The viability of nations and institutions depends on their ability to embrace innovation. As in the business world, governments, schools, universities and healthcare organizations face unprecedented competition and increasingly complex demands. This magazine describes a few of the ways IBM helps them continue to break new ground in serving the public good, and making a difference in the lives of individuals.

Connecting and combining resources

Assaulting disease

Driving accessibility Exploring humankind’s past

Innovators on innovation

October 2005

Real stories from government, education and healthcare.

Inspiration across industries

2 4 6 8 10 12

Inspiring public healthpage 4

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Millions of women have had routine mammography exams to catch

breast cancer in its earliest stages, when it can most easily be

treated. Tens of millions of these images have been stored in medical

facilities around the world. But finding and retrieving them can take physicians

days or even weeks, especially in today’s mobile

society. For patients and clinicians alike, that’s far

too much time.

To come up with a solution, IBM worked with

a consortium of top universities to enable the

National Digital Mammography Archive (NDMA)

grid. The NDMA, represented by i3ARCHIVE,

Inc.,TM offers a virtual repository of mammography

data and high-fidelity images from around the world. The grid provides:

• Electronic data capture of patient records

• Management and storage of huge files for fast retrieval, comparison and

diagnostic review

• Assurance of the security and privacy standards required for patient records,

including meeting federal and state regulatory requirements.

Answers in seconds

Hospitals are connected to the grid via a secure virtual private network that

allows authorized physicians to upload, download and analyze digitized X-ray

data to identify potential tumors and other problems. The NDMA can provide

access to current and past patient records in ninety seconds or less. Additional

benefits can include lower overhead and administrative costs, enhanced patient

safety and a reduction in potential legal expenses.

Based on open standards, the NDMA will also help doctors, medical students

and interns learn more about breast cancer and related diseases via a suite

of tools that includes educational tools for radiologist training. Ultrasound and

breast magnetic resonance imaging are also accessible through the NDMA.

Says Derek Danois, president of i3ARCHIVE, Inc., which is working to make

the tool broadly available to clinicians and patients worldwide: “Our mission is

focused on providing a world-class healthcare information network.”

To our readers: Remember, October is National Breast Cancer

Awareness Month!

Putting society’s computational shoulders to the wheel

At last count, the IBM BlueGene/L computer can

crank out 140 trillion computations a second without

breaking a sweat. But what if you need to do 140.1

trillion computations a second? That conundrum is

the IT equivalent of all your relatives descending on

you for the weekend, and you not having enough

bedrooms to handle the crunch. But just as you could

farm out your familial influx to nearby hotels and friends,

IBM is making it possible for universities, research

institutions, governmental agencies and private compa-

nies to connect and combine their computational

capacity. And, as the examples here show, the benefits

extend very far.

Finding needles in haystacks–and saving lives

An unmatched legacy of innovation: The many IBM innovations making important

differences in people’s lives today – data-mining

and speech-recognition technologies transform-

ing education, grid computing yielding new

cures for disease, programmable devices that

can make ports more secure and efficient, and

dozens more – flow directly from decades of IBM

achievements in research. Our clients and part-

ners reap the benefits of this legacy through the

unprecedented resources we can bring to bear

on society’s diverse challenges.

140,000,000,000,000

1890: Hollerith Punch Card

The U.S. Census Bureau adopts the Hollerith

Punch Card, Tabulating Machine and Sorter to

compile results of the 1890 census, reducing

an almost ten-year process to two years.

1945: First of many research centers

The Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory

opens in a renovated fraternity house near

Columbia University in Manhattan. In 1961, it

relocates to Yorktown Heights, New York. Today,

the T.J. Watson Research Center operates in

the United States, Switzerland, Israel, Japan,

China and India.

1956: Hard disks

IBM introduces the world’s first magnetic hard

disk for data storage. It had a purchase price

of about US$10,000 per megabyte. By 1997,

the cost of storing a megabyte had dropped to

around ten cents.

1971: Speech recognition

IBM achieves its first operational application of

speech recognition. Today, IBM’s ViaVoice® rec-

ognition technology has a vocabulary of 64,000

words and a 260,000-word backup dictionary,

and it is used in fields such as IT, emergency

medicine, journalism, law and radiology.

1981: Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Two IBM scientists, Gerd K. Binnig and

Heinrich Rohrer, invent the Scanning Tunneling

Microscope, which provides a first-ever look at

the topography of surfaces in an atom-by-atom

format – and which wins them the Nobel Prize

in physics.

1993: Scalable parallel systems

IBM pioneers the technology of joining multiple

computer processors and breaking down com-

plex, data-intensive jobs to speed their comple-

tion. This spawns many high-speed, high-volume

number-crunching applications that are proving

invaluable in weather prediction, healthcare,

research, oil exploration and other fields.

2005: Supercomputing

The world’s foremost supercomputer ranking

authority, Top500, taps the IBM BlueGene®/L as

the world’s most powerful supercomputer – plac-

ing it at the top of the list with sustained perfor-

mance of 136.8 teraflops, or trillions of floating

point calculations per second.

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Health sciences is just one area that can benefit from grid computing.

IBM recently launched the Economic Development Grid initiative, an

innovation that will employ grid computing and other technologies to

stimulate economic growth in cities and regions around the world. Cleveland,

Ohio, and Communauté d’Agglomération de

Bayonne Anglet Biarritz are two such areas that

will gain from this effort.

In the city of Cleveland, a variety of educational,

governmental, research, arts and cultural, health-

care and nonprofit organizations have joined to

create OneCleveland. After implementing an ultra-

broadband network serving much of northeastern

Ohio, OneCleveland is working closely with IBM to jumpstart new economic

activity in the area with an ultra-powerful computing grid. The grid will support

many of Cleveland’s startup companies – including those involved in medical

research and software development – that simply don’t have the capital to invest

in their own supercomputers. “It is an exciting time for us right now. By partner-

ing with IBM and utilizing its expertise in grid computing and in our focus areas,

we will have the resources necessary to affordably enhance the collaboration

among our healthcare, education, research and government organizations,”

says Scot Rourke, president, OneCleveland.

