Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LAMBDA (Learning, Applying, Multiplying Big Data Analytics)

Teaser

Project Context and Objectives:In July 2018, the LAMBDA Twinning project started which overall objective is to stimulate scientific excellence and innovation capacity, to increase the research capacities and to unlock the research potential of the biggest and the oldest R&D...

Summary

Project Context and Objectives:

In July 2018, the LAMBDA Twinning project started which overall objective is to stimulate scientific excellence and innovation capacity, to increase the research capacities and to unlock the research potential of the biggest and the oldest R&D Institute in the ICT area in the whole West Balkan region, turning the Institute Mihajlo Pupin (PUPIN) into a regional point of reference when it comes to multidisciplinary ICT competence related to Big Data analytics. Within the project, a set of coordination and support actions has been initiated in PUPIN that will strengthen its collaboration with leading institutions from Europe in the domain of Big Data Analytics and related topics (Linked Data, Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Data Processing, Big Data Architectures, etc).

The topics of Big Data, Linked Data, Open Data, and Semantic technologies have recently spawned a tremendous amount of attention among scientists, industry leaders, and decision-makers. Challenges related to the European ability to exploit the potential of Big Data are:
• fragmentation of the data ecosystem, due to different national policies, languages, and sectors involved;
• fragmentation of data research efforts and lack of effective exchange of results;
• shortage of highly skilled persons for data-related jobs; and
• the complicated process of updating legislation.

Taking into consideration the European Commission Communication on “Building a European data economy” (from 10 January 2017) and the forecast that “Europe has been slow in embracing this revolution, compared to other competitors like the USA”, the LAMBDA consortium proposed activities for improving the skills and competences for smart data management through a set of actions including:
• development of strategic partnerships established by the linked organizations in the data science area, especially in the field of enterprise knowledge graphs, semantic Big Data architectures, and smart data analytics;
• development of a Knowledge repository (Learning and Consulting Platform, https://project-lambda.org) that shall facilitate spreading excellence and exchange of learning materials and best practice between the international leading organizations and research institutions and Industry from the West Balkan countries;
• organization of international events (training, workshops, webinars, conferences) in the West Balkan countries for raising awareness about future trends in Big Data, Semantic Tools and Technologies, standards and applications (or adoption) in the industry;
• forecasting exercises about future trends of data services in Europe.

Work performed

Project Results:

The main focus of LAMBDA activities in the first year was:
- defining a mid-term strategy for boosting the research and development capacities of PUPIN in the Big Data domain (for the period 2018-2020);
- establishing the networking and learning infrastructure (Learning and Consulting Platform, https://project-lambda.org);
- development of new open educational resources on Big Data & Analytics that are useful for learning and teaching Big Data Analytics;
- development of new data analytics algorithms and testing in the energy domain;
- elaboration of case studies and scenarios for using Big Data tools in practice;



Main results achieved so far are:
- publishing open educational resources (Big Data & Analytics lectures) via the LAMBDA portal and the SlideWiki OpenCourseWare platform;
- organizing knowledge transfer activities and staff exchanges between the project partners that supported the preparation of joint project proposals and research papers;
- organizing the Belgrade Big Data Analytics Summer School, https://project-lambda.org/BDA-Summer-School-2019, for more than 60 participants from PUPIN, industry and other universities from Serbia and the West Balkan Region;
- organizing LAMBDA scientific events (see for instance ICIST Special Session, https://project-lambda.org/ICIST-2019; ESWC Semantic Representation, Analysis, and Visualization Track, https://project-lambda.org/ESWC-WS-1;
ESWC LASCAR-19 Workshop on Large Scale RDF Analytics, https://project-lambda.org/ESWC-WS-2; LAMBDA Big Data Analytics Summer School and Research-Industry Forum);
- organizing several brain brainstorming sessions on Big Data and societal challenges, see for instance LAMBDA and PEARL PV Workshop, https://project-lambda.org/EE-Workshop-1;
- promoting early-stage researchers in their careers, see https://project-lambda.org/phd-defence;
- establishment of the LAMBDA-Network of Experts as a LinkedIn group of experts for more transparent sharing of information from the domain.

Final results

Scientific Impact
The LAMBDA consortium recognizes that high-quality education and training are fundamental to Europe\'s success. Therefore, LAMBDA develops learning and teaching materials that include an overview of relevant approaches and solutions for processing large and complex amounts of data. Lectures will be combined with possibilities for practical sessions to directly try out the state-of-the-art techniques in relevant scenarios from different domains. The learning materials that will be produced will be free and available online. Via the Train-the-trainers sessions and the Big Data Analytics School, the LAMBDA project provides the opportunity to disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge not only to researchers from Serbia and the Region, but to a wider audience.

Social Impact in Serbia and the region
Through different mentoring and training programs aimed at PUPIN staff and collaborators from the Research & Development & Innovation ecosystem, the scope and number of the research and innovation results of PUPIN will be increased. Being a part of the University of Belgrade, and maintaining contacts and partnerships with numerous organisations in the region, PUPIN will leverage the newly acquired expertise to initiate new projects (both research and commercial) involving other stakeholders from the region, where this knowledge will be utilized and extended, thus contributing to sustainable national, regional and European development in the Big Data domain.

Economic Impact in Serbia and the region

The potential behind the exploitation of data (Open, Linked and Big) to boost economies and growth has been the focus of many EU initiatives, the most recent of which is the Digital Agenda, which highlights the importance behind opening up data to generate value and achieve efficiency, and the need to make sense of Big Data, since this is considered to be a fertile ground for innovation in both technology and development. The exploitation of Big Data in various sectors has a potential socio-economic impact far beyond the specific Big Data market. The foreseen activities (open education, research-industry collaboration) will strengthen the digital skills of professionals and improve the technologies and services of the involved stakeholders, thus contributing to national and regional sustainable development.

Website & more info

More info: https://project-lambda.org.