BigSkyEarth COST Action organizes its first workshop, with the topic “Research Matchmaking – Building Bridges Between Disciplines“, in Brno, Czech Republic, on April 14-16, 2016. The workshop participants will have an opportunity to present their research in astroinformatics, geoinformatics, Big Data, data visualization or Big Data outreach, suggest how to expand their work into larger collaborations and seek potential research partners among the workshop participants.

PROGRAM = PDF

Submit your abstracts HERE (i.e. suggestions for collaborations with other research groups)

BigSkyEarth will provide quite a number of reimbursements for travel and accommodation to workshop participants. Below you can find a form where you can pre-register for the workshop and apply for the reimbursements. The final number of participants selected for reimbursement will be based on the available budget.

Updates on the workshop preparation are distributed to BigSkyEarth members – if you are not a member, follow instructions for registration in “Become a Member” section (see the right column on this page).

Workshop Venue

The workshop will take place at the Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology, located in an old Kartuzian Monastery, Bozetechova Street 2, Brno (and the modern building across the street – see the Google Map).

Accommodation

Hotels can be easily booked via booking.com or similar services. Nove Semilasso Apartments are the closest to our faculty. Hotel Grandezza, Royal Ricc and Barceló Brno Palace are in the centre, on the tram line no. 1 or 6. They will cost you about 100+ € per night but they offer good quality for the price. Sono Hotel is close to the centre too. You can also get a special rate 50 Eur for single room in Hotel Continental – just mention “Big Sky Earth” when booking via e-mail [email protected].

Travel Information

There is only a small airport in Brno. Regular flights (2-6 days a week) are limited to Munich, London Stansted/Luton and Eindhoven. If flying directly to Brno is not an option, you can go to Vienna or Prague and continue by bus, train or rent a car. The trip should take about two hours from Vienna and two and half hours from Prague by car. There is an excellent direct bus connection from/to the Vienna airport (2.5 h) and, not so direct, to the Prague airport (4 h, 1 change at the bus terminal in Prague where you wait an hour – if the first bus arrives on time, try to get on an earlier one for the connection). You can buy tickets online. Trains are less convenient and, surprisingly, often provide worse quality of service than buses.
You can plan your transport at here.
If you arrive with a car, you can park either in front of the building or use an underground parking (the entrance from the Metodejova street)

Public Transport in Brno

Brno has an excellent public transport (covered by Google Maps). The faculty can be easily reached by tram 1 or 6 (going every 5 minutes or so). The direction is Reckovice (tram no 1) or Kralovo Pole – nadrazi (tram no 6) and the stop you should get off is Semilasso. The ride should take only 10 minutes so it is enough to buy a 15-minutes ticket for 20 CZK (Czech Korunas). You can find vending machines on some stops or buy tickets in kiosks. Drivers also sell tickets (35 CZK) but they usually ask for exact cash. From Semilasso, go down the Metodejova Street and turn right.

Local Organizing Committee

Pavel Smrz – smrz   at  fit.vutbr.cz
Sylva Otáhalová – otahala  at  fit.vutbr.cz
Renata Kohlová – kohlova  at  fit.vutbr.cz

Submit your abstracts

You can submit multiple abstracts (i.e. proposals for collaboration) and upload your photo or some graphics that you would like to attach to the abstract(s):

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM IS AVAILABLE HERE

Apply for Reimbursements

We will have a considerable number of reimbursement grants covering travel and accommodation expenses. Selected candidates will have to give a short (10-15min) presentation on their idea for research/project collaboration. Fill out the pre-registration form to apply.

NOTE: reimbursements are possible only to participants coming from institutions in BigSkyEarth member countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, fYR Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom. Members of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory from Armenia are also eligible for grants.