Another community, far from Ohio, is enjoying the same advantages, thanks

to an IBM grid designed, developed and deployed by IBM and IBM Business

Partner Overlap. Communauté d’Agglomération de Bayonne Anglet Biarritz in

France can connect to this communications infrastructure and benefit from high-

speed connections and Internet access – a boon for small and medium-sized

businesses, as well as local governments, throughout the region. The grid will

also help the community attract new and emerging businesses by offering the

services they demand. Says Manuel De Lara, director, de la Communication et

des TIC, Communauté d’Agglomération de Bayonne Anglet Biarritz: “The IBM

solution provides a distinct business advantage to us – we can attract and keep

businesses in the region by providing the services they demand.” The commu-

nity anticipates a return on investment in just ten years.

World Community Grid is a not-for-profit organization that has created

the world’s largest public computing grid to advance projects that

benefit humanity. IBM has worked closely with the Grid to develop a

pioneering technical infrastructure that allows individuals like you to contribute

unused computer time to public and other not-for-

profit humanitarian research.

All you have to do is download and install some

freeware from the Grid. Soon those minutes and

hours when your machine is twiddling its thumbs

will be taken up by one slice of a Grid project.

Currently, more than 145,000 computers around

the world have been harnessed by the Grid, and

they’ve exceeded a combined 16,500 years of time into Grid projects. Now, in

one day the Grid accomplishes the work of a single computer slaving away for

more than 50 years.

One of the first users of the Grid is the Human Proteome Folding project.

It’s designed to sort through huge amounts of data that contain the secrets

to how each protein in the human body affects our health. By using that data,

scientists can develop new cures for diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS,

SARS and malaria.

Big projects, faster results

Millions of computations are required to understand each protein’s role.

And there are 30,000 to study. Spreading the workload across a huge num-

ber of computers makes the task less daunting – accomplished in months,

not decades.

“IBM is involved in World Community Grid because just as we do for clients,

we’re committed to bringing the best technologies forward to address critical

societal and health issues,” says Linda Sanford, IBM senior vice president,

Enterprise On Demand Transformation, and chairperson of World Community

Grid’s Advisory Board. “World Community Grid demonstrates that government,

business, and society can be the direct beneficiary of innovation if we are will-

ing to rethink the way innovation and science both develop and prosper.”

To obtain the freeware, visit: www.worldcommunitygrid.org

Folding up diseaseFrom Cleveland to France, grids are catching on

IBM: Gridding the globeThese examples are just

the latest in a series of

grid projects that illustrates

IBM’s leadership in the

fast-developing field of

grid computing. IBM was

selected to build the North

Carolina Bioinformatics

Grid, which will be devel-

oped in collaboration with

GlaxoSmithKline Inc.,

Biogen, the University

of North Carolina, Duke

University, and other organ-

izations. IBM was also

selected by a consortium of

four U.S. research centers

to build the world’s most

powerful computing grid,

an interconnected series

of Linux® clusters capable

of processing 13.6 trillion

calculations per second.

This grid system – known as

the Distributed Terascale

Facility – will enable thou-

sands of scientists around

the country to share com-

puting resources over the

world’s fastest research

network in search of break-

throughs in life sciences,

climate modeling, and other

critical disciplines. IBM

is also collaborating with

several centers in the UK

National Grid to provide key

technologies and infrastruc-

ture for the project, which is

linking a massive network of

computers throughout the

United Kingdom, and also

building a powerful comput-

ing grid for universities in

the Netherlands.

Of course, grid computing

is all about connecting

large numbers of free-

standing computing into

massively powerful, collec-

tive wholes. But computers

that can’t readily commu-

nicate with each other are

useless to a grid. IBM has

long been committed to

140,000,000,000,000per second

open standards that make it

much easier for computers

to connect and communi-

cate among themselves.

(Open standards have the

added advantage of foster-

ing competition, driving

excellence up and prices

down.) For grid computing,

open standards also allow

organizations to start small,

learn the ropes, and then

boost their capabilities by

plugging new technologies

into the grid.

Today, IBM is at the forefront

of companies developing

and driving the adoption

of open standards. As grid

computing begins to come

into its own, IBM’s early

and continuing advances

in establishing widely

accepted standards will

only increase the pace –

and expand the benefits.

4 | INSPIRED October 2005 | 5

We surveyed

the numerous

projects under-

taken by IBM

Healthcare and

Life Sciences

and found a rich array of collabora-

tions with major research institutions

around the world. A few of the

promising ventures:

Advancing research on childhood leukemia

IBM and St. Justine’s Pediatric Research Centre,

a university teaching hospital affiliated with the

University of Montreal, are working together to help

accelerate cancer research and improve patient

outcomes. Researchers are using an advanced

informatics infrastructure – a clinical genomics solu-

tion – to focus on acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a

cancer responsible for 25 percent of all childhood

tumors. IBM is supporting researchers’ efforts in

developing therapies with a solution that will take

into account the unique genetic profile of indi-

vidual patients and rapidly standardize, organize

and access a vast amount of data from a wide

variety of sources. “All research projects will be

supported from a single database and integrated

infrastructure. This will provide views suited to

specific needs, in addition to avoiding duplicate

entries and deleting nominative information from

clinical systems data – while retaining a trace back

to the patient, if required, and providing long-term

follow-up of patients, even into adulthood,” said

Iris-scanning kiosks

Assaulting disease with innovation

Dr. Daniel Sinnett, a doctor and associate professor

at University of Montreal and head of the leukemia-

cancer section at the Research Centre.

Seeking origins of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases

IBM and École Polytechnique Fédérale de

Lausanne (EPFL) entered into a joint research

agreement, code-named Blue Brain, to create a

model of the neo-cortical column – a set of 10,000

neurons that repre-

sents the fundamental

building block of the

human brain. An IBM

^® BlueGene

supercomputer running

simulations of the brain

at a molecular level will

help researchers gain

new insights on inter-

nal processes such as

thought, perception and

memory. By using this

model, scientists hope

to learn more about

the origins of diseases

such as Parkinson’s

and Alzheimer’s.

“Modeling the brain at the cellular level is a

massive undertaking because of the hundreds of

thousands of parameters that need to be taken into

account,” said Henry Markram, the EPFL professor

heading up the project and founder of EPFL’s Brain

and Mind Institute.

By running experiments in real time, Markram

expects brain research to advance more quickly

than ever. “With an accurate computer-based model

For your eyes only:

Iris-scanning kiosks

offer travelers fast,

secure passage.

Once the stuff of James

Bond movies, iris scanning

is proving its worth in every-

day travel. For example,

pre-approved airline pas-

sengers can gain fast and

secure entry into Canada

simply by looking into a

camera. CANPASS, a pro-

gram implemented by The

Canada Border Services

Agency, utilizes self-service

kiosks designed by IBM

and embedded with iris-

scanning technology–

deemed by many to be the

most accurate way to verify

a person’s identify. The

kiosks feature an iris camera

and card reader that enable

travelers to be processed

through Customs and

Immigration in seconds.

