Database and Programming Technologies (DPT)

Due in part to the continued advances in hardware technologies, the diffusion of the Internet, and the increasing complexity of software systems, the areas of database management and programming languages and environments are faced with abundant research challenges. Today's software systems manage large amounts of traditional and non-traditional data, including temporal, spatial, spatio-temporal, dimensional, multimedia, and semi-structured data. The group's research objective is to develop technologies that meet programming and data management needs posed by software systems in general and by data-intensive applications, in particular.

The areas covered include general-purpose programming languages as well as special purpose languages, e.g., for the management of different types of data, and it covers also languages that aim to integrate program logic and data management. Programming paradigms and specific language facilities and concepts are covered. Also studied are environments that offer integrated tool support for application and program development, covering the activities of design, implementation, documentation, test, and maintenance/operation.

In the area of databases, the research relates to data warehousing and to temporal, spatial, and spatio-temporal databases, including conceptual modeling and database design, data models, query processing, indexing, and applications. Research related to mobile services and the world-wide-web covers semi-structured data management, location-based and context-dependent mobile services, application development, and XML-related programming.

The group's research approach has a technological focus and is primarily constructive in its outset, but also integrates experimental and analytical elements. Constructive activities include the design of concepts and frameworks, as well as the design and implementation of algorithms, data structures, languages, tools, and systems. Experimental activities cover the testing of constructed artifacts, including prototype-based studies and simulation-based performance studies. Analytical activities include complexity analysis and language evaluation. The emphasis is on the development of theoretically sound results that solve actual real-world problems.