THE PRE-REGISTRATION FORM IS AVAILABLE HERE

Registered Participants

• Areg Mickaelian, Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, Armenian Virtual Observatory, Armenia
• Atanas Hristov ,University of Information Science ant Technology, Macedonia
• Bianca Schoen-Phelan, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
• Blagoj Delipetrev, University Goce Delcev Faculty of Computer Science, Macedonia
• Bojan Pečnik, Hipersfera LLC, Croatia
• Darko Jevremovic, Astronomical Observatory, Serbia
• Dejan Vinkovic, Science and Society Synergy Institute, Croatia
• Denis Korablev, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Giovanni Nico, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Istituto per le Applicazioni (IAC), Italy
• Giuseppe Longo, University Federico II – Napoli, Italy
• Gyula M Szabó, ELTE GAO MKK, Hungary
• Jamal JOKAR ARSANJANI, Heidelberg University, Germany
• Jaroslav Dytrych, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Jouni Peltoniemi, University of Helsinki, Finland
• Jovan Aleksić, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Mathematics, Serbia
• Lubomir Otrusina, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Lukas Polok, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Marco Quartulli ,  Vicomtech-IK4, Spain
• Maria Gritsevich, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, Finland
• Michal Kapinus, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Michal Španěl, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Mihran Vardanyan, Byurakan Observatory, Global Map Data analysis center, Armenia
• Nikolay Kirov, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria
• Ognyan Kounchev, Institute of mathematics and informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Bulgaria
• Olga Kurasova, Vilnius University, Lithuania
• Pavel Smrz, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Pavel Zemčík, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Peter Baumann, Jacobs University | rasdaman GmbH, Germany
• Petr Škoda, Astronomical Institute Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic
• Petr Škoda, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Prof. Javad Zarbakhsh, Carinthia Universitz of Applied Sciences, Austria
• Robert Ross, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
• Sven Lončarić, Univ. of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, Croatia
• Uroš Kostić, AALTA LAB, Slovenia
• Veljko Vujcic, Astronomical Observatory Belgrade, Serbia
• Victor Debattista, University of Central Lancashire, UK
• Viktor Medvedev, Vilnius University, Lithuania
• Vítězslav Beran, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Vladimir Privalov, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Vladimir Sreckovic, Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Serbia
• Yehia TAHER, DAVID Lab, University of Versailles, France
• Zdeněk Materna, Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic
• Zeinab Amin-Akhlaghi, ZAMSTEC, Austria

Program

Thursday 14.04.2016

10:00 – 10:30 Registration
10:30 – 10:45 Opening
10:45 – 11:00 Talk: Funding opportunities for BigSkyEarth projects
11:00 – 11:15 Short presentation
11:15 – 11:30 Short presentation
11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break + poster view
12:00 – 12:15 Short presentation
12:15 – 12:30 Short presentation
12:30 – 13:30 Discussion
13:30 – 15:00 Lunch + poster view
15:00 – 15:15 Short presentation
15:15 – 15:30 Short presentation
15:30 – 15:45 Short presentation
15:45 – 16:00 Short presentation
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break + poster view
16:30 – 18:00 Discussion
18:00 – 19:00 –
19:00 – ——-  Dinner

Friday 15.04.2016

10:00 – 10:15 Short presentation
10:15 – 10:30 Short presentation
10:30 – 10:45 Short presentation
10:45 – 11:00 Short presentation
11:00 – 11:15 Short presentation
11:15 – 11:30 Short presentation
11:30 – 13:30 Coffee break + poster view
13:30 – 15:00 Lunch + poster view
15:00 – 15:15 Short presentation
15:15 – 15:30 Short presentation
15:30 – 15:45 Short presentation
15:45 – 16:00 Short presentation
16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break + poster view
16:30 – 18:00 Speed-project-dating
18:00 – 19:00 –
19:00 ———  Dinner

Saturday 16.04.2016

9:30 – 10:00 Opening of WG meetings
10:00 – 11:30 Spliter meetings of WG1,2,3,4
11:30 – 12:00 Coffee break
12:00 – 12:30 Conclusion of WG meetings
12:30 – 13:30 Discussion
13:30 – ——- Lunch

What is BigSkyEarth?

With the current emergence of Terabyte(TB)-scale astronomical and Earth observation systems, the traditional approach to basic functions such as data searching, analytics or visualization are becoming increasingly difficult to handle. Simple database queries can result now in data subsets so large that they are incomprehensible, slow (or even impossible) to handle, and impossible to visualize with commodity visualization tools. Astronomy and remote sensing complement each other, as they are on the quest for new Big Data interpretation capabilities: both disciplines have peculiar data, typical data processing and analysis chains, and specific models to be fed with data. However, both disciplines lack the capabilities for easily accessible semantics-oriented browsing (usage of higher level descriptive expressions) in large data archives. Therefore, joint efforts to design and develop innovative Big Data tools should help users in many different fields and set new standards for many communities. This has identified several broad challenges to this line of reasoning that need multidisciplinary approach through international networking of experts and professionals. These challenges are then channelled into Action Objectives:
Challenge A: Digital curation and data access
Challenge B: New frontiers in visualization
Challenge C: Adaptation to new high performance computing (HPC) technologies
Challenge D: New generation of scientists in the age of interdisciplinarity
For more detail see the description of the Action in Memorandum of Understanding.