The program, which is

strictly voluntary, allows

customs officials and secu-

rity agents to turn their

attention to high-risk situa-

tions and speed the flow

of passengers – more safely

and securely.

of the brain, much of the pre-testing and planning

normally required for a major experiment could be

done “in silico” rather than in the laboratory. With

certain simulations, we anticipate that a full day’s

worth of wet lab research could be done in a matter

of seconds on Blue Gene.”

Unlocking the mysteries of human disease

In November of 2004, IBM and a Karolinska Institute

team worked to build

Sweden’s first IT-

enabled biobank, a

valuable resource that

researchers can use

to study the effects of

genetics and lifestyle

on disease. Using the

IBM Healthcare and

Life Sciences Clinical

Genomics Solution,

they are examining

thousands of human

tissue samples along

with genetic and

environmental data to

spotlight the underly-

ing mechanisms of

disease, conduct more focused clinical trials and

ultimately transform healthcare delivery through

information-based medicine.

The biobank makes it easier to find causes,

develop diagnostic tools and discover cures for

diseases by allowing more research scientists

and research fields to make use of huge amounts

of connectable data – something that will be of

immense value to the next generation of research

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Road user charging

scientists. This type of collaboration could lead to

the development of more targeted, timely cures for

complex diseases.

Stopping infectious disease in its tracks

The Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler

(STEM) is a simulation and analysis tool designed

to help scientists and public health officials use

mathematical models to aid in understanding –

and potentially pre-

venting – the spread

of infectious diseases.

Through the develop-

ment of these models,

STEM provides a better

understanding of epi-

demiology and interac-

tions among diseases.

IBM designed STEM

as a basis upon which

software developers

and researchers can

build other useful appli-

cations. The prototype

code is available on

IBM alphaWorks® to

allow researchers to

explore its potential and provide guidance for

further development.

An on demand healthcare ecosystem

IBM has long worked to break down the barriers to

the efficient flow of information throughout the

healthcare community. For the Hospital for Sick

Children in Toronto, Ontario, IBM established a net-

work that now gives 500 physicians and 32 care

Untying the traffic knotIt’s a dream familiar to

anyone who owns an auto-

mobile: The lure of the

open road, the convenience

of personal travel, cruising

along in air-conditioned

comfort on a smooth,

uncrowded superhighway.

The reality, though, is very

different. As the number of

vehicles around the world

increases, congestion has

become a major problem.

Building new roads isn’t the

answer; the increase in traf-

fic volume is overwhelming,

construction is too expen-

sive, and the environmental

impact can be severe.

Enter the concept of road

user charging, which

requires drivers who use

highways to pay directly

for the privilege. The basic

idea, of course, is not new;

toll collection on highways

and at bridges and tun-

nels has been in place for

decades. It takes the idea

of “pay-to-play” a step fur-

ther – using technology

to track precisely where

and when a vehicle is used.

The goal is to equip all

vehicles – eventually at the

point of manufacture – with

devices that can be tuned

to different toll operators.

Drivers will receive an

itemized monthly bill for

miles traveled and borders

crossed. Charges are

based on a variable scale:

more for traveling during

peak hours and on heavily

traveled roads, and less for

driving during periods when

traffic is typically light.

Having participated in the

development of Singapore’s

electronic road pricing

system – the first in the

world – IBM is currently

working with the city of

Stockholm, Sweden to

implement road user charg-

ing systems. Test programs

are already underway in

Seattle, WA, as well as the

state of Oregon.

facilities around Canada and the world access to

the hospital’s specialized pediatric resources.

IBM Research has also launched a broad-scale

initiative called the Interoperable Health Information

Infrastructure project. It’s aimed at driving badly

needed standards across the healthcare commu-

nity, and providing every American with a medical

record by the end of the decade. Involving scien-

tists from around the globe, this project will improve

the effectiveness of

medical care and

enable doctors to make

better decisions by

integrating information

among hospitals, agen-

cies and patients.

This use of informa-

tion technology and

open standards to

enhance the flow of

information within the

healthcare industry is

an essential step in

reducing costs and

improving quality. For

example, it could

transform public health

information by allowing the Centers for Disease

Control, along with state and local departments of

public health, to better understand how infectious

diseases spread. IBM has also developed a new

public health toolkit that will allow such agencies to

base plans and forecasts on well-grounded scien-

tific models for infectious and chronic disease.

www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/stem

The three pyramids Three stained pyramidal neurons. These neurons stand

nearly 2mm high and receive over 10,000 inputs from

other neurons, which they process in their complex

dendritic arbors using active regenerative mechanisms.

October 2005 | 5

6 | INSPIRED October 2005 | 7

True or false: Accessibility is an issue of primary

interest only to people with disabilities.

Before you answer, consider this: According to

recent AARP statistics, by the age of 50, one in

every four people will acquire a functional disability.

By age 65, one in two will be functionally disabled.

Frances West, director of the IBM Worldwide

Accessibility Center, led her testimony before

the U.S. Senate – not quite what you’d call a youth

organization – with that eye-opening statistic.

West appeared to urge the senators to support

“harmonized” disability standards among countries.

IBM has long been committed to helping people –

including those with disabilities – enrich their partici-

pation in society. In 1914, the company hired its first

disabled employee, 76 years before the Americans

with Disabilities Act.

Today, IBM is hard at work with universities, gov-

ernment agencies and other clients to discover and

develop new technologies to provide “innovation

that matters” to people with disabilities. At IBM,

accessibility isn’t about building ramps or publish-

ing scientific papers in Braille. It’s about using inno-

vation to enrich the lives of people both with and

without disabilities – in short, society at large.

Centers of innovation

In 2000, IBM merged its existing accessibility

groups to form a worldwide Accessibility Center

with locations in the United States, Europe, Japan

and Australia. The Accessibility Center fosters prod-

uct accessibility, works toward the harmonization

of worldwide standards, applies research technolo-

gies to solve diverse problems experienced by

people with disabilities, creates industry-focused

solutions and spreads the word about the impor-

tance of accessibility.

Helping people with disabilities takes technology–

innovative technology. Because so many IBM

assistive technologies were born in our research

labs, the Accessibility Center has a direct line to the

scientists developing new technology. A special

team works with researchers to identify new

technologies that can enhance accessibility and

be incorporated into mainstream products.

