In recent years there has been a marked increase in the amount of "structured" data available on the Internet. Unfortunately, accessing this information in an integrated way is complicated by "conceptual heterogeneity" among the data sources, i.e. differences in their structure and vocabulary. This course explores various approaches to solving this problem. Topics include notations and models for representing and exchanging structured data (such as XML and RDF), standard schemas and vocabularies, information integration techniques, data structuring technology, and applications (in areas such as corporate logistics, ecommerce, civil engineering, and health care). The course concludes with a look at large scale "datawebs" and evaluates the prospects for building a fully integrated "Semantic Web", essentially a World Wide Web for databases.
CS145 (Database Systems) and CS157 (Computational Logic) or equivalent.
Tuesday and Thursday 1:15-2:30, 200-202
Lecture notes will be available on the WWW at the course URL.
| Participation: | 20% |
| Project excercises: | 60% |
| Project final writeup: | 20% |