Periodic Reporting for period 2 - LAMBDA (Learning, Applying, Multiplying Big Data Analytics)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-07-01 bis 2021-06-30
Project Context and Objectives:
In July 2018, the LAMBDA Twinning project started which overall objective is to stimulate scientific excellence and innovation capacity, to increase the research capacities and to unlock the research potential of the biggest and the oldest R&D Institute in the ICT area in the whole West Balkan region, turning the Institute Mihajlo Pupin (PUPIN) into a regional point of reference when it comes to multidisciplinary ICT competence related to Big Data. Within the project, a set of coordination and support actions has been initiated in PUPIN that will strengthen its collaboration with leading institutions from Europe in the domain of Big Data Analytics and related topics (Linked Data, Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Data Processing, Big Data Architectures, etc).
The topics of Big Data, Linked Data, Open Data, and Semantic technologies have recently spawned a tremendous amount of attention among scientists, industry leaders, and decision-makers. Challenges related to the European ability to exploit the potential of Big Data are:
• fragmentation of the data ecosystem, due to different national policies, languages, and sectors involved;
• fragmentation of data research efforts and lack of effective exchange of results;
• shortage of highly skilled persons for data-related jobs; and
• the complicated process of updating legislation.
The main focus of the LAMBDA activities was:
- defining a mid-term (for the period 2018-2020) and long-term (for the period 2021-2025) strategy for boosting the research and development capacities of PUPIN in the Big Data Analytics domain ;
- establishing the networking and learning infrastructure (Learning and Consulting Platform, https://project-lambda.org);
- development of new open educational resources on Big Data & Analytics that are useful for learning and teaching Big Data Analytics;
- development of new data analytics algorithms and testing in the energy domain;
- elaboration of case studies and scenarios for using Big Data tools in practice;
- organization of international events (training, workshops, webinars, conferences) for raising awareness about future trends in Big Data, Semantic Tools and Technologies, standards and applications (or adoption) in the industry;
In July 2018, the LAMBDA Twinning project started which overall objective is to stimulate scientific excellence and innovation capacity, to increase the research capacities and to unlock the research potential of the biggest and the oldest R&D Institute in the ICT area in the whole West Balkan region, turning the Institute Mihajlo Pupin (PUPIN) into a regional point of reference when it comes to multidisciplinary ICT competence related to Big Data. Within the project, a set of coordination and support actions has been initiated in PUPIN that will strengthen its collaboration with leading institutions from Europe in the domain of Big Data Analytics and related topics (Linked Data, Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Data Processing, Big Data Architectures, etc).
The topics of Big Data, Linked Data, Open Data, and Semantic technologies have recently spawned a tremendous amount of attention among scientists, industry leaders, and decision-makers. Challenges related to the European ability to exploit the potential of Big Data are:
• fragmentation of the data ecosystem, due to different national policies, languages, and sectors involved;
• fragmentation of data research efforts and lack of effective exchange of results;
• shortage of highly skilled persons for data-related jobs; and
• the complicated process of updating legislation.
The main focus of the LAMBDA activities was:
- defining a mid-term (for the period 2018-2020) and long-term (for the period 2021-2025) strategy for boosting the research and development capacities of PUPIN in the Big Data Analytics domain ;
- establishing the networking and learning infrastructure (Learning and Consulting Platform, https://project-lambda.org);
- development of new open educational resources on Big Data & Analytics that are useful for learning and teaching Big Data Analytics;
- development of new data analytics algorithms and testing in the energy domain;
- elaboration of case studies and scenarios for using Big Data tools in practice;
- organization of international events (training, workshops, webinars, conferences) for raising awareness about future trends in Big Data, Semantic Tools and Technologies, standards and applications (or adoption) in the industry;
Main results achieved are:
- open educational resources (66 lectures) published via the LAMBDA portal, https://project-lambda.org/Knowledge-repository/Lectures and the SlideWiki OpenCourseWare platform;
- knowledge transfer and staff exchanges between the project partners that supported the preparation of joint project proposals and research papers;
- organizing three editions of the Belgrade Big Data Analytics Summer School, https://project-lambda.org/Summer-Schools three-day events, more than 100 participants from PUPIN, industry and other universities from Serbia and the West Balkan Region;
- organizing a PhD Workshop, one-day event, https://project-lambda.org/PhD-Workshop-2021;
- organizing LAMBDA events in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro; but also at international conferences in Europe, see https://project-lambda.org/Past-Events;
- organizing several brain brainstorming sessions on Big Data and societal challenges, see https://project-lambda.org/Research-Industry-Forums;
- promoting early-stage researchers in their careers, see https://project-lambda.org/phd-defence;
- establishment of the LAMBDA-Network of Experts as a LinkedIn group of experts for more transparent sharing of information from the domain.