Once it spots a technology, the team works with

other IBM business units, independent software

vendors and assistive technology vendors to trans-

fer the technologies to the appropriate parties.

Many times, IBM takes cutting-edge technology

from IBM Research, transforms it into a work-

ing prototype and tests it with clients. Successful

ideas then become offerings that help more people

access IT – regardless of ability or disability.

Teaming with China

China has 60 million citizens with disabilities.

Early this year, IBM and the China Disabled Persons

Federation signed an agreement reflecting the

current campaign by the Chinese government to

create a “Harmonized Society through Accessibility”

that will assist people with disabilities. Through the

new IBM China Accessibility Center, IBM divisions

in China are working closely with the Chinese gov-

ernment to help promote consistent, open stand-

ards for Web accessibility, and explore innovative

tools that help:

• People who are blind use screen reader applications

that read information aloud.

• People who are deaf read captions, embedded in

video and audio files.

• People who have low vision, color blindness or

age-related vision problems can be helped by

increasing the text size or changing the color con-

trast of Web pages.

Under the agreement, IBM and the China

Disabled Persons Federation announced plans to:

• Co-sponsor, along with the China Braille Press, a

campaign to teach thousands of blind Chinese

citizens to use computers. IBM will donate new

ThinkPad® laptops to assist with the campaign.

• Work toward setting accessibility policies, laws and

standards that help people with disabilities in China

to participate in the “information society” more fully

and productively.

Accessing innovation . . .innovating access

Pharma’s futurebeen set up, one such

example being the Smallpox

Research Grid, which has

screened 35 million drug

candidates with process-

ing power provided by two

million PCs from volunteers

around the world.

IBM forecasts that seven

key technologies will help

the pharmaceutical industry

reduce its pre-launch drug

development costs to as

little as US$200M (a quarter

of the current average cost

per drug); cut average lead

times from 12-14 years to

between 3-5 years; dramati-

cally increase success rates

from first human dose to

market; raise the quality of

development and manufac-

turing processes, and allow

companies to deliver bigger

shareholder returns than

ever before. These include:

1 Petaflop and

grid computing

give the indus-

try access to

unprecedented

levels of computing power.

By 2006, a new genera-

tion of petaflop computers,

including IBM Blue Gene,

will enable large-scale

biomolecular simulations,

such as protein-folding

studies. Grid computing

(which harnesses the idle

computing power locked in

companies’ desktops and

servers), will enable com-

panies to undertake such

tasks as screening for DNA

sequence matches, and

analyzing sales and market-

ing data in real time. Several

research grids have already

2 Predictive

biosimulation is

the use of

sophisticated

computer-

generated models to simu-

late how a biological system

works as a whole. Predictive

biosimulation enables phar-

maceutical companies to

significantly reduce the

number of wet lab experi-

ments required to identify

possible drug targets. “In

silico” modeling (as

opposed to “in vitro” – in

glass or “in vivo” – in life)

also enables researchers to

predict the effects of drugs

on the human body, includ-

ing their efficacy and safety.

Various academic institu-

tions are building computa-

tional models, including

Indiana University’s

Center for Cell and Virus

Theory, which is exploring

how cells react to chem-

ical disturbances.

3 Pervasive com-

puting – miniatur-

ized devices,

mobile telecoms

and wireless

technologies – will ultimately

transform drug development

and healthcare delivery by

facilitating the transmission

and collection of biological

data on a real-time basis

outside a clinical setting.

That, in turn, means it can

be used to monitor patients

and manage their health;

to test new drugs in totally

different ways; and to

deliver healthcare any-

where, anytime. Several

firms, including Philips

Medical, are designing intel-

ligent biomedical clothing;

and Bang & Olufsen has

devised a “pill box” that

reminds patients when to

take their medicine.

The China Accessibility Center is leveling the field for hearing- and vision-impaired citizens.

At IBM, better ideas become better innovations for people of all abilities.

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• Launch a Liberated Learning Pilot Project with

the Special Education College of Beijing Union

University using the IBM ViaScribe™ speech-to-text

technology to translate lectures into computer text

displayed on a screen in the classroom.

• Co-host the second China Information Accessibility

Forum in October 2005.

“From survival to self-achievement”

The initiatives mesh with China’s goal to create a

“Harmonious Society” that will empower citizens

through science and technology.

China sees the adop-

tion of accessible tech-

nology as an import-

ant step in moving

citizens with disabilities

“from survival to self-

achievement.” It’s part

of a broader program of

education, job training

and societal advance-

ment, aligned with

IBM’s strategy to deliver

not just innovation, but

innovation that matters

to the world.

“Enhancing human

capacity through

accessible technology

and solutions,” West

said, “is innovation that matters, as it allows for a

more inclusive society, a society where human

and societal potential can be optimized.”

Liberated learning

A group of ten universities around the world is

earning top marks for teaming with IBM on an

initiative to make learning easier for students with

disabilities – and, in the process, simplify it for

other students, too.

In a traditional university setting, students who

are deaf or hard of hearing can find it hard to take

notes. Those who rely on wheelchairs may have

trouble getting into a lecture hall. Blindness or other

visual impairments can make note-taking difficult.

And students with learning difficulties can find con-

centration a challenge if notes have to be taken

at the same time. Meanwhile, international stu-

dents can struggle to overcome language barriers

between them and the faculty.

Widely known for their cutting-edge research

and commitment to students, Saint Mary’s

University in Nova Scotia and California State

University at Northridge are pioneers in making

education accessible to their attendees through

the Liberated Learning Initiative. A key compo-

nent of the initiative is IBM speech recognition

computer technology, which professors rely on

to deliver classroom lectures.

As Saint Mary’s Liberated Learning Initiative

International Manager Keith Bain explains, “IBM

speech recognition technology was originally

implemented to help

level the playing field

for students with dis-

abilities. But we have

received overwhelming

feedback from students

without disabilities who

believe in the tremen-

dous potential of this

technology as well.”

Listening with one’s eyes

The participating

professors first develop

personalized voice

profiles so the IBM

speech recognition

technology can under-

stand their individual

speaking styles. The software essentially recognizes

the speaking style of each professor. While lectur-

ing, the professors wear a wireless microphone that

picks up their spoken words and sends them to the

computer. The speech recognition technology then

transcribes the audio into text – in real time – and

projects it onto a large screen for students to read.

