Databases @ UMass

1. Database and Information Management Research Databases @ UMass The database group focuses on building systems for efficiently and securely managing data, with a particular focus on emerging data types like XML and streaming data and on embedded systems. Current research topics Faculty Yanlei Diao Gerome Miklau James Allan Bruce Croft Deepak Ganesan Neil Immerman David Jensen Andrew McCallum Prashant Shenoy RFID stream processing Large-scale RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) systems are being developed for supply chain management, surveillance, healthcare, etc. These systems will soon create high-volume streams of events that need to be filtered, correlated, aggregated, and transformed for use of end applications. We address issues involved in such stream-based event processing ranging from the query language, to fast implementations, and to data quality. Ultra low power sensor databases Recent advances in flash technologies enables sensor nodes to be equipped with high-capacity local storage. We are designing new sensor databases on flash that support power-constrained processing and multi-resolution storage. Privacy in data publishing The publication of network traces, social network data, and medical data, among others, offers great societal benefit but may threaten the personal privacy of individuals. We are developing techniques for anonymizing datasets to permit the accurate analysis of valuable datasets while protecting privacy. Secure data management Our research seeks to provide secure and trustworthy management of data in databases and on the World Wide Web. Ongoing research in this are includes modeling information disclosure in databases, the forensic investigation of databases, and the protection of published data using cryptography. Contacts: yanlei@cs.umass.edu miklau@cs.umass.edu Semistructured Data Management The database group studies efficient management of XML by designing fast query processing algorithms, as well as studying the theoretical limits of XML query optimization.

2. Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval CIIR @ UMass The CIIR develops tools that provide effective and efficient access to large, heterogeneous, distributed text and multimedia databases (e.g. Web search, desktop search, citation search, image search). Current research topics Faculty Bruce Croft James Allan Andrew McCallum R. Manmatha David Jensen • Distillation from Foreign Language Sources • Retrieval Models • Efficient Processing of Complex Queries • Expert and Entity Search • Retrieval of Semistructured Data • Text Reuse and Information Flow • Search Quality Prediction • Finding Answers for Questions • Blog Search and Authority • Search on Extracted Citations • Web search using Metaterms • Indri Search Engine and Lemur Toolkit • Partners: Microsoft, Yahoo, Monster, IBM, others Contact: croft@cs.umass.edu