Big Data has been in the spotlight a lot lately, for one reason or another, and one particular area it’s gained momentum is with research programs in the US public sector. The Federal government is taking up a major research initiative in big data computing, expected to be announced today. This program will involve a commitment of around $200 million, with participation from several government agencies and departments. The initiative will take on the flood of digital data that comes from varied sources, such as the web, biological and industrial sensors, video, e-mail and social network communications, and will aid in profit-making opportunities, scientific discoveries and crime prediction crime waves.

Some of the departments participating in the research program include the National Science Foundation, announcing a joint program with the National Institutes of Health to seek new techniques and technologies for data management, data analysis and machine learning. Other departments include the United States Geological Survey, the Defense Department, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Energy Department. All these will announce their big data programs at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, today.

The private sector is already fascinated with big data, and now is the time for the public sector, which is equally optimistic. Here’s what some of the leaders have to say about big data:

“Data, in my view, is a transformative new currency for science, engineering, education, commerce and government,” said Farnam Jahanian, head of the National Science Foundation’s computer and information science and engineering directorate. “Foundational research in data management and data analytics promise breakthrough discoveries and innovations across all disciplines.”

“There is recognition by a broad range of federal agencies that further advances in big data management and analysis are critical to achieving their missions,” said Edward Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington. “It doesn’t matter whether the mission is national defense, energy efficiency, evidence-based health care, education or scientific discovery.”

Talking about other developments related to Big Data is the fact that Kim Dotcom and TorrentFreak revealed a multitude of users found MU useful including accounts connected to the Senate, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and NASA and even 15,634 belonging to the US military. Looking at a cross section of .gov domains (including the FBI, NASA, the Senate, etc.) it looks as if they’d held accounts on the order of 1058 accounts, 344 of whom had paid for premium access—between all the accounts they’d uploaded almost 15,242 files weighing in at 1,851,791 MB.

Finally, we also saw some new developments from IBM that has a new analytics package that comes in three flavors; anti-fraud next best action and CFO performance insight. What makes this news even interesting is the high propensity of the consultants IBM’s taken on to help in developing analytics technology. Yes, IBM now employs the most PhD mathematicians in the world as its consultants!