Following the lecture, comprehensive, computer-

generated notes are available to students online

and in various other formats – text or audio only, or

a synchronized text-to-audio version.

Professor of Religious Studies Dr. Amir Hussain

says, “The technology benefits deaf and hard-of-

hearing students by allowing them to see the words

that I speak. Blind students can use the audio ver-

sion of the lecture, or convert the electronic text to

Braille. It benefits learning disabled students who

are better able to process information that they can

see rather than hear. And, both disabled and non-

disabled students benefit from the edited transcripts

of each class.”

4 Smart tags, or

radio frequency

identification

(RFID) tags

enable physical

objects to be identified at

many points during manu-

facturing and distribution.

RFID can help pharmaceuti-

cal companies to prepare

for a future with greater

numbers of more complex

products produced in

smaller quantities. It will

also help companies satisfy

the increasing demands of

regulatory compliance by

enabling the monitoring of

pharmaceutical products

at points in the supply

chain, and allows for more

efficient and effective prod-

uct authentication.

5 Advanced stor-

age solutions

will provide the

tools with which

to manage and

maintain the vast quantities

of data now being gener-

ated. Sophisticated new

storage servers, virtualized

storage grids and trans-

parently integrated record

management and archiv-

ing systems will help the

industry comply with the

increasingly tough require-

ments imposed by the Food

and Drug Administration,

the Securities and

Exchange Commission

and other regulators.

6 Process analyti-

cal technology

lets companies

monitor their

manufacturing

processes continuously and

automatically in real time,

rather than intermittently

and historically via samples

and post-manufacturing

quality controls. The tech-

nology improves manufac-

turing quality and saves

money, because it is

cheaper to adjust a produc-

tion line immediately than to

discard goods that have

fallen outside the agreed

tolerances. The FDA’s new

rules on good manufactur-

ing practices will have a sig-

nificant influence on the

investment in process ana-

lytical technology.

An IBM speech technology can actually “hear” what a person is saying and transcribe it for viewing on a computer screen.

There is no looking back for blind students, thanks to IBM text-to-Braille technologies.

Accessibility technology empowers citizens with dis-abilities to move from “survival to self-achievement.”

7 Web-scale

mining and

advanced text

analytics use

intelligent algo-

rithms to scan all the digital

information on the Internet

as soon as it becomes avail-

able. This new generation of

data and text mining tools

will enable pharmaceutical

companies to quickly and

efficiently draw meaning

from huge quantities of

research, marketing and

patient data. Web-mining

will help the industry con-

duct research, select poten-

tial targets for further study,

identify trends, perform

more active pharmacovigi-

lance, anticipate potential

crises and gain better

patient insights.

To download a PDF of

the report “Pharma 2010:

Silicon Reality,” visit:

ibm.com/bcs/pharma2010

“In essence, we are strivingto deliver not just innovation, but innovation that matters to the world, a corporate core value of IBM. And wethink that enhancing humancapacity through accessible technology and solutions is an innovation that matters.”– Frances West, Director, IBM Worldwide

Accessibility Center

October 2005 | 7

8 | INSPIRED October 2005 | 9

Exploring the collective past of all humankind

Sharpening the intelligence of campus security

St. John’s University is

America’s largest Catholic

university with a student

population of 19,000.

The institution is home

to three New York-based

campuses spread across

Manhattan’s metropolitan

area. The 135-year-old

school’s New York-based

residence halls house

2,500 students.

In addition to its mission

to provide a first-rate

education, St. John’s insists

on having tight security

without impeding on its

constituents’ quality of

Discovering the links

Scientists from the IBM Computational Biology

Center, one of the world’s foremost life sciences

research facilities, will apply advanced analytical

technologies and data sorting techniques to inter-

pret the samples and discover new patterns and

connections within the data they contain. IBM is

also providing the core computational knowledge

and infrastructure that will manage the hundreds of

thousands of genotype codes being analyzed by

The Genographic Project.

“IBM and National Geographic are embarking on

a historic expedition into our global histories,” said

Samuel J. Palmisano, chairman and CEO of IBM,

when the project was announced in April of 2005.

“Our two organizations have long contributed to

scientific exploration and achievement, extending in

different ways the boundaries of human knowledge

and understanding. We continue this tradition of

innovation that matters for the world and welcome

the participation of the hundreds of thousands of

people who will join in this amazing journey.”

life. The university’s video-

surveillance technologies

and the due diligence of its

safety officers has been a

key part of St. John’s Public

Safety department’s capa-

bilities. Over time, however,

the university’s closed-

circuit television surveillance

systems began to show

their age.

School officials sought a

solution that would sup-

port St. John’s efforts to

provide a “safety first” yet

non-intrusive environment

while making the best of its

existing technology invest-

ments. The answer came in

the form of a 165-camera,

network-based system

designed and implemented

by IBM. The solution, which

utilizes “intelligent” software

from Insight Video Net,

offers impressive advan-

tages. Before, if an incident

were to occur over a long

weekend, safety officials

would have to run through

72 hours of videotape to

find it – a process that could

take days.

Now, St. John’s system has

an instant-replay capability.

“One of our insurers, an old

and venerable, international

company, paid us a visit

and toured the new com-

mand center. During the

demonstration, on the spur

of the moment, we asked

them where they’d been

five minutes before. Within

seconds, we had the video

of the group displayed

on the big monitor. They

were impressed, to say the

least,” noted Walter Kerner,

St. John’s Director of

Network Services.

The university’s cameras

now connect to digital

encoders – creating a data

stream that flows from

St. John’s network to its

new state-of-the-art com-

mand center. The system

can detect the slightest

motion, simplifying the job

of finding and following

actions. Additionally, “An

officer can see something

and immediately replay it to

find out what just happened,

with no interruption in serv-

ice at all. This capability

alone is worth its weight

in gold,” says Joe Tufano,

St. John’s CIO. The biggest

advantage, of course, is

the ability to offer students,

faculty, staff and visitors

optimum security, 24x7.

IBM and the National Geographic Society are undertaking a landmark, five-year study that will map how mankind populated the Earth.

8 | INSPIRED

The Genographic Project will employ sophisti-

cated computer analysis of DNA contributed

by hundreds of thousands of people to reveal

mankind’s migratory history and better understand

the connections and differences that make up the

human species. Using sophisticated laboratory

and computer analysis of that DNA, an international

team of scientists and IBM researchers are mapping

the flow of human populations around the globe

since we first left Africa around 60,000 years ago.

