April 16, 2019, by Tom T

Introduction – What is the DRS and ADAC?

This article provides an insight into the work of the Digital Research Service and ADAC at the University of Nottingham.

Big names, complex terms

Aside from its fondness of catchy acronyms, the Digital Research Service (DRS) is an interdisciplinary team of data scientists and research software engineers at the University of Nottingham with expertise in knowledge discovery in data sets, omics, Research Software Engineering and Web Services.

For those who aren’t familiar with these areas, Data Science is an area involving statistics, machine learning, mathematics and artificial intelligence, based on the idea that systems can learn from data, identify patterns and make decisions (SAS 2019), to provide systems with the ability to learn from experience. The title of Research Software Engineer (RSE) was created following the identification of a gap in academia, capturing the role of RSE’s as developing software for research. Research Software Engineering includes software development, support, academic content dissemination (papers, talks, etc), the use of High Performance Computing for large, complex problems that are computationally demanding, code consultation and training within a research environment. Finally, the web services of the DRS include web design, database development and interactive data visualisation.

Using this expertise, the DRS provides support for internal and external customers in analysis, collaboration, consultancy and training, as well as assisting in the preparation of publications and funding proposals. This single, dedicated facility supporting academic researchers is a great benefit to the University of Nottingham and its quality of research as a Russell Group University, particularly the work done by the Advanced Data Analysis Centre (ADAC).

 

Data, Data and More Data…

Established in 2012, ADAC sits within the DRS with staff based in
the Computer Science building at Jubilee Campus and at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science at Sutton Bonington. The service was set up in response to the increasing size and complexity of data generated by research projects, providing a central data analysis service to support individual projects on a daily basis without restriction on quantity or duration of analysis required. ADAC offers multi-disciplinary data-driven research within academic and industry, spanning a wide range of fields and industries within bioinformatics and informatics, including transportation, health and medicine, finance and retail.

In terms of bioinformatics, ADAC’s expertise includes Genome/Epigenome analysis, interpretation of genome resequencing data, expression analysis by microarray/next-generation sequencing, systems Biology, phylogenetics and Molecular Evolution. Hugely important is its contribution to UK Biobanking, which seeks to increase the quality, visibility and accessibility of the UK’s specimen and cohort collections. With UCL, ADAC have developed the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre which involves integrating data from across the UK into one accessible and searchable resource. This was named as the UK’s national node BBMRI-UK, with the Director of the DRS, Dr Philip Quinlan, also as its Director.

Image result for graphADAC’s informatics expertise are Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics and Health Informatics, with its growing team boasting a range of data analytics skills. As well as final sophisticated analysis (involving intelligent methods, statistics and mathematical modelling), ADAC can also provide primary data analysis, including data visualisation, application of data mining techniques (such as classification, cluster analysis, regression etc), semi-independent hypothesis testing and effective presentation of outcomes.

 

 

ADAC is also able to conduct further analysis for publications and data management and archiving. This means that it can also provide insights to businesses to provide independent data analytics expertise for wealth creation, process validation, testing of ideas and exploratory data analysis.

 

DRS/ADAC at UoN

Working within the University of Nottingham, ADAC also supports the university’s six ‘Beacons of Excellence’: The Rights Lab which seeks to end modern slavery; Precision Imaging to transform health care; Future Food, researching new ways of feeding the growing world population; Propulsion Futures to promote greener transport; Green Chemicals to increase bio-chemical sustainability; and Smart Products, revolutionising technology.Its contribution to these areas demonstrates the wide remit of the service and its value in terms of research and development.

 

In short, the work that the DRS/ADAC do is a pretty big deal. They have been named on £45m+ grants to the university, worked on research projects worth of £55m and featured in over 30 high-impact publications. This series of blog articles serves to highlight the range of projects ADAC is involved in, from transportation to health data, and the growing importance of data analysis in the modern world.

If you have a project you think that the DRS/ADAC could assist with, please visit https://digitalresearch.nottingham.ac.uk/enquiries/

 

References

https://www.sas.com/en_gb/insights/analytics/machine-learning.html

 

Written by: Megan Collins, intern at the DRS

Posted in Uncategorized