New Tools Ease Scientific Data Challenges

Microsoft is doing its part to push scientific discovery ahead, announcing new data research tools at its10th annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit this week.

The company claims the new software tools could transform the way scientific research is approached as its Scientific Workflow Workbench lets scientists work with large volumes of data, and newly developed programs, called Dryad and DryadLINQ, foster high-performance computing capabilities.

The tools were borne from Microsoft Research’s Project Trident, aimed at helping scientists grapple with data-intensive projects such as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, which is creating cabled observatories off the U.S. coast.

Microsoft said researchers toiling in data-intensive fields (think oceanography, astronomy, environmental science and medical research) can  manage, integrate and visualize volumes of information. The tools are available as no-cost downloads to academic researchers and scientists.

In the field of oceanography Project Trident is helping researchers deal with huge information piles created by data coming in from sensors, instruments, moorings, robots and cameras. The research is focused on better understanding of temperature changes, water salinity, earthquakes, undersea volcanoes and even extreme life forms associated with seafloor hydrothermal vents.

Project Trident, which is also used by oceanographers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute to support a program designed to better understand typhoon intensification.

“In the ocean sciences we routinely work with complex multidisciplinary data sets, and the investigator often spends more time on the mechanics of finding and manipulating data than on the process of understanding what the data means,” said James G. Bellingham, chief technologist, Monterrey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “Trident’s workflow framework provides a graphical environment that hides much of the complexity from the user, letting scientists focus their intellectual energy on the data rather than the software.”

Microsoft Research, initiated in 1991, is a multi-pronged effort, with researchers focused on more than 55 areas of computing. The division employs more than 850 people in six labs worldwide.