A group of leading scientists from ten research

centers around the world will conduct field and

laboratory research of DNA contributed from vari-

ous indigenous populations. Funding for global

field science will be provided by the Waitt Family

Foundation. The resulting public database will

house one of the largest collections of human popu-

lation genetic information ever assembled, and will

serve as an unprecedented resource for geneticists,

historians and anthropologists.

8 | INSPIRED October 2005 | 9

Project components

Spin doctors: IBM and Stanford teams study spintronics

erty is central to creating

a whole new breed of elec-

tronic properties.

For example, scientists

are optimistic that their

work could lead to new

materials and devices with

unique capabilities, such

The quest for altogether new

ways to further reduce the

size and power demands

of microcircuitry is under-

way at Stanford University.

Spintronics is an emerging

field of nanotechnology that

deals with controlling the

spin – or magnetic orienta-

tion – of electrons. Today,

IBM and Stanford teams

hope to unlock secrets that

will lead to a revolutionary

generation of low-power

switching, as well as infor-

mation storage devices that

retain their contents even

when power is switched off.

“These scientists will

dramatically hasten

progress from theoretical

concept to experimental

verification and from new-

device ideas to product

prototypes,” said Stanford

Dean of Engineering

James D. Plummer.

IBM demonstrated the

promise of spintronics in

1997, when it unveiled its

giant magnetoresistive

head, which has since

enabled a 40-fold increase

in data density on stor-

age devices. Another

multilayered spintronic

structure is at the heart of

the high-speed, non-volatile

magnetic random access

memory, currently being

developed by IBM in

collaboration with several

other companies.

Electron spin is a quantum

property that has two pos-

sible states: either “up” or

“down.” Aligning spins in a

material creates magnetism.

Moreover, magnetic fields

affect the passage of “up”

and “down” electrons

differently. Understanding

and controlling this prop-

as reconfigurable logic

devices, room-temperature

superconductors and

quantum computers.

Research is being con-

ducted by half a dozen

Stanford professors, a

similar number of IBM

scientists, up to ten gradu-

ate students working at

both IBM and Stanford,

three or more postdoctoral

researchers, and two or

more visiting faculty. Initial

funding for their efforts is

from IBM and Stanford,

participating scientists’

research projects, as well

as agencies such as the

Defense Advanced

Research Projects Agency,

the U.S. Department of

Energy and the National

Science Foundation.

the field and laboratory

research, with oversight

from an international

advisory board.

Public participation and

awareness campaign

Members of the public

can trace their own

migratory history while

helping to support the

project by purchas-

ing a Genographic

Participation Kit

(available at www.natio-

nalgeographic.com/-

genographic) and sub-

mitting swabs of inside

their cheeks. National

Geographic and IBM

will regularly update the

public and the scientific

community on project

findings through its

Field research

Collecting DNA sam-

ples and field research

with indigenous popu-

lations are central to

discovering ancient

migratory patterns.

Project leader Spencer

Wells and a consor-

tium of scientists from

prominent international

institutions will conduct

“We see this as the ‘moon shot’ of anthropology,

using genetics to fill in the gaps in our knowledge

of human history,” said project leader Dr. Spencer

Wells, Explorer-in-Residence with the National

Geographic Society. “Our DNA carries a story that

is shared by everyone. Over the next five years we’ll

be deciphering that story, which is now in danger

of being lost as people migrate and mix to a much

greater extent than they have in the past.”

Discover your own migratory history!

“National Geographic has been exploring and map-

ping the world for 117 years,” said John Fahey,

President and CEO of the National Geographic

Society. “Now, as a result of our remarkable team-

work with IBM and Dr. Spencer Wells, we are

deploying state-of-the-art science and technology

to map our journey across the planet.”

You can contribute to The Genographic Project

by purchasing a participation kit and allowing your

results to be included in the database. You will then

be able to follow the progress of your own migratory

history, as well as the global research, by logging

on to nationalgeographic.com/genographic.

Web site, six hours

of television pro-

gramming and

other media outlets.

Genographic

legacy project

Proceeds from the sale

of the Genographic

Participation Kits

will help fund future

field research and a

October 2005 | 9

legacy project, which

will build on National

Geographic’s focus

on world cultures. The

legacy project will

support education

and cultural preserva-

tion initiatives among

indigenous groups.

10 | INSPIRED October 2005 | 11

Turning the tables on disability: Dr. Dimitri Kanevsky

Innovations can spring

from a need . . . a

gift . . . an inspiration . . .

a technology. In the

case of Dr. Dimitri

Kanevsky, each has

shaped this excep-

tional man’s life and

work. Scholar. Author.

Inventor. Researcher.

Kanevsky is all of these things. Born in Kiev,

Ukraine, he has been deaf since the age of three.

This did not deter his resolve, nor his ability to craft

a life filled with achievements. Kanevsky’s work

at the IBM Watson Research Center alone has

resulted in 74 U.S. patents, and at least 82 patents

worldwide – many in the area of speech technol-

ogy. Among his accomplishments: ViaScribe, a

system that transcribes lectures for students in real

time . . . non-intrusive disease-detection systems . . .

glasses that transform street signs into a person’s

native language . . . and a system that prevents

people from falling asleep while driving.

IBM: In your opinion, what are the elements

of innovation?

Kanevsky: Innovations encompass three aspects:

the minds of the people that conceive them, the

technologies that enable them and the problems

that they help solve. Innovations can come from an

idea, a need, or be made evident by a technology.

IBM: Being a mathematician, how do you approach

a problem?

Kanevsky: At IBM, I have the opportunity to see a

lot of technology applied in many areas – speech

recognition, translation, and nanotechnology, for

example. When I identify a need or a problem, I only

have to look around me to see how a technology

might help solve it. This is how inventions and inno-

vations are born.

IBM: Speaking of invention, how does it differ

from innovation?

Kanevsky: Invention is just a technical thing that

solves a technical problem. Innovation requires

teamwork. It doesn’t just come from people

like me, or from technology. It relies heavily on

people communicating, interacting and sharing

opinions. Teamwork is a very big factor, and

IBM encourages that.

IBM innovators on

“ Innovation requires teamwork. It doesn’t just come from people like me, or from tech- nology. It relies heavily on people communi- cating, interacting and sharing opinions.”

– Dr. Dimitri Kanevsky

IBM: Not everyone is aware that IBM technologies are

“under the covers” of so many innovations.

