? Development of domain-specific ML and Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and algorithms that are tailor-made to discover patterns in data sets, intelligent data mining, and quantum computing techniques for big data analysis ? Utilisation of large datasets from Twitter to develop new and expand on existing ML sentiment algorithms that will provide insights into social enactments, raced, and gendered relations ? Curation and analysis of big data from Geo-Spatial Humanities to map spatial patterns and human mobility through GIS ? Extraction and analysis of big data from Earth Observation sources to conduct invasive species mapping in the context of climate change for better understanding of the ecological impacts of invasive species and the overall impacts of climate change ? Utilisation of big data from key Astrophysics telescope projects, such as the Hydrogen Intensity and Real Time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX), the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and the Meer - Karoo Array telescope (MeerKAT) to develop big data pipelines, which will allow scientists to perform cutting-edge science in the topics of dark energy and fast radio bursts ![]() Innovative research in the BDSS flagship project will include: This kind of work will in turn, allow social scientists to probe social science issues on a scale not imaginable in the past in the context of ML, Geographic Information System (GIS) and data mining,’ she said. The aim is to work towards a model that is adapted to heterogeneous and unstructured social science textual data. ‘One of the initiatives will be to work with colleagues from Physics and Computer Science to explore machine learning (ML) tools in the context of social science narrative data. It’s particularly exciting for aspects of what can be described as computational social sciences,’ said Naidu. ‘This particular Flagship Project cements meaningful collaboration among a wide spectrum of disciplines. Professor in Anthropology, Academic Leader of Research in the School of Social Sciences at UKZN and PI on the BDSS project, Professor Maheshvari Naidu, highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of the BDSS Flagship project. The project will deploy interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary data driven techniques that will blur the boundaries between disciplines resulting in scientific and societal benefits spanning a wide variety of topics ranging from dark energy, to climate change and urbanisation, to mobility and migration. The BDSS team comprises members from three Colleges: the College of Law and Management Studies, the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, and the College of Humanities. In addition, the project has a number of Co-Investigators (Co-Is) from the fields of computer science and computer engineering, physics, statistics, psychology, management and information systems, and information and communication services. They are Professor Kavilan Moodley – Astrophysics Professor Maheshvari Naidu - Geospatial Humanities, and Professor Onisimo Mutanga – Earth Observation. Three Principal Investigators (PIs) will lead the flagship project. The BDSS Project will support this mission through multi-disciplinary, cross-flagship, and cross-college collaboration in big data research that will have a significant scientific and social impact. The benefits of the cross-disciplinary approach include leveraging big data expertise to advance University-wide big data research projects in disciplines where large datasets currently exist, but are not being fully exploited. UKZN’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research Professor Deresh Ramjugernath emphasised the purpose of the Flagship Programme was to ‘promote research that has socio-economic impact and relevance to society and UKZN stakeholders, with the emphasis being on projects which are impactful, implementable and spur economic growth and social upliftment.’ The Research Flagship Programme concentrates on four broad areas: Social Cohesion, African Health, Big Data and Informatics, and African Cities of the Future. ![]() UKZN has invested just over R9 million to kickstart the Big Data for Science and Society (BDSS) Flagship Project – one of three such projects to receive financial backing from the programme. Principal Investigators on the Flagship project (from left) Professor Kavilan Moodley, Professor Maheshvari Naidu and Professor Onisimo Mutanga. R9m Boost to Big Data Research Flagship Project
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