Ilkay Altintas

Ilkay Altintas is a Turkish-American data and computer scientist, and researcher in the domain of supercomputing and high-performance computing applications.[3][4] Since 2015, Altintas has served as chief data science officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD),[5] where she has also served as founder and director of the Workflows for Data Science Center of Excellence (WorDS) since 2014, as well as founder and director of the WIFIRE lab.[6] Altintas is also the co-initiator of the Kepler scientific workflow system,[1] an open-source platform that endows research scientists with the ability to readily collaborate, share, and design scientific workflows.[2][7][8]

Ilkay Altintas
İlkay Altıntaş
Born
İlkay Altıntaş

1977 (age 43–44)
Aydın, Turkey
Citizenship
Alma materMiddle East Technical University
University of Amsterdam
Known forKepler scientific workflow system[1]
Scientific career
Fields
InstitutionsUniversity of California, San Diego
San Diego Supercomputer Center
ThesisCollaborative Provenance for Workflow-Driven Science and Engineering (2011)
Doctoral advisorPeter Sloot
Websitewords.sdsc.edu/ilkay

Born in Aydın, Turkey, Altintas attended Middle East Technical University before embarking on a research career.[3][9] While pursuing her career as a research scientist, she completed her PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 2011.[3][10][11] In addition to her work as a research scientist, she is a computer science lecturer at the University of California, San Diego.[12][13] Altintas is also a co-founder and board member of the Data Science Alliance nonprofit.[14][15] She serves on the advisory board of several national agencies and companies, and as an editor of peer-reviewed scientific journals.[16][17][18][19]

Education

Altintas graduated from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering in 1999, and a master's degree in computer engineering in 2001.[3][9][10] In 2011, she received a PhD in computational science from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, for her work and contributions toward workflow-driven collaborative science.[3][10][11]

Career and research

After graduating from Middle East Technical University in 2001, Altintas was hired as a research programmer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC).[4][9] She went on to serve SDSC as the assistant director of the National Laboratory for Advanced Data Research (NLADR), the founder and director of the Scientific Workflow Automation Technologies Laboratory, and deputy coordinator for research.[9][20] Currently, she is the chief data science officer of SDSC, where she is also the founder and director of the Workflows for Data Science Center of Excellence (WorDS); the founder and director of the WIFIRE lab; and the division director for Cyberinfrastructure Research, Education and Development.[4][7][21][22][6] The WorDS hub at SDSC serves to promote the utilization and distribution of workflow services in the context of a variety of domains and projects, ranging from the WIFIRE lab (which Altintas founded and currently directs) to the Kepler scientific workflow system (which Altintas serves as the co-initiator of).[4][7][21][22][8][20]

WIFIRE Lab

On October 26, 2003, Altintas experienced California wildfires for the first time, after witnessing the Cedar Fire in San Diego County.[23] The environmental and economic toll that this natural disaster had on the residents of San Diego County inspired Altintas to contribute to improving the then-current systems of managing and predicting wildfires.[23] She allotted much of her time thereafter to learning about California's fire-adapted ecosystem, and the two factors, weather and fuel, that contribute significantly to the spread and dynamic behavior of wildfires.[23] She noted that the behavior of wildfires can be computationally modeled, with data for modeling purposes being pulled from the physical environment (e.g., landscape data, real-time weather information and camera imagery, and remote sensor data).[23] This spurred the creation of Altintas' brainchild, the WIFIRE lab, which received National Science Foundation (NSF) funding from 2013 to 2018.[23][24] Using scalable computing and dynamic, automated, scientific workflows, data are collected and processed, and can be retrieved and accessed by a diverse array of audiences.[23] The main accomplishments of the WIFIRE lab till date include the deployment of data integration services at the intersection of fire science, data management, and machine learning; real-time data driven fire modeling services (with the help of the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN)); and automated fire modeling workflows and machine learning pipelines.[23] The WIFIRE lab currently serves a community of 130+ organizations, and works to combine data science and fire science to aid in dynamic fire modeling at scale.[23] Altintas has presented on past and ongoing WIFIRE research to a variety of audiences, ranging from stakeholders and policymakers at the California State Capitol to UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) Science Policy Fellows Program graduate students.[25][26][27]

