The next installment of PDH4L—Public Digital Humanities for Lunch—begins its April series with a discussion about the role big data plays in academia, industry, and the popular press. The PDH4L talks, sponsored by the University of Iowa Digital Studio for Public Humanities, are free and open to the public. While lunch is not provided, participants are welcome to bring their own.

Ben Rogers, director of research services in UI Information Technology Services (ITS), will present "Big Data: What's the Fuss?" from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11 in 1117 University Capitol Centre at the Old Capitol Town Center.

Digital humanists aren't the only ones interested in big data, trending buzzwords for business, medical, and information technologists. According to popular definition, "big data" is a term that refers to a collection of data sets so large and complex in size that the data becomes difficult to capture, curate, manage, and process using traditionally available database management tools or data processing applications. In our current age of information, big data sets have become common, and the immense amounts of information and data being produced and recorded today means that researchers, industrialists, and medical technicians must use more refined data tools to locate answers.

Rogers will present one perspective on why this transition to big data has become an important topic, along with the potential impact for research and scholarly work. He will also discuss examples of how large data sets are currently stored and analyzed on the UI campus.

Rogers has spent his career at the UI working in a variety of departments with large data sets. He spent seven years supporting research in the Department of Psychiatry in the Carver College of Medicine and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Science before joining ITS in 2011. Roger's interests lie in providing technology solutions to meet the diverse needs of research and scholarly work.

PDH4L talks throughout 2013 will focus on the place of public digital humanities in contemporary culture. Over the course of this series, audiences will interact with prominent researchers, helping to shape the conversation at Iowa.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend all UI-sponsored events. If you are a person with a disability who requires a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this program, contact Kyle Moody in advance at 513-593-9487.