Big Data, Networks and the Internet of Things: A Mathematician's Perspective

Big Data, Networks and the Internet of Things: A Mathematician's Perspective

The Internet of Things, Big Data and Networks: A Mathematician's Perspective

Monday 8th May 2017

Time: 7pm

Venue: Waterstones, Sauchiehall St

Speaker: Des Higham

The "Internet of Things" is the concept of connecting any device to the Internet (and/or to each other). This includes everything with an on/off switch including cellphones, coffee makers, washing machines, headphones, lamps, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of. Ultimately, the Internet of Things should involve physical objects seamlessly integrating into the information network for social and economic benefit.

At the heart of the Internet of Things is data---digital records of everything including us (human [anyone seen ‘Persons of Interest’?!]), technology and other interactions. These data streams are large-scale, varied and rapidly changing. Making sense of this data raises many interesting challenges for people working in mathematics, statistics, computer science and related disciplines.

Des will discuss success stories, bottlenecks and wish-lists. Along the way, he will mention how Google used graphs to tame the WWW, how new ideas allow us to rank supermarkets according to on-line brand allegiance and how we can compare the cliquiness of ten UK cities.

Des Higham holds the 1966 Chair of Numerical Analysis at the University of Strathclyde. His research interests revolve around the design and evaluation of computational methods. He was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2011 and currently holds a five year Established Career Fellowship from the EPSRC/Digital Economy Theme to work in Data Analytics for Future Cities.