Kanevsky: When I started to work at IBM 19 years

ago, IBM was like a university. You could just do

research – long-term research – without thinking

about an immediate application. A few years ago,

IBM started to change. The goal was not only to do

good research, but also to think about how our work

could solve customers’ problems. This involved

gathering feedback from customers, which helps

us focus on real-world challenges.

IBM: Can you give us an example of how IBM

approaches innovation?

Kanevsky: IBM takes a balanced approach; we don’t

just focus on solving customers’ immediate needs.

For example, IBM conducts something called

“adventurous research.” Adventurous research

involves things that might have a big impact in four

or five years. IBM also conducted a “World Jam”

connecting IBM personnel all over the world during

one 72-hour period. The purpose was to provide

a Web-based platform for employees to share

ideas and challenges. World Jam served as a test-

ing ground for a number of research experiments,

including an animated site guide and a variety of

brainstorming games.

IBM: What would you say to potential innovators?

Kanevsky: You should not be afraid if your solution is

so out of the ordinary that people do not understand

it the first time around. You need to have the ability

to look ahead. You can take a standard thing that is

not new and, depending how you apply it – how you

make it useful – it can become an innovation.”

Seek and ye shall find: Michelle Zhou

Imagine being able

to find – in exacting

detail, and in the exact

context – the infor-

mation you need to

answer an inquiry,

confirm a location,

screen a candidate,

search for passengers

or identify cargo.

Soon it will be possible with IBM Realhunter,TM an

IBM patented technology that raises the bar for

information-seeking technologies. The person who

leads this effort is Dr. Michelle Zhou, a research

staff member and manager at the IBM T. J. Watson

Research Center.

10 | INSPIRED October 2005 | 11

IBM: How does Realhunter differ from a traditional

search engine?

Zhou: Unlike common search engines, Realhunter

enables people to perform application-specific,

“contact-sensitive” information searches. For exam-

ple, when evaluating a potential foster home, social

services agencies have to determine which family

among what can be thousands is best qualified to

serve a child’s particular needs in terms of care,

family size, cultural similarities, location and the

like. The data regarding a child – and possible foster

families – would be stored in an agency’s databases.

On top of that data would sit a generic search

engine like IBM OmniFindTM or Google,TM for example.

And on top of that would be Realhunter.

IBM: So Realhunter is a level above traditional

search engines?

Zhou: Definitely. Let me depict the world without

our technology. If I type “Columbia,” Google will

come up with Columbia the university, Columbia the

county, Columbia the sports brand, and so forth.

In Realhunter’s case, it knows the context of the

query. If the previous user query was “Harvard

University,” it uses that as a reference point to inter-

pret the current query. In this case, it can figure out

that “Columbia” most likely refers to the university.

IBM: Does it “learn” more over time?

Zhou: Absolutely. In the beginning, the system may

understand very little about the user or what they

ask for. We use a kind of dynamic, adaptive conver-

sational metaphor between the user and the com-

puter to gradually establish the context so each can

adapt to one another’s expressions. Search engines

basically say, “This is what you asked for. Maybe

I’ll just satisfy your request and dump all the results

back on you.” Realhunter is a mediator. Imagine it

saying, “Let me show you the information you care

about the most.”

IBM: Realhunter has obvious value for government,

education, healthcare and life sciences fields.

Zhou: Oh yes. Let’s say a government agency sets

up the context for the system – checking passen-

gers, for instance. The agency fills out a “form” or

issues a natural language query about the informa-

tion stored in their database. Realhunter figures out

the best and fastest way to answer users’ questions

in the context of that data – passenger identities

and travel methods, for example. For the sake of

security, the agency or department can also autho-

rize users on a “need to know” basis.

IBM: What other characteristics distinguish Realhunter?

Zhou: It’s a very adaptive, very versatile system. For

example, users can utter a request in their natural

language while pointing to objects on their screen.

Realhunter can correlate the input, much like a

person reads human expressions. This enables

people to express their requests in a very flexible,

very natural way.

IBM: So it acts as a very skilled, “multitalented”

interpreter?

Zhou: Exactly. The average person is not expert at

understanding computer language, and computer

systems are not designed to understand the subtle-

ties of human expressions. Realhunter serves as

the interpreter to comprehend what a user wants.

It translates the request into a format the computer

can understand, then gives the information back

to the user – organized, refined and relevant. It all

goes back to IBM’s goal of helping our customers

solve problems.

From lasers to LEGOs: Dr. James Wynne

Jim Wynne is program

manager for local edu-

cation outreach at the

IBM Thomas J. Watson

Research Center. In

2002, he and two IBM

colleagues – Samuel

Blum and Rangaswamy

“Sri” Srinivasan – were

named to the National

Inventors Hall of Fame for their role in the discovery

of the process at the heart of laser in situ keratomi-

leusis (Lasik) surgery, which has brought 20/20

vision and freedom from eyeglasses and contact

lenses to millions of people.

IBM: How did IBM pioneer a major breakthrough

in ophthalmology?

Wynne: In 1981, my team and I were experimenting

with short-pulse, ultraviolet lasers. And right after

Thanksgiving, Sri brought in a leftover turkey, and

he and Blum trained the UV laser on it. The laser

beam cut the cartilage with an amazingly fine inci-

sion. We had the insight that this process could be

used for surgery on delicate parts of the body

where you wouldn’t want scar tissue to form. Even-

tually, we found that it easily surpassed all other

ways of re-shaping the cornea to correct vision.

IBM: Why did IBM, an IT company, have your team

working with lasers?

Wynne: IBM created, and still creates, an atmos-

phere that encourages research teams to try out

new things. We happened to get lucky not just in

terms of the discovery, but also in finding such

an important application.

IBM: So luck played a role?

Wynne: Yes, and also being part of an environment

that fosters creativity, where a mix of people come

together to explore frontiers and find things that no

one knew existed.

IBM: What does your job in “educational outreach”

have you doing now?

Wynne: Part of it involves maintaining that fertile

intellectual atmosphere within IBM. One thing I

do is bring in scientists and other experts from

many different disciplines to speak to us at the

Research Center.

I also play with LEGOs®– sort of. Our top man-

agement is passionate about bringing more kids

into engineering. So I recruit IBMers to work with

FIRST, a non-profit organization that runs FIRST

LEGO League robotic tournaments around the

world for some 70,000 kids. These kids build

their robots out of LEGO parts, some of which are

equipped with microprocessors.

IBM: How has the corporate research atmosphere

changed over the last 35 years?

