Dynamics of Database Systems
KR and Automated Reasoning about Action and Change
Active Databases and Database Maintenance
Temporal Databases
Datawarehouses and Datamining
Consistency Issues in DBs
Metainformation in Information Systems
Environmental Information Systems
Extended Conceptual Data Models

Graduate Students:

Magister: all students write a thesis with a clear research contents; several publications at international level have been produced

Graduated: Tania Bedrax, Bernardo Siu, Karina Bottinelli, Marcelo Arenas, Carlos Mareco
In course: Patricio Salazar, Gustavo Vera, Alexander Celle, Jorge Baier, Jose Manuel Gonzalez, Veronica Iberico, Rosa Alvarez (U Concepcion)

PhD:

Pablo Saez (graduated Oct'99), Ricardo Valdivia (in course, Dr. candidate).
Saez spent two months doing research at the Technical Univ. Berlin during his thesis work
Two papers at international level have been published (one each). There are others in preparation.

Usually foreign researchers take part at masters and PhD thesis committees:

Richard Scherl (NJIT) ---> Bernardo Siu
Jack Minker (Univ. Maryland) ---> Marcelo Arenas
Jan Chomicki (Monmouth Univ. and Bell Labs) ---> Carlos Mareco
Jorge Lobo (Univ. Ill. Chicago, Bell Labs) ---> Pablo Saez

In general, we emphasize collaboration with foreign researchers and make our graduate student do join research with them during their thesis work

SOME Research Projects:

Inconsistency Handling in Databases: DBs may violate expected integrity constraints. Nevertheless, there is still consistent and relevant and useful information in the database.
Problem 1: How to characterize the semantics of consistent information in inconsistent databases
Problem 2: How to develop sound and complete mechanisms for retrieving consistent information from inconsistent databases. Implementation issues.
Problem 3: Several applications, e.g. datawarehouses, where integration of possibly mutually inconsistent databases is common (different versions of a database, delayed updates of the datawarehouses), data cleaning, ...
Paper: M. Arenas, L. Bertossi, and J. Chomicki. ``Consistent Query Answers in Inconsistent Databases". Proc. ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (ACM PODS'99, Philadelphia), 1999, pp. 68-79.
Two others to be sent to PODS'2K (with J. Chomicki and M. Kifer, resp)
Participants: Marcelo Arenas, Leopoldo Bertossi, Javier Pinto, Renato Lewin, Jan Chomicki (Monmouth Univ. and Bell Labs), Michael Kifer (NY Univ., Stony brook), Camilla Schwind and Cyril Pain-Barre (Univ. Marseille), Alexander Celle (MSc Student PUC), a MSc student in the Universidad San Simon, Cochabamba, and three senior undergraduate students (PUC)
Financing: FONDECYT, NSF/CONICYT, ECOS/CONICYT, FONDECYT Int. Coop. Program
Environmental Information Systems: Development of IS for simulation, prediction, and visualization of air pollution in Santiago.
Techniques from Databases (Statistical DBs, Datawarehouses, Data Mining, Statistics, ...)
Participants: Leopoldo Bertossi, Marcelo Arenas, Gustavo Vera (MSc student PUC), Loreto Bravo (MSc student PUC), Laura Gallardo (CONAMA National), Prof. Dr. Achim Sydow (GMD-FIRST Berlin) and his collaborators
Institutions: CONAMA National, CONAMA Metropolitan Region, Remote Perception Center (PUC), SESMA, CENMA, Departmant of Statistics (PUC)
Funding: GMD, Chilean-German Cooperation (BMBF), German Embassy in Chile. Proposal submitted to BMBF/CONICYT
Extended Conceptual Data Models and Database Dynamics: Extensions of Entity/Relationships data models with integrity constraints and dynamic aspects (e.g. diagram evolution depending on availability of data)
Participants: Marcela Varas (U Concepcion), Daniel Campos (U Concepcion), Marta Fernandez (U. Concepcion), Leopoldo Bertossi, Javier Pinto, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Thalheim and Dr. Thomas Feyer (Technical University Cottbus, Germany), one MSc student University San Simon (Cochabamba), ...
Financing: FONDECYT, FONDECYT Int. Coop. Program, Chilean German Cooperation, Graduate College Brandenburg (Germany). Proposal submitted to BMBF/CONICYT

Research Projects, Int. and Local Collaboration:

