Scientific Databases

The needs for and demands placed upon information systems continue to present new challenges to the research community. Recent advances in numerical simulation capability as well as in measurement techniques have enabled and simplified the generation of high-precision data demanded by many modern scientific and engineering applications. The size and number of these data collections has been growing rapidly in recent years and will continue to grow as new experiments and sensors come on-line. It has therefore become difficult to maintain, process and analyze information from these large quantities of raw data with traditional means and development of new data-processing technologies is required.

The group explores challenges facing information system professionals in the management of data and knowledge, particularly in the information systems utilized to support diverse practical applications. These information systems include database management systems customized to new application domains, software platforms for decision support and collaborative planning processes, distributed systems for data and service management. Specific topics include issues in integration and interoperability, joint standards, data access, data aggregation, data-intensive workflows, visual exploration and mining of data, information system component reuse, and legacy systems.

The group works on a variety of current database and middleware technologies in order to build flexible and interoperable information systems. The core technologies constitute object relational database management systems and diverse middleware technologies like web services and grid platforms.

We stay actively in contact with several partners from universities, research institutes and industry. Among our cooperation partners are: Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, Rheinbraun AG, Geophysics and Geoinformation Group, University of Kiel, Institute for Geoinformatik, University of Osnabrück, Center for Development Research, University of Bonn.