Dr. Mark Russo
Adjunct Professor, TCNJ
November 6, 2015
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Forcina 408
“Big Data in the Chem Lab”
Abstract: With the introduction of robotics and other forms of automation into the industrial chemistry laboratory it has become possible to monitor laboratory activities at a level of detail that previously has not been possible. In this lecture I will describe the information technology used to retrofit several analysis and purification laboratories at multiple geographic locations to capture, store, digest, and generate revealing real-time visualizations of chemist activities. The architecture of the system necessary to ensure reliable delivery of event data will be described in detail. Resulting visualizations of activities are collected into a chemist’s dashboard that is accessible through a web browser. This dashboard has become a tool that chemists rely upon to carry out their daily activities and that managers use to make just-in-time resource and staffing decisions to ensure that their laboratories run in a highly efficient manner.
Biography: Mark Russo is an Associate Director in Computational Genomics at Bristol-Myers Squibb where he has worked on a broad range of information technology and automation projects that span the scientific disciplines found in pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. Mark earned his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from Rutgers University where he studied the artificial intelligence in high performance computing. Prior to joining Bristol-Myers Squibb Mark worked at several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies where he led groups with the mission of applying diverse technologies to solving problems in research. He has also served as the Executive Editor for the Journal of Laboratory Automation and taught professional short courses in laboratory robotics, computer programming and image processing. Mark has held adjunct teaching positions in the computer science departments of Drexel University, Bryn Mawr College, Rowan University and The College of New Jersey.