Project: Effective data exploration for the web

The Web is rapidly evolving into a ubiquitous computing platform for a new generation of information systems. Cheaper and more accessible computers have enabled timely and efficient access to a variety of data in different domains, from e-commerce to scientific data. Examples include services like Search engines, Twitter and Face book, but also more advanced services where user can contribute with and explore data of increasing complexity.

The project focuses on scientific data on the web. This data is particular challenging due to large volumes, high complexity and a variety in data structure. In this area there is a growing need for efficient and reliable data management tools and techniques. In particular researchers need access to tools that enables advanced analysis and exploration of large volumes of data provided by many contributing research teams.

The purpose of this project is to investigate and develop tools for exploration of scientific data. There are several important aspects of this problem and we are in particular interested in investigating interfaces that enables efficient exploration, methods to find and present the most prominent semantic features of the data, and methods to evaluate different data management solutions. In particular there is an interest in investigating the new NoSQL database architectures that have been proposed for web applications, but where little research has been done regarding when these solutions are beneficial.