Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

What’s even more surprising is that it’s coming to us from all around.

It’s called “big data” and there is a lot of energy, optimism and enthusiasm around at the moment about WA’s capacity to use it to propel the State into a digital era.

Mining this data — processing, interpreting and applying it to business, government and science — can extract huge value, with worldwide implications and export potential.

In simple terms, big data includes the massive amounts of information, statistics, records and research that we gather at an ever-increasing rate.

Innovative new WA companies such as Nearmaps, Pointerra, Skrydata, iCetana and Health Engine are taking advantage of these opportunities, while Cisco recently launched its Perth innovation centre in partnership with Woodside and Curtin University.

WA’s Mega Data Cluster is actively bringing groups together to promote the use of big data and seize this opportunity.

Our data analytics capabilities have many important applications that can improve the way we work, live and play — from daily interactions through websites and apps such as Smart Roads congestion initiative to the WA ED app for hospital attendance and the Perth City Busport’s digital passenger experience.

Suburban Bentley is home to the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, with the most powerful public supercomputer in the Southern Hemisphere supporting research in such diverse areas as predicting individuals’ risk of disease and advancing mineral exploration, through to cutting-edge maps and developing high-yielding crops.

In addition, the Pawsey centre supports radio-astronomy in the Mid West, home to two world-leading telescopes — the Murchison Widefield Array and CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, which last year discovered gas from a galaxy more than five billion light-years away.

WA is at the forefront of global radio-astronomy and will take a lead role in the vast SKA project to build the world’s biggest radio telescope.

SKA is expected to produce much more data than all the current global internet traffic.

This is the ultimate big data challenge, which is being addressed by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, a joint venture between the University of WA and Curtin.

Other sectors are already reaping the benefits of big data.

Perth-based DownUnder GeoSolutions is at the cutting edge of exploration for the global oil and gas industry.

The company’s supercomputer is one of the biggest privately owned computers in the world, equipped with revolutionary cooling technology and highly sophisticated software to extract every possible piece of information from masses of geoscience data. Recently, I was asked to lead a review of the State’s capacity to link data from different sources.

Working with the Government’s Chief Information Officer, Giles Nunis, and Professor Fiona Stanley, our review aims to ensure that WA remains a world leader in this vital area.

Data linkage has been used for decades to solve numerous health challenges, particularly in the fields of epidemiology and preventive medicine.

It is imperative, therefore, that this valuable resource is further developed and data from across government is linked securely.

Smart use of data includes Landgate’s innovative Land Information System, as well as the Department of Mines and Petroleum’s 3-D and 4-D mapping technology.

The opportunities in this digital age appear limitless and there will be developments that we simply can’t imagine yet.

It’s an exciting time to be living in WA and it is up to all of us to seize this golden opportunity.

To exploit the potential, we must encourage our children to pursue careers in science and innovation, including computer coding and data analytics.

They already use data technology every day, so the challenge is to harness their insatiable appetites.

Building the right landscape to inspire not only our children but also our teachers is crucial because that’s where the jobs of the future lie.

This article was originally published on www.au.news.yahoo.com and can be viewed in full

(0)(0)