Research Projects
- The NSF sponsored Science
Environment for Ecological Knowledge (SEEK) project, has
goals to significantly improve: (1) how researchers access global ecological
data; (2) how researchers locate and use distributed computational services;
and (3) to capture, reproduce, and extend the data analysis process itself.
Products of the project are to include: a grid for ecologists; a semantic
mediation system; an analysis and modeling system; one or more ecological
ontologies; and some concept-based taxonomy tools. Our part of this large
project mainly concerns ways to integrate information from heterogeneous
databases, by integrating their data type definitions and ontologies. See my
SEEK notes webpage and the Data Integration and Ontologies webpage.
- BOBJ system homepage. A
system for behavioral specification and computation, BOBJ implements many
aspects of hidden algebra, including circular
coinductive rewriting, cobases, concurrent connection, and more; this page
contains an introduction to the system, and links to a number of examples that
use it. The latest version includes a complete implementation higher order
modules and views, equational reasoning, and support for sort constraints; it
is also more user friendly, and is almost completely upward compatible with
OBJ3. You can get the (more or less) most recent version of BOBJ from the BOBJ ftp site.
- The User Interface Design project is
working to develop new approaches to the scientific understanding of basic
issues of representation, usability and coordination that arise in designing
good interfaces to complex systems. In particular, we are developing algebraic semiotics as a general approach to this
and related areas. The course CSE 271 provides
a systematic exposition of some basics; see also CSE 171 for a version with less mathematics.
- Algebraic Semiotics provides precise
yet socially sensitive foundations for semiotics, allowing it to be applied to
user interface design, cognitive linguistics, information visualization, and other topics. Two
major concepts are semiotic spaces and semiotic morphisms, the first for
systems of signs, and the second for representations. Visit the "world famous" UC San Diego Semiotic
Zoo for an astonishing collection of semiotic morphisms, each an
exotic example of bad design arising through failure to preserve some relevant
structure. The course CSE 271 provides a
systematic exposition of some basics, with examples.
- Data Integration and Ontologies. This
project is exploring novel ways to integrate information from heterogeneous
databases, based on ideas from algebraic semantics and CSCW (Computer
Supported Cooperative Work).
- Institutions are an abstraction of the
notion of "a logic" that have been used as a basis for designing powerful new
module systems, e.g., for specification languages like Clear and those in the
OBJ family (influencing the module systems of
C++, Ada and ML), for the semantics of database and
ontology integration , as well as for applications to cognitive semantics
and conceptual integration.
- Hidden Algebra provides algebraic methods
for behavioral specification and verification of distributed concurrent
systems, especially coinduction for proving behavioral properties and
behavioral refinement. This site has links to a web-based tutorial, interactive examples, and a hidden bibliography.
- Social Aspects of Science and Technology.
We are particularly concerned with social aspects of information technology.
In addition to semiotics and user interface design,
we are also pursuing:
For a systematic exposition of some basics, see the courses CSE 275 and CSE 175.
- Homepage for the Qualia Project.
- Homepage for projects in Arts and Music.
- Structure and Values in Music. This
project is developing computational methods to identify structures and values
in complex temporal systems, such as music, using ideas from cognitive
science, and from complexity and information theories, as well as from
cultural studies and sociology; this project is still at an early stage. See
also the homepage for Arts and Music.
- The Tatami project (now concluded)
produced a collection of proof
websites, using hidden algebra and BOBJ, which is a behavioral dialect in the OBJ family developed at UCSD. The main system
component is Kumo, which combines proof
assistant and website generation capabilities, and supports distributed work
over the web. This project was initially supported by the large
international CafeOBJ Project, and is
now supported by the National Science
Foundation. In addition to system development, this project is concerned
with user interface design principles, and it has some focus on verifying
behavioral properties of distributed concurrent systems, and on developing
mathematical foundations for such proofs. The Kumo ftp site provides the
(more or less) most recent release of version 4 of the Kumo proof assistant and website generator.
- Software Architecture and Methodology.
The following are in addition to the work on the Tatami project and Hidden Algebra described above:
- Brief Summary of Some Research
Interests, a selective high level lecture on October 2001, including
summaries of projects in Software Engineering, Lite
Formal Methods, and Data and Ontology
Integration, with links to webpages on Sociology of
Information Technology and Science and User Interface
Design.
- Kumo, BOBJ, and Behavioral Verification
tutorial given 26 November 2001, ASE'01 (Automated Software Engineering
2001), San Diego, and also used for lecture at Keio University, Tokyo, 18
December 2001.
- FLIRTS
group, for "Formalism Logic Institution: Relating, Translating and
Structuring," working on translations among institutions and related
matters.
- Some (older, completed) European projects include:
See the Meaning and Computation
Lab homepage for some further information, and the papers linked from
my publications page for technical details;
my What's New page always lists the most
recent publications from all research projects.
Maintained by Joseph Goguen
Last modified: Wed Jun 8 13:37:15 PDT 2005