7 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

efficiently handle terabytes of data, database engines with fast I/O speeds and advanced
query engines, that can access geographically distributed data are required.
4. New Concepts and New Ideas
The typical way to proceed with analyzing large datasets is to first generate some
abstraction of the dataset in the form of features or summarization. Scientists &
Technocrats then use this information to guide them to the regions of interest. In this
exploration phase, they often wish to "drill down" in the dataset. This is done by
specifying a subset of the dataset, either directly, or by the summarization features,
repeatedly refining the focus. Once something interesting is found, there may be a long
run of the computer for pattern-matching or other data-mining to find other places in the
dataset which "look like that". Finally, the results of the search can be used to create new
knowledge. Following diagram indicates the approach to new concept:
Generate abstraction
of Data
Finding the region of
Interest
Data Mining
Found Interesting
things
Look for more pattern
matching
Refine the focus
New concept
&
New Ideas
Fig – 2. Generation of new concepts & new Ideas
5. Collection Based Research
Collection Based Research (based on Large Scientific and Technical Database) is a
promising and emerging field wherein Scientists and Technologists from remote corners
can participate in the research programme across the country / globe, making use of the
available infrastructure and internet facilities to their full advantage. These remote
scientists and technologists with a mixture of computing equipment on their desks, need
catalogues and indexes of the data archive, the ability to select data objects, to define
complex processing to be done, then choose how the results are to be returned to them. In
addition, adequate authentication systems are needed to control access to the data across
multiple security domains.
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