Staff Profile

Dr Jacek Cała is a Senior Research Associate in the School of Computing at Newcastle University. He works on high performance cloud-based systems and their application to e-Science and large-scale data analyses. Recently, his attention has been drawn to effective and scalable re-computation of large data analyses using provenance. Jacek has gained his MSc and PhD in Computer Science from AGH-University of Science and Technology in Kraków, where he worked as a Teaching and Research Assistant. He was one of the architects and key developers of TeleDICOM, a system which supports medical teleconsultations in over 20 hospitals and medical centres in the South of Poland.

Areas of expertise: software deployment, scientific workflows, cloud computing, distributed systems, provenance.

Google scholar: Click here.

• Qasha R, Wen Z, Cala J, Watson P. Sharing and performance optimization of reproducible workflows in the cloud. Future Generation Computer Systems 2019, 29, 487-502.
• Thavasimani P, Cała J, Missier P. Why-Diff: Exploiting Provenance to Understand Outcome Differences from Non-Identical Reproduced Workflows. IEEE Access 2019, 7, 34973-34990.
• Tucci N, Cala J, Steyn J, Missier P. Design and evaluation of a genomics variant analysis pipeline using GATK Spark tools. In: SEBD '18 – 26TH Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems. 2018, Bari, italy: CEUR-WS series.
• Tucci N, Cala J, Steyn J, Missier P. Design and evaluation of a genomics variant analysis pipeline using GATK Spark tools. In: 26th Italian Symposium in Advanced Database Systems (SEBD 2018). 2018, Taranto, Italy: CEUR-WS.
• Thavasimani P, Cala J, Missier P. Exploiting execution provenance to explain difference between two data-intensive computations. In: 2018 IEEE 14th International Conference on e-Science (e-Science). 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands: IEEE.
• Cala J, Missier P. Provenance annotation and analysis to support process re-computation. In: 7th International Provenance and Annotation Workshop, IPAW 2018. 2018, London, UK: Springer Verlag.
• Cala J, Missier P. Provenance Annotation and Analysis to Support Process Re-Computation. In: 7th International Provenance and Annotation Workshop, IPAW 2018. 2018, London: Springer.
• Missier P, Malik T, Cala J. Report on the first international workshop on incremental re-computation: Provenance and beyond. SIGMOD Record 2018, 47(4), 35-38.
• Cala J, Missier P. Selective and recurring re-computation of Big Data analytics tasks: insights from a Genomics case study. Big Data Research 2018, 13, 76-94.
• Wen Z, Cala J, Watson P, Romanovsky A. Cost Effective, Reliable and Secure Workflow Deployment over Federated Clouds. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing 2017, 10(6), 929-941.
• Qasha R, Cala J, Watson P. Dynamic deployment of scientific workflows in the cloud using container virtualization. In: 2016 IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (CloudCom). 2017, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg: IEEE Computer Society.
• Missier P, Cala J, Rathi M. Preserving the value of large scale data analytics over time through selective re-computation. In: BICOD 2017 31st British International Conference on Databases. 2017, London, UK: Springer Verlag.
• Cala J, Missier P. Selective and recurring re-computation of Big Data analytics tasks: insights from a Genomics case study. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2017. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1515.
• Thavasimani P, Cala J, Missier P. Why-Diff: Explaining differences amongst similar workflow runs by exploiting scientific metadata. In: International Conference on Big Data. 2017, Boston, MA, USA: IEEE.
• Cala J, Qasha R, Watson P. A Framework for Scientific Workflow Reproducibility in the Cloud. In: IEEE 12th International Conference on eScience. 2016, Baltimore, MD, USA: IEEE.
• Qasha R, Cala J, Watson P. Dynamic Deployment of Scientific Workflows in the Cloud using Container Virtualization. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science Technical Report Series, 2016. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1501.
• Cala J, Marei E, Xu Y, Takeda K, Missier P. Scalable and efficient whole-exome data processing using workflows on the cloud. Future Generation Computer Systems 2016, 65, 153-168.
