TUTORIAL ABSTRACTS ------------------ "An Overview of SQL" Jim Melton, Digital Equipment Corporation SQL is arguably the most widely-known and -used database language in the world; it is certainly the most widely-implemented standard database language. Early versions of the SQL standard were rightly criticized for not specifying sufficient facilities required for writing real-world applications. The most recent revision of SQL, SQL-92, resolves that shortcoming by defining extensive facilities for data definition, data integrity, and advanced data manipulation. Instead of defining a standard that is the least-common denominator of existing products, SQL-92 challenges implementors to build relational database systems among which meaningful applications can be freely ported. The Tutorial will briefly review relational theory and the basic concepts of SQL database technology. The primary focus will be on the new capabilities of SQL-92, including new data types, new relational operators and predicates, exception reporting mechanisms, dynamic SQL facilities, multi-session capabilities, and the self-defining information schema. A brief overview of the emerging SQL3 standard and its object-oriented capabilities will also be presented. Jim Melton is the Editor for the ANSI and ISO committees that develop SQL standards and has co-authored the definitive text on the SQL-92 database language. He also participates extensively in the development of the X/Open consortium's Portability Guide for SQL and in the SQL Access Group's activities. Jim is a database architect for Digital Equipment Corporation and has been especially active in database internationalization efforts worldwide. "Introduction to Information Retrieval" Ed Fox, Virginia Tech This introductory level overview of Information Access in general and Information Retrieval (IR) in particular will prepare researchers in AI, DBMS, and related areas to understand IR research, and to use existing and emerging (CD-ROM, network) tools. The tutorial will cover the fundamentals of IR including: models (string, Boolean, vector, probabilistic and their extensions); representation (unstructured/fields, MARC, SGML, objects); controlled vocabularies, thesauri, indexing, analysis; ambiguity, context, fuzziness/imprecision; matching, similarity, clustering; searching, feedback, browsing, linking; implementation: inverted files, signature files, n-grams; evaluation methods and experimentation. The course will also cover extensions to traditional IR, including: NLP (phrases, lexicons), knowledge bases; genetic, neural net algorithms; compression; integration with hypertext, DBMS. Current systems for personal use (e.g., Personal Librarian, TOPIC, ConQuest), libraries, network access (e.g., Archie, Gopher, Mosaic, WAIS, WWW), emerging applications for multimedia information and digital libraries, and recent developments from Virginia Tech research with the MARIAN and Envision systems will also be discussed. Dr. Edward A. Fox holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University, and a B.S. from M.I.T. Since 1983 he has been at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPI&SU), where he serves as Associate Director for Research at the Computing Center, and Associate Professor of Computer Science. He directs Project Envision, building "A User-Centered Database from the Computer Science Literature." Dr. Fox serves on the ACM Electronic Publishing Volunteer Advisory Committee, after serving 1988-91 as editor-in-chief of ACM Press Database Products (responsible for the broad area of electronic publishing including online, CD-ROM, hypertext, interactive multimedia, and developing an electronic library). He also served as a member of the Publications Board, and is currently chairman of the Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval, chairman of the Steering Committee for the ACM Multimedia series of conferences, and associate editor for ACM Transactions on Information Systems. He has authored or co-authored numerous publications in the areas of information storage and retrieval, hypertext/hypermedia/multimedia, computational linguistics, CD-ROM and optical disc technology, electronic publishing, and expert systems. "User Interface Design" Aaron Marcus, Aaron Marcus and Associates Skillful graphic design for user interfaces of all kinds (graphical, pen-based, virtual-reality based) is crucial to the success of innovative computer-based products, especially as computers acquire multimedia characteristics, become more sensitive to diverse, international user communities, and must deliver more usable systems. Presented by a pioneer of graphic design for computer graphics and a leader in the field of user interface design, electronic document design, and knowledge visualization, this tutorial will give developers, graphic designers, and users valuable insight into key graphic design issues and show how to achieve effective visual communication and increased usability. The tutorial will introduce terminology, principles, guidelines, and heuristics for using information-oriented, systematic graphic design in user interfaces, especially for the design of metaphors, mental models, navigation schema, icons, and dialogue boxes. The tutorial will benefit participants because many current window manager and graphical user interface design tools do not provide sufficient functions or guidance for these topics. Aaron Marcus is an internationally recognized authority on graphic design for computer graphics, especially chart, form, document, icon, and screen design. He and his staff have designed and evaluated user interfaces, knowledge visualization, and electronic publishing/presentations for Apple, Ashton-Tate, Computervision, DEC, DuPont, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Kodak, MCC, McDonnell-Douglas, Microsoft, Motorola, NCR, Pacific Bell, Reuters, Scitex, 3M, Wavefront, and