“We are deluged with data and information and we need to manage it,” said J. Michael Dunn, dean of Indiana University’s School of Informatics. “Informatics is the application of information technology to specific domains with the emphasis on the commonalities of these applications.”

The university’s Web site defines informatics using examples such as “converting data into information, predicting the spread of the next flu epidemic, combating malicious hackers, understanding the human genome and more …”

The emphasis on informatics in the Corridor is related to national security and homeland defense due in part to the dozens of federal labs located here including the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to name a few.

“I think of informatics as a glitzy word for what NSA has been doing all of these years,” said Anne Arundel County Executive Janet Owens. “Informatics is about how to mine data for security purposes — and you’re talking about millions of data transmissions in multiple languages — and turn that information into something useful.”

In fact, informatics is so important to the nation’s security, last year, NSA awarded the Chesapeake Innovation Center, the Annapolis-based business incubator, a one-year contract for nearly $500,000 to find companies capable of delivering informatics technology immediately. Current communication tools are not powerful enough.

“Everybody has problems with data overload,” said Steve Walker, chair of the Technology Leadership Consortium, which started an informatics initiative last year. “There are specific needs unique to this area because of the government labs here. There’s a tremendous need to do this better because of these federal facilities.”

County officials, particularly in Anne Arundel and Howard Counties, know the importance of informatics in the Corridor, but are also aware that it’s not a common word for most people.

“No one knows what we are talking about,” said Bill Badger, former chief executive officer of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. “But it’s bigger than Anne Arundel and Howard. It’s a regional thing. And we want to inform and educate people.” <

Freelance writer Jennifer Keats Curtis contributed to this article.