Lecture: 3 hours
Discussion: 1 hour
Prerequisite: Course 165A recommended
Grading: Letter; project (50%), presentation (30%), homework (20%)
Catalog Description:
Selected topics in scientific data management, data integration, ontologies,
scientific workflows.
Goals:
The goal of the course is to give a broad overview of data modeling and
integration, knowledge representation, and scientific workflow challenges
in scientific data management. Specific topics will be investigated in
more detail, based on project and/or reading assignments.
Expanded Course Description:
Textbook:
A selection of technical papers addressing specific topics will be used.
No textbook is required..
Projects:
There are two kinds of projects: Implementation Projects (IPs) and
Research Projects (RPs).
For IPs, the students will work with Java-based open source systems such
as the Kepler workflow system (www.kepler-project.org) and design and
implement example workflows, e.g., to create a bioinformatics workflow
that connects several "bio web services". Thus, in Ips students
work with existing software systems, but they typically will also implement
project-specific extensions to that software
For RPs, students will read 1-3 research papers from a list of offered
research topics (e.g., scientific data integration, ontologies and knowledge
representation in scientific data management, scientific workflows). Students
will then need to apply the results of the research papers to a specific
problem (e.g., applying a certain query rewriting algorithm to a given
integration scenario and set of queries). In general, the deliverable
of an RP is a technical report that summarizes and compares the results
of the studied papers, as their application to the given problem. Depending
on the RP, the presented algorithms might have to be implemented and applied
to the given problem instance
IPs and RPs are typically conducted individually or in groups of two.
Computer Usage:
For the Implementation Projects (IPs), students will primarily use and
extend the Java-based Kepler workflow system, which is available under
Linux, Windows and MacOS.
Computer usage is not required for homeworks.
Instructor: B. Ludaescher
Prepared by: B. Ludaescher (December 2004)
Overlap Statement:
There is no significant overlap with any other course.