- open educational resources (66 lectures) published via the LAMBDA portal, https://project-lambda.org/Knowledge-repository/Lectures and the SlideWiki OpenCourseWare platform;
- knowledge transfer and staff exchanges between the project partners that supported the preparation of joint project proposals and research papers;
- organizing three editions of the Belgrade Big Data Analytics Summer School, https://project-lambda.org/Summer-Schools three-day events, more than 100 participants from PUPIN, industry and other universities from Serbia and the West Balkan Region;
- organizing a PhD Workshop, one-day event, https://project-lambda.org/PhD-Workshop-2021;
- organizing LAMBDA events in Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro; but also at international conferences in Europe, see https://project-lambda.org/Past-Events;
- organizing several brain brainstorming sessions on Big Data and societal challenges, see https://project-lambda.org/Research-Industry-Forums;
- promoting early-stage researchers in their careers, see https://project-lambda.org/phd-defence;
- establishment of the LAMBDA-Network of Experts as a LinkedIn group of experts for more transparent sharing of information from the domain.
Scientific Impact
The LAMBDA consortium recognizes that high-quality education and training are fundamental to Europe's success. Therefore, LAMBDA developed learning and teaching materials that include an overview of relevant approaches and solutions for processing large and complex amounts of data. Some lectures are also combined with practical sessions to directly try out the state-of-the-art techniques in relevant scenarios from different domains. The learning materials are free and available online at https://project-lambda.org/Knowledge-repository/Lectures. Via the Train-the-trainers sessions, webinars and the three editions of the Big Data Analytics School (2019, 2020, 2021), https://project-lambda.org/Summer-Schools the LAMBDA project provided the opportunity to disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge not only to researchers from Serbia and the Region, but to a wider audience.
There are numerous positive impacts of the LAMBDA project for the coordinating institution:
• Increased research excellence of the Institute Mihajlo Pupin in the domain of Big Data Analytics and related topics including Linked Data, Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Data Processing, Big Data Architectures, etc.;
• Enhancing the reputation, attractiveness and networking channels of the Institute Mihajlo Pupin Cooperation via cooperation with the outstanding EU research institutions and industry leaders;
• Improved capability to compete successfully for national, EU and internationally competitive research funding, see the list of EU research projects https://www.pupin.rs/en/research-and-development-projects/european-rd-projects/
• Access to new research avenues such as smart data analytics (Graph Analytics), symbolic reasoning techniques, semantic data lakes and data spaces, etc.
LAMBDA learning and teaching materials are used at training courses by the main beneficiaries, but also other institutions from the larger LAMBDA network.
Social Impact in Serbia and the region
Being a part of the University of Belgrade, and maintaining contacts and partnerships with numerous organizations in the region, PUPIN is leveraging the newly acquired expertise to initiate new projects (both research and commercial) involving other stakeholders from the region, where this knowledge will be utilized and extended, thus contributing to sustainable national, regional and European development in the Big Data domain. Through different mentoring and training programs aimed at PUPIN staff and collaborators from the West Balkan, LAMBDA contributed to the national and regional sustainable development goals. In cooperation with other running EU projects LAMBDA researchers contributed to foresight exercises, panel discussions in the domain of (1) energy efficiency and interconnection of South- Eastern electricity markets, (2) circular economy, (3) Industry 4.0 (4) semantic interoperability and public sector administration reform, (5) research Data and Open Science in South-eastern Europe, and others.