• Cala J, Marei E, Xu Y, Takeda K, Missier P. Scalable and Efficient Whole-exome Data Processing Using Workflows on the Cloud. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2016. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1491.
• Llwaah F, Cala J, Thomas N. Simulation of Runtime Performance of Big Data Workflows on the Cloud. In: 13th European Performance Engineering Workshop (EPEW). 2016, Chios, Greece: Springer.
• Missier P, Cala J, Wijaya E. The data, they are a-changin’. In: 8th USENIX Workshop on the Theory and Practice of Provenance (TaPP '16). 2016, Washington, DC: Usenix.
• Llanes-Acevedo IP, Ferreira GE, Torres E, Cala J, Arcones C, Shimabukuro PHF, Chicharro C, Brasileiro F, Blanquer I, Cupolillo E, Cruz I. A Leishmaniasis Virtual Laboratory to contribute to leishmaniasis surveillance. In: 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health. 2015, Basel, Switzerland: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Wen Z, Cala J, Watson P. A Scalable Method for Partitioning Workflows with Security Requirements over Federated Clouds. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science, CloudCom. 2015, IEEE Computer Society.
• Wen Z, Cala J, Watson P, Romanovsky A. Cost Effective, Reliable and Secure Workflow Deployment over Federated Clouds. In: 8th IEEE International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD). 2015, New York, NY, USA: IEEE.
• Llwaah F, Thomas N, Cala J. Improving MCT scheduling algorithm to reduce the makespan and cost of workflow execution in the cloud. In: UK Performance Engineering Workshop. 2015, Leeds, UK: University of Leeds.
• Qasha R, Cala J, Watson P. Towards Automated Workflow Deployment in the Cloud Using TOSCA. In: 2015 IEEE 8th International Conference on Cloud Computing. 2015, New York, USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
• Cala J, Xu YB, Wijaya EA, Missier P. From scripted HPC-based NGS pipelines to workflows on the cloud. In: 2014 14th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGrid). 2014, Chicago, IL, USA: IEEE.
• Cala J, Missier P. Scaling Whole Exome sequencing using workflows on the cloud. In: 22nd Italian Symposium on Advanced Database Systems (SEBD). 2014, Castellammare di Stabia, Italy: Universita Reggio Calabria and Centro di Competenza (ICT-SUD).
• Cała J, Hiden H, Woodman S, Watson P. Cloud computing for fast prediction of chemical activity. Future Generation Computer Systems 2013, 29(7), 1860-1869.
• Hiden H, Woodman S, Watson P, Cala J. Developing cloud applications using the e-science central platform. Royal Society of London. Philosophical Transactions A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 2013, 371(1983), 20120085.
• Blanquer I, Brasche G, Cala J, Gagliardi F, Gannon D, Hiden H, Soncu H, Takeda K, Tomas A, Woodman S. Supporting NGS pipelines in the cloud. EMBnet.journal 2013, 19, 14-16.
• Cala J, Hiden H, Watson P, Woodman S. Cloud computing for fast prediction of chemical activity. In: 2nd International Workshop on Cloud Computing and Scientific Applications (CCSA). 2012, Ottawa, Canada.
• Cala J, Hiden H, Woodman S, Watson P. Fast Exploration of the QSAR Model Space with e-Science Central and Windows Azure. In: Microsoft Cloud Futures. 2012, Berkeley, California, USA.
• Watson P, Leahy D, Cala J, Sykora V, Hiden H, Woodman S, Taylor M, Searson D. Cloud Computing for Chemical Activity Prediction. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2011. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1242.
• Woodman S, Hiden H, Watston P, Cala J. Developing Applications using the e-Science Central API. In: UK e-Science All Hands Meeting. 2011, York.
• Woodman S, Hiden H, Watson P, Cala J. Drug Design Experiments in the Cloud. In: Microsoft e-Science Workshop. 2011, Stockholm, Sweden: Microsoft.
• Watson P, Hiden H, Woodman S, Leahy D, Cala J, Missier P. The Panel of Experts Cloud Pattern. In: Proceedings of the third international workshop on Cloud data management (CloudDB). 2011, Glasgow, Scotland: ACM.
• Hiden H, Watson P, Leahy D, Cala J, Searson D, Sykora V, Woodman S. Accelerating Chemical Property Prediction with Cloud Computing. In: Microsoft e-Science Workshop. 2010, Berkeley, CA: Microsoft.
• Cala J, Watson P. Automatic Software Deployment in the Azure Cloud. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2010. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1206.
• Watson P, Hiden H, Woodman S, Leahy D, Cala J. e-Science Central: e-Science on the Web, powered by Clouds. In: UK e-Science All Hands Meeting. 2010, Cardiff.