many other organizations. Government clients have included the East-West Center, INTELSAT, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, National Endowment for the Arts, National Library of Medicine, New York Department of City Planning, US Department of Defense, and US Department of Labor. Mr. Marcus has written many articles on graphic design for computer graphics for technical and professional journals. He co-authored The Computer Image (1982), for which he wrote the essay "Color: A Tool for Computer Graphics Communication," co-authored Human Factors and Typography for More Readable Programs (1990), and authored Graphic Design for Electronic Documents and User Interfaces (1992), all published by Addison-Wesley. Mr. Marcus received a B.A. in Physics from Princeton University (1965) and a B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Graphic Design from Yale University Art School (1968). He has taught computer graphics since 1970 and founded AM+A in 1982. In 1992, Mr. Marcus received the National Computer Graphics Association Industry Achievement award for his contributions to the field. "Temporal Databases" Shaski Gadia, Iowa State University Ramez Elmasri, University of Texas This tutorial will give an up to date account of the state of research in temporal databases. The topics will include taxonomy of time in databases, models, languages, implementation, access methods, optimization, updates and applications of temporal databases. The emphasis will be on the relational approach, but the ER, object oriented and deductive approaches will also be considered. In addition spatio-temporal databases will also be mentioned. After attending this tutorial the audience will be acquainted to the state of research and open problems in temporal databases. Ramez Elmasri is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Science Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington. He has worked in the database field for over 15 years. His recent research is in the areas of temporal database models, languages, and indexing techniques. His other interests include data modeling, object-oriented databases, and database applications in engineering and manufacturing. Elmasri holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Stanford. He is co-author of the book "Fundamentals of Database Systems". Shashi K. Gadia did his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Illinois. Subsequently he did an M.S. in computer science from the Ohio State University. He has taught at Texas Tech University and is currently at Iowa State University. He has been an active researcher in temporal databases for about a decade and published extensively in this field. His interests cover models, languages, implementation, optimization, updates and applications of temporal databases. He has researched the relational and object oriented approaches. "Knowledge Base Management" Vinay Chaudhri and Thodoros Topaloglou, University of Toronto Knowledge based systems are now routinely used in thousands of ``real world'' applications. Most such applications involve relatively small knowledge bases, containing hundreds rather than thousands of units (objects, rules, frames, etc.) Developing the next generation of knowledge based systems with knowledge bases containing hundreds of thousands or even millions of units will require first and foremost a technology for building, accessing and managing these large knowledge bases. Such a technology will be founded on new implementation techniques that extend known ones for knowledge bases and databases and address issues of physical storage management (how does one minimize disk I/O during the evaluation of a query), query optimization (transforming a query to an equivalent, but simpler expression), concurrency control (interleaving the execution of knowledge base operations to optimize the use of computer resources), constraint enforcement and others. Apart from such traditionally database-oriented techniques, knowledge base management requires new techniques, specific to knowledge bases such as ones for efficient implementations of inference mechanisms (terminological subsumption, deduction, induction and abduction). Moreover, knowledge base management demands new tools for knowledge acquisition, knowledge base validation, verification and maintenance, as well as new architectures that accommodate a multi-user, distributed operating environment. The tutorial aims at providing a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art in knowledge base management techniques and commercial tools as well as recent research results and ongoing projects. The topics to be covered in the tutorial include the following: - Knowledge representation and reasoning - The state-of-the-art in commercial products - Physical and logical storage management - Query processing - Constraint enforcement and rule management - Concurrency control - Knowledge base management tools Vinay K. Chaudhri is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto. He has been a member of the knowledge base management group for three years and his research has focussed on concurrency control for knowledge bases. Prior to this he worked for one and one half years for Tata Consultancy Services, New Delhi, where he was involved in the development of large scale information systems. He has co-authored a book on relational database design and several research articles. Thodoros Toplaloglou is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto where has been a member of the knowledge base management group for four years. Prior to this he was a member of the knowledge bases group of the Institute of Computer Science of Crete, Greece, participating in the ESPIRIT projects LOKI and DAIDA. He had worked on implementation of knowledge representation languages as well as in storage management and query processing for knowledge bases.