About this blog

Hi Folks,

This blog is about the Data Management Systems that we are building and running at the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis (CMM) at the University of Queensland (UQ).

CMM is the UQ's main microscopy centre, running a number of Electron Microscopes, X-ray Diffraction instruments and Mass Spectrometers in 5 separate laboratories on the St Lucia campus. There are in the region of 20 major instruments, and we provide a service to over 400 regular clients (UQ staff and students, staff and students of other universities, and commercial clients).  UQ CMM is a foundation node of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF).

All of CMM's instruments produce results in digital form; 2D and 3D images, and various other kinds of characterization data, often in proprietary formats.   The problems we (the data wranglers) are trying to solve are:

• Getting the data off the instruments and into a place where the clients can access it.
• Providing long term storage for the data.
• Allowing clients to view, organize, search and process their data collections.
• Allowing clients to share data with other clients, and "publish" it in various ways for other people to fund and use.
• Do all of the above in a secure and sustainable way.

In this blog, I'm going to talk about where we are, where we are going, and how we implement things.  I'm going to try to cover things in ways that are relevant to both the users of the CMM facilities, and to other people who are building their own data management systems.

Stay tuned ...