CSE professor contributes to report on Big Data in the life sciences

By Jane Stoyle Welch

The report, entitled "National and Transnational Security Implications of Big Data in the Life Sciences," is the result of a one-year study jointly organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICJR).

The group aimed to identify the current state of Big Data and analytics, the benefits and risks of Big Data in the life sciences to national security, and needed solutions for addressing exploitation of system vulnerabilities or intentional use for harmful or criminal purposes. The report is geared toward policy makers.

The working group included experts in computer science, data science, life sciences, biological security, data security, cyber security, law enforcement and homeland security from U.S. government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, academia, private industry, and the amateur science community.

Zola, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering and research assistant professor in biomedical informatics, joined UB’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering in 2014.

His research focuses on the development of novel parallel, high performance and scalable algorithms and techniques to address challenges in data driven science and engineering. In particular, Zola is interested in applications in computational biology and life sciences.

In addition to serving on the joint AAAS/FBI/UNICJR working group, Zola is a founding co-chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Workshop on Big Data in Life Sciences.

Before joining UB, Zola worked at Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute and Iowa State University. He received his PhD in computer science from the Grenoble Institute of Technology in 2005.