Harnessing Distributed Heterogeneous Information Sources

PI: Erold Hinds, SUBR and Vijay Raghavan, ULL

Co-PI: Henry Chu, ULL and TRN Rao, ULL

New Hires: Miroslav Kubat; Jongpil Yoon

Abstract

The Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS) at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (ULL) and the Department of Computer Science at Southern University (SU) plan to develop a nationally competitive research team with a research focus of strategic importance to the state. In a study undertaken by Louisiana's LaSER committee in 1987, computer science was among five fields that were identified to be "most likely to provide a fundamental knowledge base for technological development in Louisiana's primary industries." USL and SU are among the four institutions in Louisiana with graduate programs in computer science/engineering. In light of the science and engineering priorities within the state and the readiness of the partnering units, this partnership has both strategic and systemic implications.

This proposal seeks to hire a pair of Ph.D. level faculty members into tenure-track positions in computer science or engineering. The administrative plan ensures that both hires will enjoy full association with both partnering institutions, except for fiscal matters. Each partner will take full responsibility as the fiscal agent for one of the new hires. The targeted technical expertise of the new hires will broaden the capabilities of the research team and facilitate the process of integrating what are now independent, but complementary research projects.

The project, which is entitled, "Harnessing Distributed, Heterogeneous Information Sources," is designed to strengthen the State of Louisiana's research and development capabilities in information technology. The research is not only designed to complement other research activities being conducted at both universities, but also to develop applications of particular interest to advanced manufacturing, health care, and environmental protection concerns in Louisiana.

Under the project's umbrella, research will be conducted in information storage/retrieval systems associated with text, images, sound, and video; information filtering and intelligent agents; knowledge discovery in databases; algorithms for high-speed data compression and data encryption; information and coding theory; and multi-dimensional data visualization. Given that most information resources are increasingly accessible via the Internet, research and development on advanced algorithms and software to simplify the utilization of networked databases, distributed around the nation and the world, is of interest. Specifically, research on intelligent agents (such as Web Crawlers) and the use of Java applets for data visualization are of interest. We also plan investigations of gateway software to link (distributed) databases to the Internet, using protocols such as HTTP (for hyper-media), Z39.5 (for bibliographic data) and CORBA (for objects), and issues of interoperability among networked databases.

The principal investigator, Dr. Raghavan (ULL) and co-principal investigators, Drs. Chu (ULL), Hinds (SU) and Rao (ULL) will assume the role of mentors to the dual hires. They bring a wealth of experience in funded research to this project. Drs. Chu, Raghavan, Rao are distinguished researchers with international recognition for their contributions to the fields, respectively, of biomedical image processing, information retrieval and coding theory. Dr. Hinds has had a distinguished career as a scientist at AT&T Bell Labs and, since joining SU as a professor of computer science, is involved with research projects on information and coding theory funded by NASA.