The document describes the IDEA lab, a laboratory at the University of Edinburgh for informatics development, experimentation, and applications. The IDEA lab brings together users and researchers from various domains like health, biology, linguistics and more. It aims to develop and test new informatics technologies through open collaboration, with a focus on information retrieval, data management, machine learning and more. The lab benefits from economies of scale through its community resources, tools, and infrastructure. It conducts open-source, open-data research and prototyping. Interested individuals can get involved through the lab's blogspot page.

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IDEA lab
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a laboratory for informatics
development, experimentation & applications
Tuesday, 13 October 2009

2. user pull
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information is our business
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• health, biology
• linguistics, economics, education
• geosciences, engineering
• physics, chemistry
• sociology, economics
• music, literature, theology ...
Tuesday, 13 October 2009

3. technology push
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informatics – changing the ways we think
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• information retrieval - text mining
• data management - data wiki
• process modelling, simulation and analysis
• pattern-recognition and machine learning
• sensing, planning and control
• parallel and distributed computation
• social collaboration
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economies of scale
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• community - themes + workshops
• open source toolkit + specialist tools
• knowledge, skills and expertise
• distributed infrastructure (IS + ECDF ++)
• downstream pipeline (PROSPEKT, EPCC)
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5. IDEA lab
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informatics
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development experimentation applications
• open community
• research meets application
• proof-of-principle prototyping
• quick and clean – informed development
• open-source open-data open-innovation
Tuesday, 13 October 2009

6. get involved
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idea-lab-edinburgh.blogspot.com
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• community of interest
• research meets innovation
• developing web presence
• information
• skills and projects registry
• software repository
• data repository
Tuesday, 13 October 2009