Several FONDECYT/CONICYT Grants
SAREC/CONICYT Grant (with Univ. Linkoping, Swedish cooperation)
DAAD Grant (German cooperation). Technical University Berlin
Graduate College Berlin-Brandenburg Grant. Technical University Berlin
Univ. of Toronto (several research invitations)
Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon (several research invitations)
GMD-FIRST Berlin
STINT Grant, with Univ. Linkoping (Swedish cooperation)
NSF/CONICYT Grant with Prof. Jan Chomicki
ECOS/CONICYT Grant. Uni. Marseille. (Chilean-French cooperation)

Now we are pushing forward high level collaboration with computer enterprises: ORACLE CHILE, COMPUTER ASSOCIATES CHILE, IBM/DB2, ...

At this level: co-direction of thesis, exchange of information, seminars, continuous education, ... about recent and sophisticated techniques their headquarters branches develop or implement

Also, with researchers in the Department of Statistics, on information management and data analysis, many interesting possibilities of join research ... (PUC Center for Information Science and Data Analysis)

Collaboration inside the Millennium Institute:

In the Area of Databases and Knowledge Representation participate mainly researchers from the Catholic University of Chile, Universidad de Concepcion and Catholic University of the North.

Catholic University of Chile (PUC): already described
Universidad de Concepcion (UConce): Two groups in the area
Databases: Conceptual Modeling (E/R models and extensions), Development of Computational Tools for Conceptual Modeling (in particular, Natural Language Processing), Datamining
Knowledge Representation: Adaptive and Learning Expert Systems, Applications of Symbolic Logic to Knowledge Representation
Catholic University of the North: data modeling, relational databases, object-relational databases, datawarehousing, data analysis and OLAP

It is possible to see that the groups share common research interests, and there is a basis for interaction

Between the groups at the PUC and the UConce there is a strong relationship:

Young faculty from the UConce have obtained the Dr. degree at the PUC and there will be others in the near future
People graduated with a MSc degree at the UConce will continue their doctoral studies at the PUC
Professors at the PUC co-direct masters students of the UConce
There are join research proposals submitted to CONICYT/BMBF: UConce - TU Cottbus - PUC

Possibilities of collaboration with other groups in the Institute:

U. of Chile: Information Retrieval, Datastructures for multidimensional databases
Groups of Artificial Intelligence, Expert Systems and Software Engineering

Relevant Publications:

1. Chapters in Books

: M. Arenas and L. Bertossi. ``The Dynamics of Database Views". In ``Transactions and Change in Logic Databases", H. Decker, B. Freitag, M. Kifer and A. Voronkov (eds.), Springer, LNCS 1472, 1998, pp. 197-226.
: L. Bertossi, J. Pinto and R. Valdivia. ``Specifying Database Transactions and Active Rules in the Situation Calculus". In `Logical Foundations for Cognitive Agents'. Springer, June 1999.
: J. Pinto. ``Using Histories to Model Observations in Theories of Action. In ``Learning and Reasoning with Complex Representations'', G. Antoniou and M. Truszczynski (eds.), Springer, LNAI 1359, 1998 pp. 223-235.

2. International Journals (some)

: L. Bertossi. ``The Formal Language L_t and Topological Products". Zeitschrift für mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik (now Mathematical Logic Quarterly), 36, 1990, pp. 89-94.
: L. Bertossi. ``The Outer Capacity of an Internal Set Function". Zeitschrift für mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik (now Mathematical Logic Quarterly); 37, 1991, pp. 571-573.
: L. Bertossi. ``Circumscription in Data Logic for Data Type Specification". Journal of Logic and Computation, 4, 1, 1994, pp. 98-96.
: L. Bertossi and R. Reiter. ``Circumscription and Generic Mathematical Objects" (with Raymond Reiter), Fundamenta Informaticae, Vol. 21, N. 1-2, July-August, 1994, pp. 113-124.
: J. Pinto and R. Reiter, ``Reasoning about Time in the Situation Calculus''. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, vol. 14, 2-4, September, 1995, pp. 251-268.
: D. Fuller, S. Bocic and L. Bertossi. ``Towards Efficient Partial Evaluation in Logic Programming". New Generation Computing, 14, 2, 1996, pp. 237-259.
: L. Bertossi, M. Arenas and C. Ferretti. ``SCDBR: An Automated Reasoner for Specifications of Database Updates". Journal of Intelligent Information Systems (Kluwer), 10,3, 1998, pp. 253-280.
: J. Pinto. ``Integrating Discrete and Continuous Change in a Logical Framework''. Computational Intelligence (Blackwell Publishers) vol. 14, 1 (1998), pp. 39-88.
: J. Pinto. ``Occurrences and Narratives as Constraints in the Branching Structure of the Situation Calculus.'' Journal of Logic and Computation (Oxford University Press). vol. 8, 1998, pp. 777-808.
: J. Pinto, Compiling Ramification Constraints into Effect Axioms. Computational Intelligence (Blackwell Publishers) vol. 15, 3 (1999), pp. 280-307.

