Verizon Using Vespa to Help Fight the Pandemic
Verizon Media (formerly Yahoo) has announced it is using its open source, big data serving engine to combat the coronavirus.
The White Hose and research groups have released the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), “a resource of over 51,000 scholarly articles, including over 40,000 with full text, about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and related coronaviruses.” Being able to access and use that gargantuan amount of data, however, can be a challenge of its own.
To assist in the endeavor, Verizon has announced it has indexed the dataset, making it available to search via Vespa.
“After being made aware of the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge (CORD-19), where AI experts have been asked to create text and data mining tools that can help the medical community, the Vespa team wanted to contribute,” writes Kristian Aune, Tech Product Manager, Verizon Media.
“Given our experience with big data at Yahoo (now Verizon Media) and creating Vespa (open source big data serving engine), we thought the best way to help was to index the dataset, which includes over 44,000 scholarly articles, and to make it available for searching via Vespa Cloud.”
Verizon’s announcement should be a boon to researchers and scientists trying to keep up with the latest research on the virus. The company promises daily updates to the documentation and query features. In the meantime, the dataset is live and ready for use.
“Now live at https://cord19.vespa.ai, you can get started with a few of the sample queries or for more advanced queries, visit CORD-19 API Query” the announcement continues. “Feel free to tweet us @vespaengine or submit an issue, if you have any questions or suggestions.”
