New research centre DABAI will create innovation through Big Data

With the Danish Innovation Foundation as its main sponsor the new, comprehensive societal multi-partner research centre DABAI (stands for DAnish Center for Big Data Analytics and Innovation), will over the next four years gather forces to kickstart Big Data research and establish Denmark at the technological frontier - both in research and in practical solutions to the immediate benefit of society.

Big Data provide an unexploited potential for innovation and growth in society. There exists an immense volume of data stemming from numerous sources, industries or processes. It could be data in production chains, in web based systems or search engines, data generated by smartphones or sensors in buildings or even entire (smart) cities.

Big Data are here to stay - now we shall use them for constructive purposes

The overall idea behind the new DABAI centre is to use those large amounts of data for various purposes that can ease everyday life for the Danish citizens. At the same time another aim of the project is to create innovation in governmental administrative and decision making processes as well as in private and public companies.

One of the originators of the DABAI centre is Professor in Algorithmics, Stephen Alstrup, working at University of Copenhagen. He is responsible for one of the main work packages of the project, i.e. Big Data in the Educational Sector. Stephen explains: 

 - Using Big Data you can adapt the teaching individually to the single pupil according to his/her preferences and premises. By targeting the method and content to the single pupil, you may spare her or him from dropping out from school or simply make the study task easier to perform.

DABAI will provide new research, new methods and new product outcomes

The activities to be carried out within the DABAI centre are very comprehensive. The researchers anticipate to produce a lot of new research results and correspondingly innovative solutions to the benefit of private companies as well as public and governmental institutions involved in making decisions on Denmark's digital development. DABAI's scientific focus is aimed at:

1. Creating algorithms for optimizing processes and enhancing the speed of data flow
2. Using Machine Learning for diagnostic purposes, i.e. in medical science or industrial processes
3. Using large interactive visual displays for data analysis and management

The anticipated societal benefits are manifold and new solutions will typically be generic and interdisciplinary. DABAI is expected to create systems that can:

• Predict floods and reduce the negative impact of climate change
• Ensure more efficient patient journal handling in health systems
• Offer personalized learning support to school children based on analysis of typical learning patterns
• Provide better trackability and quality of foods
• Reduce administrative costs and create growth in the production sector.

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