This project brings together scientists from a dozen institutions in academia, government, and industry to translate big data into meaningful knowledge that supports research and education in environmental sustainability. The project will focus on the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), the world’s largest database of biological species, and other biodiversity data sources. This project has repurposed VERA to model the effect of social distancing on the spread of COVID-19, including the SIR model of epidemiology. VERA enables a user to build conceptual models and agent-based simulations, and conduct "what if" virtual experiments. We believe that this interactivity should be a significant boon for learning and education.

PyData Carolinas 2016 brought together hundreds of professionals, researchers and students interested in data analysis to discuss how best to apply Python tools to meet challenges in data management, processing, analytics and visualization. Among the attendees was Clarence White, one of two students from North Carolina A & T who was sponsored by the South Big Data Hub to attend. The Hub was also a silver sponsor of PyData Carolinas. Read to learn more about the conference form a participant's point of view.

Each day countless devices—from monitors in hospitals to diagnostic tests to Fitbits—capture huge amounts of health data. That data could change how patients and doctors interact, how diseases are diagnosed and treated, and the amount of control individuals have over their health outcomes.

Participant recap of the mHealth Workshop, held in Chapel Hill, NC in May 2017. The workshop was supported by the South Big Data Hub and the National Consortium for Data Science (NCDS). Wenbin Zhang is a first-year PhD student in the department of information systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He attended the South Big Data Hub/NCDS Mobile Health Workshop in May with travel support from the South Hub.

Reflections on the South BD Hub mHealth Workshop in May 2017. Chenzhang Bao was a student at the University of Texas at Dallas majoring in information systems. He was one of several students who the South Big Data Hub supported to attend an mHealth Workshop in May. The Conference was held in Chapel Hill and sponsored by the South Big Data Hub and the National Consortium for Data Science in collaboration with the Institute for the Future.

The workshop participants thoughtfully assessed a wide array of mobile health (mhealth) applications to address health disparities and their environmental influences within the research, legal, policy, environment, and clinical settings. Within the clinical setting, participants identified shifting the point of care to the patient using mHealth technologies as a key priority.

Participant recap of the 2017 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (SBP-BRiMS 2017) was held in Washington, DC, in July, and prominent fields applying social computing techniques include public health and healthcare. Participant is Kyong Shin, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center – Oak Ridge National Lab (UTHSC-ORNL), Center for Biomedical Informatics, Department of Pediatrics (affiliated with Le Bonheur Children's Hospital). She attended the 2017 International Conference on Social Computing, Behavioral-Cultural Modeling, & Prediction and Behavior Representation in Modeling and Simulation (SBP-BRiMS) with support from the South Big Data Hub.