HSE is Broadening its Range of Skills in Big Data Analysis
Big Data refers to the huge volumes of structured or unstructured information like social networks, documentary archives and stock market indicators. A specialist in Big Data has to, after processing vast amounts of data, produce results that a human can understand. The term Big Data came into use relatively recently, in 2008, and it’s only two years since it became a subject for academics to analyse which means the potential for study in this area is enormous.
Today, working with Big Data helps businesses to predict the probability of credits being returned or of a client leaving a certain company, but the use of Big Data is not limited to commercial interests. Physicists in CERN are using it in the search for new particles, for testing and refuting hypotheses about the structure of the Universe.
There will be several groups of researchers in the laboratory. The first group is working on Physics. Together with the Yandex School of Data Analysis which is part of the LHCb experiment, they will work on algorithms to analyse the vast mass of data accumulated at CERN while scientists observe how particles fall apart.
The head of the laboratory is Andrei Ustyuzhanin, Director of Joint Projects at the Yandex School of Data Analysis and the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN). He says, ‘This laboratory will make it possible for us to broaden the skills at HSE in analysing different kinds of large amounts of data. We plan to cover issues in science and in business. We want to extract practical use from the data we have access to and enrich the search methods in this new area. Our plans for the immediate future are to build a team and look for new research applications.’
At the moment there are just four research fellows starting work in the laboratory but there will also be places for research assitants. Anyone who wants to take part can find out about requirements from the Computer Science Faculty Manager, Margarita Vlasenko.
There are five openings altogether, the deadline for applications is February 25th.