The focus for the 2014 Eco-Engineering Forum is, The New Eco-System of Information: Harnessing the Potential of Big Data. This event is the sixth in a series of annual forums sponsored by Hitachi, and featuring panels organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and The Brookings Institution.
Keynote Address
The Honorable Terry McAuliffe, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia
Panel 1: Big Data and Transportation
We are at a point in American history where the confluence of technology and the built environment has tremendous ability to fundamentally change the way we experience places, how metropolitan areas function, and how we engage in public dialogue. The acceleration and deployment of advanced technologies promises operational efficiencies, job creation, private sector innovation, and increases in overall quality of life. The tantalizing prospect: cities and metropolitan areas that use technology to manage urban congestion, provide real-time information on traffic and transit, deploy snowplows more efficiently, and monitor air traffic control. This panel will address the range of big data issues related to transportation.
Panel 2: Meeting Environmental Challenges
The nexus of rapid environmental change worldwide and the rise of the information age present an unprecedented opportunity to strategically change how we measure, monitor, manage and value the critical ecological and environmental resources on which our economic stability and societal functioning depend. From faster data capture for analysis through real-world predictive models of events, to more intelligent decision-making through software and languages designed to handle intricate “if/then” scenarios, the acceleration and deployment of methodologies, tools, and technologies that transform big data into information empowers risk-informed, customized decision support to increase performance and productivity, create societal benefits and consumer surplus, and spur private sector innovation. This panel will address the range of big data issues and opportunities related to ecology, environment, and climate.