefits of the Data revolution.
Through connecting citizens, businesses, and governments
to real-time intelligence and smart decision-making,
the digital economy is really revolutionising
many aspects of our world.
Already, many new businesses and lots of jobs are being created in this data driven economy.
It's just a matter of time before the planet and the people
and their well-being, is going to be affected drastically by data-driven solutions
From big business to the big picture,
Imperial researchers are using data from satellites and advanced computer modeling
to understand the Earth's relationship with our solar system.
So what we're doing is we're using data from satellites to tell us how the Sun's behaving
and then we use those data in computer models of the atmosphere
to tell us how changes in the Sun might be influencing the climate.
From improving our health and well-being to engineering novel solutions for the
21st century,
Imperial College London's new Data Science Institute
will be at the heart of the data revolution.