The Big Data Science Center at SSRF, Zhangjiang Lab led by Prof. Alessandro Sepe has published on the international high-impact peer-reviewed scientific journal Small a timely and comprehensive Review on the state-of-the-art of the Synchrotron Big Data Science.

Vision of the Synchrotron Radiation facility as the core of a “Superfacility”

The Review focuses on the Big Data deluge issue, which poses a serious challenge worldwide to the scientific future of all the Synchrotron, Neutron and XFEL large facilities. In fact, nowadays, due to the enormous amount of data produced at Synchrotrons, only a small fraction of this multidisciplinary scientifically complex Big Data are ultimately used in scientific publications. Therefore, in few years, as the Synchrotron Big Data do definitely overcome any conventional data analysis approach purely based on human resources, Synchrotrons could then be incapacitated to produce meaningful science. This problem is even more evident in the case of XFELs, where tens of Petabytes are produced and must be analyzed annually.

In order to address this challenge, a highly coordinated scientific and technological initiative, bridging state-of-the-art science with the most advanced technology, is required. The published Review, thus, covers all the most recent efforts in Big Data Science applied to Synchrotron facilities, and offers an overview of all the, nowadays sparse, Synchrotron Big Data approaches. Their unification is the very first cornerstone for the creation of a Superfacility, which, as detailed within the published Review, is the result of a total integration of Synchrotron Big Data with Artificial Intelligence, High Performance Supercomputing, Real-time remote unmanned experiments and Robotic Automation. A Superfacility will then accelerate the scientific discoveries and technological advancements produced from Multidisciplinary Science at Large National Scientific Facilities like SSRF and Zhangjiang Lab, with a clear societal impact.

This is the aim of the Big Data Science Center at SSRF, Zhangjiang Lab, where Prof. Sepe, with his staff, is contributing to the formation of the first Superfacility in China, aiming at supporting all the key national scientific needs in China.

Links：https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smll.201802291