Wynne: There’s more focus on solving problems

that people and organizations face. But the trick is

still picking the best people and then developing

an atmosphere that fosters creativity. That hasn’t

changed a bit.

12 | INSPIRED

But CCSD 15 quickly ran

into a major stumbling

block – the requirement that

applicants demonstrate

continual improvement

against results-focused

criteria. The district turned

to IBM for help. The problem

wasn’t a lack of data that

could be used to demon-

strate results, it was finding

a practical way to get at

it, since its causes were

scattered throughout the

district in the form of every-

thing from state stand-

ardized tests to reading

intervention programs to

writing portfolios.

As the U.S. Navy sailed

into the 21st-century, it dis-

covered that it lacked an

easy way to track how

well it was supplying

replacement parts needed

by the ships and aircraft

it has spread across the

Pacific and Southwest Asia.

A sketch of one approach

looked like the track of

a bird. Thus, Birdtrack

was born. This manual

spreadsheet system was

so popular that maintain-

ing the growing amounts

of information it collected

became unwieldy. The Navy

contacted IBM to see if

For more information

IBM is ready to bring together an unmatched

range of resources to help governments,

educational institutions and healthcare enterprises

transform themselves and meet the complex

demands of their many constituencies through

innovation. For more information, contact your

IBM representative, or visit:

ibm.com/education/innovation

ibm.com/government/innovation

ibm.com/healthcare/innovation

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2005

IBM CorporationNew Orchard RoadArmonk, NY 10504U.S.A.

Produced in the United States of America10-05All Rights Reserved

IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, the eServer logo, alphaWorks, BlueGene, OmniFind, Realhunter, ViaScribe, ViaVoice and WebFountain are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.

Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both.

Other company, product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

References in this document to IBM products, programs or services do not imply that IBM intends to make such products, programs or services available in all countries in which IBM operates or does business. Any reference to an IBM program or product in this document is not intended to state or imply that only that program or product may be used. Any functionally equivalent program that does not infringe on IBM’s intellectual property rights may be used instead. It is the user’s responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any non-IBM product, program or service.

New technology helps schools earn an “A” for quality

In Palatine, Illinois, located

in Chicago’s northwest-

ern suburbs, Community

Consolidated School

District 15 (CCSD 15)

serves 13,000 students

spread out over 15 elemen-

tary schools and four junior

high schools. To foster

excellence, CCSD 15

administrators wanted

to tap into some of the same

quality control techniques

used by top corporations –

and then win the prestigious

Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award, which

recognizes “Six Sigma”

leadership in strategic plan-

ning, customer and market

focus, information and

analysis, human resources,

process management and

business results.

IBM helps U.S. Navy shrink the Pacific Ocean

there was a way to automate

the system, and within six

months an IBM team had it

up and running.

The time and money

savings began flowing

immediately. For example,

supply officers could see

that it was taking 17 or 18

days for many parts orders

to reach operations abroad.

The Navy then selected

850 parts that warranted

faster delivery and started

warehousing them at bases

closer to the places where

they were needed. That

simple move slashed deliv-

ery times by two-thirds.

“Getting the parts to the

ultimate user in six days

as opposed to 18 has a

massive impact on unit

readiness, and also mini-

mizes the disruption to the

planned operational tempo,”

notes Captain Thomas C.

Traaen, Supply Corps Navy

Director for Fleet Supply.

Screening data to combat money laundering and fraud

G299-0790-00

What’s more, by tracking

the need for various parts

and using more efficient

allocation schemes such as

air freighting, the Navy esti-

mates it can save US$20-30

million internally each year.

Birdtrack got one of its first

major tests when the Navy

responded to the Asian

tsunami disaster, using

the system to track relief

materials to better antici-

pate workload and monitor

backlogs. Fleetwide, the

automated Birdtrack system

has provided a high-level

view of inventory usage that

has resulted in more sophis-

ticated decision making.

The goal is to extend those

benefits to the Navy’s sister

services including the

United States Marine Corps,

the United States Army and

the United States Air Force.

IBM came up with an

answer built around an

educational data ware-

house called Insight at

School, which pulls data

that educators need to

measure and monitor

student progress from a

variety of sources, such

as student information

systems and assessment

databases. Insight at

School then creates an

information system that

teachers and administrators

can use for analysis, report-

ing and decision making

on a wide range of sub-

jects, including curricula,

budgets and personnel.

CCSD 15 won the Baldrige

Award – becoming just the

third school district in the

nation selected for that

honor. More important,

though, is the powerful tool

the district has that greatly

simplifies a seemingly

impossible job.

According to Carol Ann

Rush, retired School

Improvement Facilitator,

CCSD 15, “The data ware-

house is one of the tools

that gave us the capacity

to accomplish the goals

that we had set forth. It’s

allowed us to not just come

up with numbers, but rather,

enables us to view individ-

ual children; it ‘puts faces’

on our data.”

Money laundering has

expanded from being a

practice usually associated

with organized crime to an

activity that could signal

the presence of terrorists

and risks to national secu-

rity. Nonetheless, screen-

ing the daily volume of

transactions that take place

in global commerce is an

enormous task.

In the U.S., financial

institutions can be required

to run checks on custom-

ers moving large sums

of money. The data that

banks, investment houses

and others need to conduct

these screens resides in

more than four billion pages

of unstructured information

on the Web and elsewhere,

making it extremely difficult

and expensive for institu-

tions to search through this

data, especially on any kind

of timely basis.

To facilitate this

task, IBM devel-

oped a unique

information-

discovery

and analy-

sis technol-

ogy called IBM

WebFountain,TM

a Web-scale

business intel-

ligence platform

for very large text-

analytics applica-

tions. WebFountain

provides valuable insight

by uncovering relationships,

patterns and trends as it

analyzes billions of pages of

text from the Web, bulletin

boards, chat rooms, enter-

prise data, newspapers,

trade journals, licensed

feeds and proprietary data.

WebFountain can even

read multiple languages,

identify things of interest

and integrate them –

regardless of whether

the text is in

English, Chinese,

Arabic, French,

German or

Spanish (soon to

include Russian and

Portuguese). With this mul-

tiple language support, it

offers a global view.

This IBM innova-

tion is engineered

to serve far into the

future, too. Based on

sophisticated unstructured

data mining and semantic

metadata technologies,

WebFountain allows risk

and compliance teams to

cost-effectively respond to

changes in legislation that

influence anti-money laun-

dering initiatives and other

financial fraud.