MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — Part two of Focus Forward’s “Beyond the Cloud” series Thursday morning focused on adapting and strengthening West Virginia’s ability to become the epicenter of a multi-billion-dollar expansion of the nation’s private weather industry.
“The goal of Focus Forward is to bring together business, government and education leaders to explore forward-thinking ideas and discuss how we can be adapting our economy in West Virginia to strengthen our workforce,” said Donna Peduto, executive director of West Virginia Public Education Collaborative.
The Focus Forward series began three years ago by addressing artificial intelligence and its impact on West Virginia’s economy, followed by the second year focusing on the big data movement — a collection of data that is so huge in volume, and growing exponentially with time, that no traditional data management tools can store it or process it efficiently.
“This year’s Focus Forward builds on previous years to take us beyond the cloud,” Peduto said. “Many of you joined us on March 17 for a wonderful session, where we addressed how West Virginia can address these vast climate datasets through (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and create numerous opportunities to launch startups and develop new technologies in the private climate market.”
Intuit executive — and Marshall University alum — Brad Smith, and West Virginia University President Gordon Gee were featured speakers at the first “Beyond the Cloud” event.
Thursday’s event was designed to further explore entrepreneurial opportunities with real-life examples from keynote and industry panelists using big data.
“I think West Virginia is nicely positioned to take advantage of opportunities related to big data in weather,” said Jerome Gilbert, Marshall University president, who spoke during the event.
Many companies in the private weather industry, including Amazon and Microsoft, have made use of the NOAA’s data.
NOAA is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce that focuses on the conditions of the oceans, major waterways and the atmosphere. They have several satellite dishes at the I-79 Technology Park, in Fairmont.
“We know that climate change has produced more instability and uncertainty in our weather patterns and increased extreme events,” Gilbert said. “We saw one of those extreme events Wednesday — snow in April.”
The good news, Gilbert said, is that we have more information on data collection than we ever have.
“NOAA and private companies have more and more sophisticated software and they have artificial intelligence techniques used in weather prediction and advanced warnings for extreme weather events,” Gilbert said.
Craig McLean, acting chief scientist and assistant administrator for oceanic and atmospheric research for NOAA, said West Virginia has many opportunities to succeed in the private weather sector.
“The community of West Virginia, and even those states surrounding West Virginia, have an opportunity for an ecosystem of innovation that can exist right in and around where we’ve established our home for high-performance computing in West Virginia,” McLean said.
McLean estimated the value of the after-market for the private weather sector at $7 billion. He said that predicting the weather is more than if it will rain, but how that rain will affect communities.
“In places like the southwest United States, one can debate if they’re going to get more rain in what is generally a dry area,” McLean said. “One might be inclined to say that since it’s a dry area, we’re going to reduce the diameter of a replacement storm sewer that we might need to install.”
Not being able to predict changing patterns in the weather could wind up hurting infrastructure in cities.
“Those are the quantifications that data analysis can be generated so that competent investments can be made by the folks who need to be making those decisions,” McLean said.
McLean said that to break it down simplistically, NOAA is responsible for answering four questions, and there is money to be made in having those answers.
“What is the weather going to be like tomorrow?” is the first question. An example McLean gave was that NOAA is not so much worried about whether it will be a good day to go fly fishing in a stream, but whether that stream will be flooded and unsafe.
“What’s the weather going to be five, 10, 50, 100 years from now?” is the second question.
“People generally stop caring about a future, social science tells us, when they can no longer relate to what that future state will be,” McLean said. “A person who plants a tree today may not enjoy the shade in their lifetime, but certainly in their children’s lifetime.”
“How many fish are in the sea?” is the third question.
“We have to manage and conserve the nation’s fishery and marine-based resources,” McLean said. “We do that by studying and measuring the ocean. Effectively, one can be doing ocean science from a remote location by studying data.”
The fourth question: “Is it wise to build on shifting sands?”
“We’re responsible for managing the coastal environments at a federal level — we look at the stability of the coast, and see that it is dynamic and changing,” McLean said. “Being able to anticipate that change is something we’re tasked with.”
Michael Graney, deputy secretary for West Virginia Department of Commerce, said the NOAA operation at the I-79 Technology Park can help position West Virginia for economic growth because it provides a combination of high-performance computing and big data collection not found anywhere else in the nation.
“Imagine West Virginia being known not for coal mining, but for an economy that is based on data mining,” Graney said. “I think that’s the opportunity we have in front of us.”
The private weather sector is something that can help diversify West Virginia, Graney added.
“For the first time, the state has been able to take advantage of a strategically good position to take part in a multi-billion-dollar knowledge expansion known as the private climate weather industry,” Graney said. “It’s significant, because it can dramatically improve our economic diversification in West Virginia.”
Graney, calling himself a “recovering entrepreneur,” noted that he was delighted about the entrepreneurial opportunities for the state.
“I’m excited about the prospect of several new startup companies becoming part of West Virginia’s business community,” Graney said. “I believe that we’re ripe for opportunity to bring jobs to West Virginia and to bring back people who left.”
Reach Chris Slater at cslater@wvnews.com, 304-887-6681, or follow @chris_slater on Twitter.
Credit: Source link
