On 18th Mar.2011, Prof. Barbara Ellen Minsker from UIUC visited IESD and delivered a lecture in Mingjing Building. The lecture was themed in Fast Tracking Data to Informed Decisions: Using Real-Time Data Synthesis and Adaptive Feedback to Improve Environmental Understanding and Management. More than 30 students and teachers attended it.

The lecture provided an overview of the emerging technology of fast tracking data and illustrated how it helps the real-time decision and management to be done more effectively. Prof. Barbara mainly introduced three cases of application: combined sewer overflows in Chicago, flooding in South Florida, and sustainable agriculture in Illinois. She also gave a brief introduction about the effectiveness, opportunities and challenges of this technology at the current stage.

After the lecture, many students raised questions concerning the identification of different solutions, data open sources, cyber-infrastructure, and holdbacks in real implementation, etc. The lecture has received unanimous approval among the audience.