About Our Faculty - Dr. Raza Abidi

Solving real-world problems with computer science

Computer science uses computer technologies to solve real-world problems. One such problem is the changing ecosystem and how it affects our oceans and the behaviour of marine animals.

To better understand our oceans and help develop policies and programs to protect marine life, Dalhousie computer scientists are working in collaboration with oceanographers, marine biologists and the Ocean Tracking Network (OTN) to develop an E-research platform. This platform will help scientists share large volumes of data from around the world about ocean and marine animal behaviour, and help them conduct complex experiments. The Platform for Ocean Knowledge Management (POKM) project is developing a web-based computing environment that allow scientists around the world to communicate, analyze, share and visualize massive amounts of data generated by instruments that observe our oceans. The data will help scientists understand the relationships between marine life and their physical environments that were, until now, difficult to examine. Scientists are already using POKM to study the migratory patterns of leatherback turtles off the coast of Nova Scotia.

“The entire experience is very enriching for the computer science team as we get to work with scientists from oceanography and marine biology. There is so much cross-fertilization of ideas between the different disciplines that each day we learn so many new real-life issues about oceans, eco-systems and marine life,” says Dr. Raza Abidi, with Dalhousie's Faculty of Computer Science. He and a team of graduate students are developing POKM. “The fascinating aspect of the project is that it provides computer science students the perfect opportunity to apply their theoretical computer science knowledge learned in the class to develop real-life solutions in the lab -- they can see computer technology in action solving real-world problems.”

The computer technology developed in the ocean tracking project could be applied to other domains that require analysis of large volumes of observational data. Dr. Abidi and his team already have their sights set on the healthcare sector as the next target for their innovative technology.