Information Systems and Databases Group (ISDG)

Most of the computer applications you encounter today are in fact Information Systems, that means, systems that manage, store and deliver information to users. Examples are search engines like Google, ticket booking systems, or online stores. Exciting new kinds of applications that we look at in the ISDB group are mobile tourist information systems, memory-aid systems and systems that notify you about changes, eg, in web pages or online shops. Our latest projects are context-aware systems that deliver information to their users depending on a user's location, time of the day, task, or mood.

Inside these systems, the data is often stored in a database or another complex storage system. The Information Systems and Databases Group (ISDB) is interested in both – the underlying technical and the application aspects of computer systems. We are working on different types of information systems, addressing a wide range of challenges.

A list of our projects includes:

• A mobile tourist information system (TIP) that provides travellers with up-to-date information about sights and recommends upcoming interesting events and locations to visitors. One aspect of TIP that we recently incorporated is a link to an interactive map service and a digital library. We also support a kind of mobile wikipedia for travellers and a personalised mobile gallery. For this project we co-operate with the HCI and the DL group as well as with the formal methods group. We also work with the Waikato Museum and investigate how to capture ways of different cultures, Māori and Pākehā, to approach the notion of place and history.
• An electronic parrot – a personalised extension of your memory that will make it easier to remember people, events, and data. This project was started just recently. We are concerned with questions like: How can we describe, store and access the data? What would a useful interface look like?

We also look at aspects of events and change management in the semantic web, in digital libraries, and in health care. In addition, we focus on the more technical side of information systems by analysing distributed event notification.

We are the youngest group in the department. That also means that a lot of our projects are done with close co-operation and support by our students in the department.

Further details on the group can be found at: isdb.cms.waikato.ac.nz