Oracle for Research, Oracle’s global community that uses cloud computing to accelerate scientific discovery, today announced new resources that enable researchers, scientists, and developers to solve the world’s most complex problems. Oracle Open Data is a newly created cloud service that curates information—spatial images, protein sequences, and annotated text files—from the world’s leading scientific databases. The repository connects researchers, developers, students and educators with petabytes of open data from trusted resources. Oracle for Research also unveiled two award programs that offer new pathways to advance science and support global research communities in the Oracle Cloud ecosystem.
“Today marks an exciting milestone for Oracle for Research,” said Alison Derbenwick Miller, Vice President, Oracle for Research. “Through our newly launched cloud-focused programs, products, and services, Oracle for Research is realizing our vision to accelerate discovery and results, and help change the world for good through an integrated community of researchers working collaboratively with Oracle and Oracle Cloud.”
Oracle Open Data focuses on data sets spanning genomics and bioinformatics; geospatial data, earth science and climate science; and Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Currently, Oracle is the only cloud provider to offer access to the new ZINC 22 dataset, which enables virtual screening of millions of commercially available molecules, each with 3D structure compounds.
“Many researchers in the interactive computing community like me are looking for services that remove burdens associated with data hosting and that also encourage communities to keep these valuable resources available,” said Dr. Hyeokhyen Kwon, Georgia Tech Ph.D. graduate and Oracle for Research recipient. “Platforms like Oracle Open Data can be a big help in this, and an additional benefit of these types of open data platforms is that they allow researchers to gain exposure to research problems in other disciplines. This type of collaboration across disciplines may bring new research opportunities.”
All the datasets in Oracle Open Data are located close to compute resources – including Oracle’s powerful High Performance Computing (HPC) and graphics processing unit (GPU) resources – reducing the cost and time to move and use them. The tool provides important metadata and sample code for each dataset, which simplifies technical complexities and makes it easy for researchers to use.
Oracle Open Data is being offered in an initial limited availability release, and researchers are encouraged to sign up for early access by providing their name and email address. Those using the free service can provide important input into the product roadmap and influence the future addition of more datasets.
Also announced today are new Oracle for Research awards that enable global projects to solve the world’s most complex problems through cloud computing and an open research community.
- Oracle for Research Cloud Starter Award—A $1,000 credit towards a variety of cloud storage, database, and service offerings. Researchers can host, process, analyze, share, and store data on Oracle Cloud—with no credit card needed. When credits are used, researchers will have the option to upgrade to a paid environment to access even more services, or remain active with access to Oracle Always Free services.
- Oracle for Research Project Awards—Beyond the $1,000 cloud credit from the Oracle for Research Cloud Starter Award, qualified researchers with well-defined projects can receive additional cloud credit benefits, hands-on consultations with Oracle solutions engineers, collaborative opportunities with peers, assistance in co-authoring/publishing papers, and amplification of discoveries.
“In the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, we embarked on a project to build a very complex human activity recognition model using wearable sensors,” said Dr. Kwon. “Through our participation in Oracle for Research, we were able to process and store large amounts of data in a timely manner, resulting in two publications in less than a year.”
Applicants for Oracle for Research awards will be reviewed based on their project complexity, duration, and scope. Strong consideration will be given to research projects that have the potential to profoundly impact people’s lives within the next five years. Applicants can learn more about the application process and qualifications in the “Supporting Resources” links provided below.
Oracle for Research will be presenting at SuperComputing21 on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 at 11 a.m. CST.