The real-time fire modeling services provided by the WIFIRE lab have aided in the identification and traceability of wildfire outbreaks in local California communities.[27][28] In addition to aiding in the identification and traceability of wildfire outbreaks, the framework of the services deployed by WIFIRE is being used toward aiding in the identification and traceability of the COVID-19 outbreak.[29] The application of the real-time map (used initially for wildfire identification) in the space of COVID-19 research serves the purpose of alerting individuals in real-time regarding information surrounding the spread and severity of the virus in certain areas.[29]

For her pioneering WIFIRE work, Altintas has been featured on various US-based radio broadcasts, newspapers, and magazines. She has been featured on TIME magazine, the National Public Radio (NPR), The New York Times, and Voice of America, along with research scientists whom she has collaborated with.[30][31][32][33] She has also been featured on the University of California Television (UCTV) channel for her WIFIRE research.[34]

The Kepler Project

Altintas is the co-initiator of the Kepler scientific workflow system,[1] an open source platform that allows its users to share and collaborate on workflows for a variety of applications.[7][8][35][36] The Kepler Project website provides its visitors with the opportunity to download the Kepler application.[36] It also serves as a home for information regarding upcoming Kepler-related workshops, references on how to use Kepler for a varied set of subjects and applications (such as bioinformatics), and tips regarding how to maneuver the application in an effective manner.[36]

Teaching

Altintas currently serves as the faculty co-director of the Master of Advanced Studies in Data Science and Engineering, and as a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, at UC San Diego.[12][13] In addition, she is a big data MOOC instructor through Coursera and edX, having taught over a million learners till date.[37][38][39][40]

