It was a fittingly sunny afternoon to discuss the power of light when around 130 people, from confessed computing experts to young scientists of the future, gathered in Perth last week to learn how big data and big ideas are translated into real life benefits by experts at the Australian Synchrotron and across the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)’s suite of world-class landmark research infrastructure.

At the ‘Big data + big ideas = real-life benefits’ lecture, Australian Synchrotron Director Professor Andrew Peele showed dazzling rich-colour images that shed insight into the mind-bending computing behind the real-life benefits delivered through the Australian Synchrotron: from peeling back the surface of priceless artworks to de-clogging inkjet printers, and from enriching the nutrients in essential foods to pharmaceutical breakthrough that are changing the lives of people with cancers and coeliac and Alzheimer’s diseases.

Embarking on a ‘deep dive’ into the mechanics of big data, Dr Andreas Moll, Senior Scientific Software Engineer, took the audience through the creation of a one gigapixel image, from data collection and processing to stitching and reconstruction. Incredibly, Dr Moll told guests that technical upgrades to key equipment on one of the facility’s ten beamlines will see data acquisition that currently takes 15 minutes, reduced to only 18 seconds accelerating health and medical research.

In a further nod to the future, Professor Peele explained how advances in synchrotron technology are rapidly outpacing increases in the speed of conventional computing devices, paving the way for new investment at the landmark research facility that will massively expand the ability of Australian Synchrotron scientists to translate its torrents of data into improvements in the way we work, eat and live, through partnership with academic researchers and industry clients from across Australia, New Zealand and around the world.

Hosted by Dr Erica Smyth, Deputy Chair of ANSTO and Chair of the WA Mega Data Cluster and emceed by Dr Miles Apperley, Head of Research Infrastructure at ANSTO, the lecture left a buzz in the air at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research with one guest describing the display of technical know-how as ‘brain-blasting’. 

Click here to download the 'Big ideas + big data = real life benefits' presentation.