[PDF] - U-INF OR-ME Univ ersal Information Matrix Engine Prop osal PDF Document

SLIDE 1 U-INF OR-ME Univ ersal Information Matrix Engine Prop

sal

Num b er: IST-2001-32011 P art C F ebruary 21, 2001 1

SLIDE 2 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

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No: IST-2001-32011 Con ten ts 1 Description

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the Consortium 3 2 Description

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the participan ts 4 2

SLIDE 3 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

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No: IST-2001-32011 1 Description

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the Consortium The consortium consists

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leading academic and industrial researc hers (see table 1). The complemen tary skills, exp eriences and geographical spread

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the consortium will ensure that the pro ject has the necessary resources to successfully manage and deliv er rst class results to the b enets

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the EU Comm unit y . F

ur

partners in the pro ject are based in prestigious cen tres: GU (Glasgo w), UN P ADU I (P ado v a), FUB (Rome) and QM (London) are institutes

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higher learning and researc h. KPMG (Amsterdam) and ED (A thens) are t w

activ

e commercial companies. KPMG pro vides general services for electronic commerce and W eb applications, whereas ED pro vides p ersonalised In- ternet/ W eb solutions while building information adjusted to business requiremen ts and/

r

customer needs. They ha v e b een c hosen b ecause

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their pro v ed exp ertise in the required elds and b ecause they complemen t nicely eac h

ther's

comp etence. KPMG will bring to the consortium its extensiv e exp erience in the selection and implemen tation

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soft w are to

ls

and W eb tec hnology as w ell as its exp erience in W eb-based electronic commerce solutions, a eld that will b e also addressed b y the pro ject through a sp ecic case study . KPMG also brings to the pro ject the necessary kno wledge and exp erience

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the mark et that

nly

a pure commercial partner can ha v e. ED will bring to the consortium its kno wledge in building p ersonalised p

rtals
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In ternet. KPMG and ED Will b e mainly resp

nsible
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the soft w are dev elopmen t part

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ur

prop

sal.

On the

ther

hand, GU, UN P ADU I, FUB and QM ha v e b een

n

the forefron t in dev eloping adv anced h yp ermedia retriev al systems, kno wledge managemen t systems and in the dev elopmen t

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in telligen t agen ts and database searc hing. There will b e t w

imp
rtan

t lev els

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managemen t in the consortium:

ne

at the site lev el, and the

ther

for the pro ject as a whole. The pro ject will b e managed b y the co-ordinating con tractor, P artner CO1 (Univ ersit y

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Glasgo w), whic h will act as the pr

je

ct le ader and co-ordinator for the tec hnical as w ell as for the nancial managemen t

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the pro ject. The Departmen t

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Computing Science at the Univ ersit y

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Glasgo w is

ne
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the most exp erienced UK Departmen ts in terms

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EU-funded pro ject supp

rt

and has b een activ e in that domain since 1984. Using this exp erience, plus the extensiv e exp erience

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some

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the

ther

partners in EU-funded pro jects, w e will rep eat

ur

successful form ula

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managing and co-ordinating EU pro jects. The pro ject leader, Prof. Keith v an Rijsb ergen, will b e in c harge

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assessing ho w the w

rk

is pro ceeding. The progress

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the pro ject will b e measured against the sc hedule

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deliv erables and milestones. Redirection

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resources

r
ther

correctiv e actions will b e tak en when and where appropriate. In case

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conict among the consortium mem b ers, the pro ject leader will in terv ene. Details ab

ut

conict resolution will b e included in the consortium agreemen t to b e signed b y all partners. 3

SLIDE 4 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 P articipan t P articipan t P articipan t name P articipan t Coun try Role Num b er short name CO 1 Univ ersit y

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Glasgo w GU UK CR 2 Univ ersit y

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P ado v a UN P ADU I I CR 3 F

ndazione

Ugo Bordoni FUB I CR 4 Queen Mary , Univ ersit y

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London QM UK CR 5 KPMG Business Advisory Services KPMG NL CR 6 Europ ean Dynamics ED EL T able 1: List

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P articipan ts in U-INF OR-ME 2 Description

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the participan ts W e giv e here a brief description

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the 7 consortium mem b ers as w ell as the k ey p ersons that will b e in v

lv

ed in the pro ject: 1. GU

Univ

ersit y

f

Glasgo w The Computing Science Departmen t (CSD) at Glasgo w Univ ersit y is w

rld

class in its researc h, as demonstrated b y its ac hiev emen t

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the highest grading (5*) in the last UK Researc h Assess- men t Exercise, and is also top rated in its teac hing. CSD brings to the pro ject its extensiv e exp erience in the areas

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information retriev al mo delling, m ultilingual information retriev al, ev aluation

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in teractiv e retriev al systems, computational linguistics and Human-comm unication in teraction. Indeed, the researc h activit y in the departmen t demonstrates particular strengths in the theory and mathematical underpinnings

