Queen’s University researcher Patrick Martin (School of Computing) is creating a new data analysis program designed for scientists and researchers working in the health, energy and environment sectors.

“Scientists and researchers are relying more on data analytics, which are tools to carry out complex analyses of the data relevant to their research,” says Dr. Martin. “Dealing with big data is often a problem in many areas of research and requires more sophisticated tools and more powerful computing systems.”

Internet-based Analytics-as-a-Service (AaaS) will feature an easy to use interface allowing scientists to define and run their own data analysis tasks rather than having an analyst do it for them. AaaS will first target researchers working in health-related fields before branching out to other disciplines.

The AaaS program is one of seven launched under the Southern Ontario Smart Computing Innovation Platform (SOSCIP), a consortium of seven universities supported by the Governments of Canada and Ontario and IBM. The next steps include applying the program to e-commerce, financial planning, social media studies and inventory management.

Dr. Martin’s co-investigators include Ying Zou (Queen’s University), Ashraf Aboulnaga (University of Waterloo) and Michael Bauer (Western University).