Turning Data Into Usable Information

Cherri Pancake: Connecting the Dots

During the recent SARS outbreak, better information usability could have helped researchers analyze the spread of the disease to more quickly identify its source, the civet cat. Researchers at OSU's Northwest Alliance for Computational Science & Engineering (NACSE), led by professor Cherri Pancake, are working with the people at the Protein Data Bank--the world's largest publicly accessible biological database--to make their information more accessible and usable and to integrate it with worldwide data repositories such as the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control, that track the spread of diseases. So next time, we'll find solutions faster.

"Often all the key information is available. But since it's located in totally different agencies and not connected in any obvious ways, scientists and physicians can't link up the critical pieces," Pancake says. "We're developing cyber-linkages to make this information obvious, as soon as the user asks a related question."

Pancake's information usability research was key in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) selection of OSU as the site for the world's largest tsunami research facility (see p. 25). Her group's work is also helping government agencies like the USDA Forest Service base their resource management decisions on scientific data--such as using lichens as "living sensors" to monitor air quality.

Pancake was recently appointed as NSF special advisor on how future "cyber-infrastructure" can be engineered to better serve the nation's scientists and engineers.

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