[om-a] PhD position "A theory for object algebras in databases"

[Maarten Fokkinga]

The Database group of the Department of Computer Science of the
University of Twente (Enschede, Netherlands) is seeking a

        PhD candidate

for contributing to the research for a mathematical theory for (and
practical realisation of) object algebras in databases.

One of the main themes of our Database group (http://db.cs.utwente.nl)
is to rethink the DBMS architecture so that it can be effectively used
in domains where, contrary to administrative applications, there is a
large variety of nested data structures and many operations are
executed on collections rather than individual elements. The object
algebra Moa is the still evolving product of our research: a system
that translates nested structures to a flat form in such a way that
collection oriented operations can be executed efficiently.
Furthermore, MOA is extensible so that domain specific data structures
and algorithms, such as spatial indices for geographical information
systems, can be incorporated in the DBMS.

Tasks:
You construct a theory of object algebras in databases with the aim to
generalise the applicability and to improve the realisation of Moa in
particular. In doing so you use concepts and techniques from category
theory and type theory in order to describe the transformations
executed by Moa. A draft proposal for this approach can be found at
http://www.cs.utwente.nl/~fokkinga/mmf2000b.ps and ...pdf.

Profile:
You have completed a university education, or are about to graduate, in
computing science or mathematics.  You have a fair knowledge about
databases, and preferably also about topics like "mathematical
construction of programs" and mathematical logic.  You have affinity
with formal methods, and you see it as a challenge to relate theory to
practice and to translate your ideas to suggestions for improvement of
Moa's implementation.

Further information:
See the full announcement at
http://www.cs.utwente.nl/~fokkinga/AIO-advertisement.html


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