Logic for Database Systems Implementation

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                Joint Seminar
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The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Big Data Institute
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Speaker:        Prof. David Toman
                University of Waterloo

Title:          "Logic for Database Systems Implementation"
                (or Life beyond Lite Logics and CQ/UCQ)

Date:           Monday, 22 July 2019

Time:           4:00pm -5:00pm

Venue:          Chen Kuan Cheng Forum (LT-H, near lift no.27/28, HKUST)

Abstract:

An important part of database technology is the requirement that only a
logical appreciation of data is necessary on the part of application
developers. This allows the formulating queries (and update requests)
without information relating to concrete data sources and their low-level
interfaces.

A fundamental problem---called query compilation--must therefore be
addressed by such systems, the problem of translating user requests over
purely conceptual and domain specific ways of understanding of data,
commonly called logical designs, to efficient executable programs, called
query plans, responsible for evaluating the requests by accessing various
concrete data sources through their low-level often iterator-based
interfaces. An appreciation of the concrete data sources, their
interfaces, and how such capabilities relate to logical design is in turn
called a physical design.

In the talk we explore how standard KR approaches, such as ODBA-style
querying, relate to the above problem and how KR (and Logic at large)
techniques can serve as a cornerstone to a comprehensive solution to the
query compilation problem. We (briefly) discuss range of topics from
adaptations of theorem-proving techniques to low-level query
optimizations, commonly considered beyond the reach of logical approaches
to query compilation, and conclude with a list of interesting research
topics.


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Biography:

David Toman is a Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer
Science at the University of Waterloo. His research focuses on database
theory and systems, query processing under constraints and query
compilation, as well as temporal aspects of data management, and logic in
Computer Science in general.  Recently, he has been focusing on database
schema languages based on Description Logic enriched with various forms of
identification constraints. The languages investigated in this line of
research are tailored to enabling compilation of queries formulated over a
high-level conceptual schema to code that is executed over low-level
physical layouts of data, such as records and pointer structures.  He has
published extensively in his research area including invited contributions
to several reference collections, such as the Encyclopedia of Database
Systems and the Handbook of Temporal Reasoning in Artificial Intelligence.
He has earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Masaryk University
in Czechoslovakia in 1992 and a PhD from Kansas State University in 1996,
all in Computer Science. He has been awarded numerous research grants,
including the NATO-NSERC Postdoctoral fellowship and the Ontario Premier's
Research Excellence Award.