Awards and honors

See also

References
  1. Ludäscher, Bertram; Altintas, Ilkay; Berkley, Chad; Higgins, Dan; Jaeger, Efrat; Jones, Matthew; Lee, Edward A.; Tao, Jing; Zhao, Yang (2006). "Scientific workflow management and the Kepler system". Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience. 18 (10): 1039–1065. doi:10.1002/cpe.994. ISSN 1532-0626. S2CID 8207366.
  2. Ilkay Altintas publications indexed by Google Scholar
  3. "ACM SIGHPC Emerging Woman Leader In Technical Computing: ACM SIGHPC Emerging Woman Leader In Technical Computing 2017 Winner Ilkay Altintas". Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (ACM SIGHPC). 2017.
  4. Zverina, Jan; Petrillo, Lisa (October 30, 2018). "SDSC Chief Data Science Officer Ilkay Altintas Named an HDSI Fellow: Altintas to Help Build Foundation for Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute". UC San Diego News Center.
  5. Altintas, Ilkay (2018). "Emerging woman leader in technical computing". ACM SIGHPC Connect. 6 (1): 1–2. doi:10.1145/3231036.3231038. ISSN 2168-135X. S2CID 186710565.
  6. Zverina, Jan (August 13, 2015). "SDSC Names Ilkay Altintas Chief Data Science Officer: Altintas to Lead Cyberinfrastructure Research, Education, and Development". UC San Diego News Center.
  7. "Researcher Spotlight: Ilkay Altintas". San Diego Supercomputer Center.
  8. "Kepler Scientific Workflow System: Introduction to Workflow-Driven Scientific Computing". Blue Waters User Portal, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. January 21, 2019.
  9. Sides, Stephanie. "Advancing Computational Research with Scientific Workflows". Qualcomm Institute.
  10. "Collaborative provenance for workflow-driven science and engineering" (PDF). University of Amsterdam.
  11. "Collaborative provenance for workflow-driven science and engineering". UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository).
  12. "İLKAY ALTINTAŞ". Computer Science and Engineering, UC San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering.
  13. "Data Science & Engineering Program, Master of Advanced Study Degree". UC San Diego, Jacobs School of Engineering.
  14. "Data Science Alliance Homepage". Data Science Alliance.
  15. "Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State". Business Search - California Secretary of State.
  16. "Forecasting Costs for Preserving, Archiving, and Promoting Access to Biomedical Data". The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
  17. "Realizing Opportunities for Advanced and Automated Workflows in Scientific Research". The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
  18. "Future Generation Computer Systems - Editorial Board". Elsevier.
  19. "Earth and Space Science - Editorial Board". AGU (Advancing Earth and Space Science) Publications.
  20. Zverina, Jan (April 3, 2014). "SDSC Establishes Data Science Workflows 'Center of Excellence': Supercomputer Center to provide expertise to researchers across all domains". UC San Diego News Center.
  21. "WIFIRE". WIFIRE, UC San Diego.
  22. NSF Public Affairs (November 18, 2019). "The race to stay ahead of wildfires". National Science Foundation (NSF).
  23. SC Conference Series. "SC19 Invited Talks: Ilkay Altintas, San Diego Supercomputing Center". YouTube.
  24. "Award Abstract #1331615 - Hazards SEES Type 2: WIFIRE: A Scalable Data-Driven Monitoring, Dynamic Prediction and Resilience Cyberinfrastructure for Wildfires". National Science Foundation (NSF).
  25. "Joint Informational Hearing" (PDF). California State Senate.
  26. "2019 Annual Report". California Council on Science & Technology.
  27. Hommel, Rachel (December 18, 2017). "Fighting wildfires with web based imagery: GPS's Science Policy Fellows Program gathered experts to examine how harnessing the power of supercomputers and video imagery can help prevent natural disasters". UC San Diego School of Global Policy & Strategy.
  28. "Executive Management". Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA).
  29. Patringenaru, Ioana (April 2, 2020). "Creating an early alert system for COVID-19". UC San Diego News Center.
  30. de la Garza, Alejandro (January 21, 2019). "AI Is Helping Fight Wildfires Before They Start". TIME.
  31. Sommer, Lauren (November 18, 2018). "Supercomputers Assist Firefighters As Wildfires Spread In California". National Public Radio (NPR).
  32. Del Real, Jose A. (June 24, 2019). "Can 'Big Data' Help Fight Big Fires? Firefighters Are Betting on It". The New York Times.
  33. "VOA/TEK - Ep 10 - "Wildfires"". Vimeo.
  34. "WiFire: Technology to Predict and Prevent the Spread of Wildfires". YouTube.
  35. "Projects". WorDS: Workflows for Data Science Center of Excellence, San Diego Supercomputer Center.
  36. "The Kepler Project". The Kepler Project -- Kepler.
  37. "Ilkay Altintas, Instructor". Coursera.
  38. "Ilkay Altintas". edX.
  39. "Ilkay Altintas". AMiner.
  40. "İLKAY ALTINTAŞ, PH.D." San Diego Supercomputer Center.
  41. Russell, John (August 1, 2016). "D.C. Workshop Strives to Keep NSCI Flame Burning and Growing". HPCwire.
  42. "SDSC Chief Data Science Officer Ilkay Altintas Named an HDSI Fellow". UC San Diego, Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. January 24, 2019.
  43. "Ilkay Altintas: SDSC π Person of the Year" (PDF). San Diego Supercomputer Center.
  44. "Technology Projects to Combat California Wildfires Are Recognized with CENIC Innovation Award". Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC). February 13, 2018.
  45. "IEEE AIMS 2018". IEEE International Conference on AI & Mobile Services.
  46. "2016 Peter Chen Big Data Young Researcher Award". Confhub.
  47. "Awards". International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS), Reykjavík, Iceland, 1–3 June 2015.
  48. Zverina, Jan (November 19, 2014). "SDSC/UC San Diego Achieves a Hat Trick with 2014 HPCwire Awards: Annual Awards Recognize Leaders in the Global HPC Community". UC San Diego News Center.
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