Recent technology allows for the collection of massive volumes of data. The challenge of transforming these data into valuable and actionable information is an activity known as big data (or data science). These datasets are not only huge, but complex, including unstructured, heterogeneous data, image, video, human language, and hence entirely innovative approaches are needed to handle them.

Vestlandsforsking specializes in the utilising of big data and semantic science for data integration, analysis and process management.

Recent technology allows for the collection of massive volumes of data. The challenge of transforming these data into valuable and actionable information is an activity known as big data (or data science). These datasets are not only huge, but complex, including unstructured, heterogeneous data, image, video, human language, and hence entirely innovative approaches are needed to handle them.

Vestlandsforsking specializes in the utilising of big data and semantic science for data integration, analysis and process management.

Thematic Research Areas

Big data in business and healthcare:
Our research focus is on identifying value that big data can provide from the discovery of strategic information up to its analysis and exploitation. We delve into different ways of representing and analysing big data to make it amenable to valuable insight discovery.

We also use data science to build predictive models to help with decision support tasks.

Some of the sub areas on which we focus are:

  • Harnessing insights from unstructured data
  • Big data and emerging technologies
  • Data quality, security and privacy
  • Role of big data for financial, media, energy, healthcare, tourism and government sectors

Social informatics:
Our research focus is at the crossroads of human computer interaction, sociology and communication, mainly focusing on the topics of privacy, big data, interpersonal communication, social networks.

Some of the sub areas on which we focus are:

  • Analysis of user engagement in large-scale unstructured data from social networks
  • Privacy and social big data
  • Emergency response and crisis informatics
  • Best practices, methods and results in requirements analysis and in human centred evaluation

Knowledge engineering and semantic technologies:
Our research focus is on interdisciplinary research within the broad areas of software engineering, semantic web, linked open data, and knowledge engineering.

Some of the sub areas on which we focus are:

  • Knowledge engineering techniques and applications for organization, analysis, management, and reuse of information
  • Formalisms for the representation of knowledge
  • Applications that employ knowledge in the forms of ontologies and semantic data Information extraction and content analysis
  • Cognitive aspects of semantic technologies

Experience

- Participating in the European Commission Framework (EU FP7) projects:

- COST Action IC1406 “High-Performance Modelling and Simulation for Big Data Applications (cHiPSet)”.

  • Role: Member of the Management Committee
  • Source of Funding: EU & The Research Council of Norway

- Published book on ‘Big Data Computing’ with CRC Press (USA)

- Involvement in big data initiatives in Europe