Tool for Enhancing Agency Knowledge (TEAK)
Executive Summary
How can we enhance the knowledge content within the government? When tackling agency-relevant issues, how can we determine if a). necessary expertise exists within the government, b) the issues have already been addressed, or c). there is a shared interest across agencies? Determining these can help us identify relevant subject matter experts, reduce the time spent by individual employees working in isolation on a common problem, and enable the achievement of common goals with a smaller budget.
The Innovation: TEAK is an in-house-built software application that combines two distinct components: data mining, and graphical network visualization. The proof-of-concept version of TEAK was set up to mine the IMPAC II relational database at NIH. An easy-to-use graphical front-end was built to enable the querying of the database, and connectivity visualization was added to highlight the connection between the subject matter of interest and the expert identified by the mining software.
TEAK has an opportunity to circumvent (or complement) the standard and common practice of relying on institutional knowledge and/or networks (“word of mouth”) to track down information, which is often slow and can yield inconsistent results. TEAK usability tests allowed us to extensively modify the front-end and make it more user-friendly. The current version is undergoing beta testing within a small population of users to ensure accuracy of results.
This project’s near-term goals are to finalize the user interface, integrate user profile accounts and move to the cloud-based computing environment. Long-term goals include the integration of additional databases within NIH and HHS, and expansion to other federal agencies. TEAK will enable us to find subject matter experts across the federal space in a fraction of a second, find which agencies are funding what areas of research and development, and determine areas of common interest across these agencies.
A project supported by the: HHS Ignite Accelerator
Team Members
Vinay Pai (Team Lead), NIH/NIBIB
Edward Ramos, NIH/NIBIB
Anuraj Dandgaval, NIH/NIBIB
Anthony Fransella, NIH/NIBIB
Mary Hogan, NIH/NIBIB
Desi Conway, NIH/NIBIB
Pradip Shrestha, NIH/NIBIB
Milestones
June 2015: Project selected into the HHS Ignite Accelerator
July 2015: Time in the Accelerator began
September 2015: Time in the Accelerator ended
Project Sponsor
William Heetderks, Director, Extramural Research, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, NIH
