In this TACC podcast, Ari Kahn from the Texas Advanced Computing Center and Eddie Garcia from Cloudera describe a recent Hackathon in Austin designed to tackle data challenges in the fight against the Zika virus. The Texas Advanced Computing Center provided time on the Wrangler data intensive supercomputer as a virtual workspace for the Zika hackers.
“More than 50 data scientists, engineers, and UT Austin students gathered downtown at the offices of Cloudera, a big data company. They used big data to help fight the spread of Zika. Mosquitos carry and spread the Zika virus, which can cause birth defects and other symptoms like fever. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is now ramping up collection of data that tracks Zika spread. But big gaps exist in linking different kinds of data, and that makes it tough for experts to predict where it will go next and what to do to prevent it.”