Economic Impact in Serbia and the region
The potential behind the exploitation of data (Open, Linked and Big) to boost economies and growth has been the focus of many EU initiatives, the most recent of which is the Digital Agenda, which highlights the importance behind opening up data to generate value and achieve efficiency, and the need to make sense of Big Data, since this is considered to be a fertile ground for innovation in both technology and development. The exploitation of Big Data in various sectors has a potential socio-economic impact far beyond the specific Big Data market. The LAMBDA activities (open education, research-industry collaboration) have strengthened the digital skills of professionals and have improved the technologies and services of the involved stakeholders, thus contributing to overall regional sustainable development.
The LAMBDA consortium recognizes that high-quality education and training are fundamental to Europe's success. Therefore, LAMBDA developed learning and teaching materials that include an overview of relevant approaches and solutions for processing large and complex amounts of data. Some lectures are also combined with practical sessions to directly try out the state-of-the-art techniques in relevant scenarios from different domains. The learning materials are free and available online at https://project-lambda.org/Knowledge-repository/Lectures. Via the Train-the-trainers sessions, webinars and the three editions of the Big Data Analytics School (2019, 2020, 2021), https://project-lambda.org/Summer-Schools the LAMBDA project provided the opportunity to disseminate state-of-the-art knowledge not only to researchers from Serbia and the Region, but to a wider audience.
There are numerous positive impacts of the LAMBDA project for the coordinating institution:
• Increased research excellence of the Institute Mihajlo Pupin in the domain of Big Data Analytics and related topics including Linked Data, Enterprise Knowledge Graphs, Semantic Data Processing, Big Data Architectures, etc.;
• Enhancing the reputation, attractiveness and networking channels of the Institute Mihajlo Pupin Cooperation via cooperation with the outstanding EU research institutions and industry leaders;
• Improved capability to compete successfully for national, EU and internationally competitive research funding, see the list of EU research projects https://www.pupin.rs/en/research-and-development-projects/european-rd-projects/
• Access to new research avenues such as smart data analytics (Graph Analytics), symbolic reasoning techniques, semantic data lakes and data spaces, etc.
LAMBDA learning and teaching materials are used at training courses by the main beneficiaries, but also other institutions from the larger LAMBDA network.
Social Impact in Serbia and the region
Being a part of the University of Belgrade, and maintaining contacts and partnerships with numerous organizations in the region, PUPIN is leveraging the newly acquired expertise to initiate new projects (both research and commercial) involving other stakeholders from the region, where this knowledge will be utilized and extended, thus contributing to sustainable national, regional and European development in the Big Data domain. Through different mentoring and training programs aimed at PUPIN staff and collaborators from the West Balkan, LAMBDA contributed to the national and regional sustainable development goals. In cooperation with other running EU projects LAMBDA researchers contributed to foresight exercises, panel discussions in the domain of (1) energy efficiency and interconnection of South- Eastern electricity markets, (2) circular economy, (3) Industry 4.0 (4) semantic interoperability and public sector administration reform, (5) research Data and Open Science in South-eastern Europe, and others.
Economic Impact in Serbia and the region
The potential behind the exploitation of data (Open, Linked and Big) to boost economies and growth has been the focus of many EU initiatives, the most recent of which is the Digital Agenda, which highlights the importance behind opening up data to generate value and achieve efficiency, and the need to make sense of Big Data, since this is considered to be a fertile ground for innovation in both technology and development. The exploitation of Big Data in various sectors has a potential socio-economic impact far beyond the specific Big Data market. The LAMBDA activities (open education, research-industry collaboration) have strengthened the digital skills of professionals and have improved the technologies and services of the involved stakeholders, thus contributing to overall regional sustainable development.