Software SIG: A Journey into Cloud Computing—An Agency’s Experience  

The National Weather Service (NWS) has played a key role in protecting American Lives and properties for over a century. The timely provision of reliable weather, water, climate, and environmental information has supported the Nation’s social and economic development. Over the next ten years, weather, water, climate, and environmental information will play a greater role in the significant decisions we make as individuals and as a society – from the quality and quantity of water we need and the air we breathe, to the generation and distribution of renewable energy, the safe passage of country’s highways, seas, and airways – making life safer, healthier, and more productive.  NWS relies heavily on technology to model weather, process observation data, and use decision support systems to provide forecasts, warnings, and predictions. NWS is going through a transition and started to leverage its data to make better predictions. This talk will focus on the role of Cloud computing on the NWS quest to provide impact-based weather prediction.

Asghar Noor has a 20+-year track record in the information technology industry, and has held senior management positions in both public and private sectors.  Asghar has held senior positions in the Federal Government over the last 15 years and managed the development and deployment of IT and Command systems for National Weather Service (NWS), National Institute of Health (NIH), Department of Defense, and US Treasury.  At NWS he designed the SOA based systems for the National Telecommunication Gateway and is currently working to implement Cloud computing. At NIH, he led the design of web based applications that enabled reviewers to identify the scientific merit of research proposals using the Asynchronous Enhance Discussion and the Automated Referral Workflow System, which saved NIH $14M in 2008. Before joining the Federal Government, Asghar held senior technical leadership positions at Motorola and Nortel.  He is the author of System Design with The MC68020, MC68030, MC68040: 32-bit Microprocessors, Van Nostrand Reinhold Publishing, New York, NY, 1993; and Co-authored Handbook of Local Area Networks, Auerbach Publishers, Boston and New York, 1991.  He has published 25-technical papers in communication networks, simulation and modeling, software architecture and design, embedded systems, and expert systems.  Asghar received his Ph.D. in computer and electrical engineering from University of Calgary.