3. Proceedings in Springer Lecture Notes, ACM, IEEE

: R. Chuaqui and L. Bertossi. ``Approximation to Truth and the Theory of Errors". In `Methods in Mathematical Logic', C.A. Di Prisco (ed.), Lecture Notes in Mathematics 1130, Springer, 1985, pp. 13-31.
: L. Bertossi and C. Ferretti. ``SCDBR: A Reasoner for Specifications in the Situation Calculus of Database Updates". In `Temporal Logic', D. Gabbay & H.J. Ohlbach (eds.), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 827, Springer, 1994, pp. 543-545.
: L. Bertossi and R. Reiter. ``On the Concept of Generic Object: A Nonmonotonic Reasoning Approach and Examples". In `Logics for Artificial Intelligence', D. Gabbay & L. Moniz Pereira, D. Pearce (eds.), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 838, Springer, 1994, pp. 347-363.
: T. Bedrax-Weiss and L. Bertossi. ``Underlying Semantics for the Assessment of Reiter's Solution to the Frame Problem". In `Advances in Artificial Intelligence', Jacques Wainer & Ariadne Carvalho (eds.), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence 991, Springer, 1995, pp. 59-68.
: L. Bertossi, Javier Pinto, Pablo Saez, Deepak Kapur and Mahadevan Subramaniam. ``Automating Proofs of Integrity Constraints in the Situation Calculus". In `Foundations of Intelligent Systems', Zbigniew W. Ras & Maciek Michalewiccz (eds.), Lecture Notes Artificial Intelligence 1079, Springer, 1996, pp. 212-222.
: M. Arenas and L. Bertossi. ``Hypothetical Temporal Queries in Databases". Proceedings ``5th International Workshop on Knowledge Representation meets Databases (KRDB'98): Innovative Application Programming and Query Interfaces", Borgida, A., Chaudhuri, V., Staudt, M. (eds.). ACM SIGMOD/PODS'98, Seattle, May 31, 1998, pp. 4.1-4.8.
: M. Arenas, L. Bertossi, and J. Chomicki. ``Consistent Query Answers in Inconsistent Databases". Proc. ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (ACM PODS'99, Philadelphia), 1999, pp. 68-79.
: L. Bertossi, and J. Pinto. ``Specifying Active Rules for Database Maintenance". In `Transactions and Database Dynamics', Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 1999.
: C. Mareco and L. Bertossi. ``Specification and Implementation of Temporal Databases in a Bitemporal Event Calculus". In `Advances in Conceptual Modeling', Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer, 1999.

Some of Our Visitors (Research):

Erik Sandewall (Univ. Linkoping), Raymond Reiter (Univ. Toronto), Richard Scherl (New Jersey Institute of Technology), Jorge Lobo (Univ. Illinois-Chicago), Terry Gaasterland (Rockefeller Univ.), Deepak Kapur (NYSU Albany), Jack Minker (Univ. Maryland), Klaus Madlener (Univ. Kaiserslautern), Camilla Schwind (Univ. Marseille), Michael Kifer (NYSU Stonybrook), Jan Chomicki (Monmouth Univ.), Bernhard Thalheim (Univ. Cottbus), Bernard Moulin (Univ. Laval, Quebec), Ralf Kutsche (TU Berlin), Stefan Jaehnichen and Achim Sydow and Matthias Anlauff (GMD Berlin), Eliezer Lozinskii (Hebrew Univ. Jerusalem), Hans-Joachim Lenz (Free Univ. Berlin), Patrick Doherty (Univ. Linkoping), Matthias Jarke (Univ. Aachen), Robert Kowalski (Imperial College), ...