文/马特·卡希尔
最靠谱的网赌软件和美国.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility share a bond that goes back nearly 40 years, 1984年实验室成立. 现在，他们的合作关系达到了一个新的高度.
The fellow research institutions are launching a unique joint institute that will leverage 杰佛逊实验室’s specialties in data science and computing in an effort to tackle the most pressing problems and disparities at the intersection of health and the environment in Hampton Roads.
“Today, we make an announcement that takes a bold step forward in our historic partnership,ODU总裁Brian O. Hemphill, Ph值.D., said during Friday’s State of the University Address at Chartway Arena in Norfolk. “This joint institute brings together interdisciplinary expertise to address critical scientific questions in medicine, public health and climate in the context of the broader environment.”
The Joint Institute on Advanced Computing for Environmental Studies – or ACES, for short – is a center for enterprise research that will be housed within ODU’s new School of Data Science. 它是由希瑟·里希特共同创立和指导的, an ODU research associate professor who also serves as the interim executive director of the Hampton Roads 生物医学 研究 Consortium, 玛拉基·施拉姆, 谁领导杰斐逊实验室的数据科学部.
ACES has assembled a team of scientists and university faculty from diverse fields such as public health, 地理位置, 环境卫生, 计算机科学与物理. They’ll work together through joint appointments and shared research staff – while also training students.
“为学生, it’s a significant opportunity because of the world-class faculty and researchers that they are going to have opportunity to learn from and work with,亨普希尔在演讲结束后说.
但这并不是纯粹的学术追求. 目的是为复杂的问题提供真正的解决方案, regional problems such as the systems that drive disease and rapid environmental changes.
“Our health outcomes reinforce the way we experience the environment,里希特说. “从本质上来说, 健康的决定因素有社会因素，也有身体因素, 环境决定因素. We are interested in understanding how those come together to make sense of the underlying distribution of disease in a population so that we can find ways to intervene.”
This will be done by applying data science and advanced computational approaches such as machine learning (ML) and generative artificial intelligence (AI).
“The Department of Energy has an impressive legacy of tackling really difficult problems,里希特说, “and in bringing in some of the leading scientists in the world to do that.”
Partners already on board include the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters and Eastern Virginia Medical School.
Another big piece of the puzzle is public participation in the research.
“The goal is to apply to the most advanced and innovative analytics we have available to come up with better, 更有效的幸福解决方案,里希特说. “Part of what will make us successful is being able to engage the community.”
杰弗逊实验室的角色
在ace发射前几周, the DOE announced 杰佛逊实验室 would become the home of a new computational resource – the High Performance Data Facility hub.
耗资3亿多美元的HPDF还需要数年才能实现, but the joint institute’s team is already thinking of ways to incorporate the new user facility’s potential into their plans. 与此同时, ACES will rely on the wealth of computational and data resources already existing at the lab.
Schram is a nuclear physicist who specializes in data science, with expertise in ML and AI. These approaches can be used to model complex and high-dimensional systems, 比如洪水和空气质量, 受到气候变化的影响. In addition, advanced ML-based computer vision can help analyze medical images for faster diagnosis.
“问题在于我们如何应用这些技术, 计算机科学和数据科学的进步, 帮助解决地区性问题,施拉姆说. “它的增长肯定已经远远超出了我们的预期.”
但这不仅仅是处理数字. Simply collecting all that information and finding quality data is a challenge in and of itself. 与此同时, understanding and interpreting the data may lead to mistakes.
施拉姆说:“另一件事是无意识的偏见. “If I start making an analysis and assume everything is statistically equal, 那么我就会得到一个错误的答案. I'm going to have some intrinsic biases since the sampling method might be biased.”
And sometimes, the machine learning models themselves can’t be trusted.
“One of the focuses of 杰佛逊实验室 is uncertainty quantification,戴安娜·麦克斯帕登说, a data scientist working with Schram and Richter on the ACES team. “Say we trained on data from one particular population or set of environmental characteristics, but now you're asking for prediction on a population that we were not trained on. 所以，你给这个预测一个相应的不确定性. 这是我们可以带来的特殊专业知识.”
与此同时, ODU and the other ACES partners provide further resources and knowledge in environmental, 卫生和社会科学.
“That legacy of excellence and the creativity to explore different ways of doing things is the special blend here,里希特说. “这就是为什么这对双方来说都是一个很好的机会.”
这个故事最初出现在杰弗逊实验室 网站.