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Information Retriev al (IR). F

r

example, the w

rk
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V an Rijsb ergen in no v el approac hes to in teractiv e IR and in probabilistic-based retriev al approac hes,

r

the w

rks
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Ounis in theoretically-based m ultimedia retriev al. Moreo v er, Human-Computer In teraction is the cen tral topic

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the Glasgo w In teractiv e Systems group (GIST). GIST has a particularly m ultidisciplinary mix and will strongly con tribute to the user-cen tred p ersp ectiv e

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the pro ject. GIST has b een in v

lv

ed in the EC Mira pro ject, dealing with the design

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user-friendly in teractiv e retriev al systems. As a training en vironmen t, Glasgo w CSD already supp

rts

a thriving comm unit y

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68 researc h studen ts. Our Graduate Sc ho

l's

gro wth

v

er recen t y ears cuts against the trend in Scottish univ ersities. Apart from the sta listed b elo w, the IR group in v

lv

es nine

ther

mem b ers, predominan tly p

stgraduate

studen ts, and w e also ha v e strong links to

ther

lo cal groups suc h as those in Strathclyde Univ ersit y's Information Science Departmen t. The collectiv e depth and breadth

f

exp ertise is just

ne

con tributor to the qualit y

f

the en vironmen t. Glasgo w is

ne
f

the premier sites for the ev aluation

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IR soft w are, esp ecially with resp ect to its utilit y and usabilit y for individual users. In addition, w e can dra w up

n

the administrativ e exp ertise built up through the departmen t's in v

lv

emen t in man y EC pro jects (Mira, MIR O, FERMI, PR OSPER, IADIV A, FIDE I & I I, IDOMENEUS, COMMANDOS I & I I, Shap e)

v

er the past y ears, and also up

n

a univ ersit y unit dev

ted

to the supp

rt
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Europ ean pro jects. Key persons

C.

J. \Keith" v an Rijsb ergen, Professor Prof. Keith v an Rijsb ergen is curren tly a Senate Assessor

n

the Court

f

Glasgo w Uni- v ersit y . 4

SLIDE 5 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 Since ab

ut

1969 his researc h has b een dev

ted

to information retriev al, co v ering b

th

the-

retical

and exp erimen tal asp ects. He has sp ecied sev eral theoretical mo dels for IR and seen some

f

them from the sp ecication and protot yp e stage through to pro duction. His curren t researc h is concerned with the design

f

appropriate logics to mo del the

w
f

information with applications to m ultimedia retriev al and structured do cumen ts. He w as the prime con tractor for the Esprit w

rking

group Mira (Esprit W

rking

Group: 20039) con- cen trating

n

the ev aluation

f

in teractiv e retriev al systems (h ttp://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/mira). He w as also in v

lv

ed in man y Europ ean funded initiativ es suc h as MIR O and FERMI. He sup ervises sev eral PhD studen ts in text, image and audio retriev al. He has recen tly (1999), together with Crestani and Lalmas, published a b

k

en titled "Information Retriev al: Un- certain t y and Logics". He is also the author

f

a w ell-kno wn b

k
n

Information Retriev al. (h ttp://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/Keith/preface.h tml). He is a fello w

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the Ro y al So ciet y

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Ed- in burgh, the Institution

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Electrical Engineers, and British Computer So ciet y . In 1993 he w as app

in

ted Editor-in-Chief

f

The Computer Journal. He is c hairman

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the go v erning b

ard

for the F arada y P artnership:3D-Matic whic h is concerned with researc h in 3D image capture and mo delling, and its exploitation in industry .

Iadh

Ounis, Lecturer Dr. Iadh Ounis is a Lecturer in the departmen t

f

Computing Science. He completed his PhD in Information Retriev al from the Univ ersit Joseph F

urier,

Grenoble, F rance. He w as in v

lv

ed in the FERMI, MIR O and Mira Europ ean funded initiativ es. He participated in setting up the Image Pro cessing and Application Lab

ratory

(IP AL) in Singa- p

re,

in the con text

f

a join t researc h program action b et w een the Cen tre National de la Rec herc he Scien tique (CNRS), F rance, the National Univ ersit y

f

Singap

re,

and the Ken t Ridge Digital Lab

ratories
f

Singap

re.

He w as in v

lv

ed in the Digital Images and Video Applications (DIV A) pro ject. His researc h in terests include the design

f

ecien t theoretically-based algorithms for m ultimedia information retriev al, kno wledge disco v ery and represen tation, and recen tly W eb link ed analysis and probabilistic ranking functions for W eb collections. 2. UN P ADU I- Univ ersit y

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P ado v a Departmen t

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Electronics and Computer Science- Information Managemen t Systems (IMS) researc h group. The Information Managemen t Systems (IMS) researc h group

f

the Univ ersit y

f

P ado v a, brings to the pro ject its extensiv e exp erience in the areas

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h yp ermedia mo delling and retriev al, automatic construction

f

h yp ermedia, the information structuring and represen tation

f

net w

rk

ed information sources (e.g. W eb information sources) and text mining. A t presen t the Univ ersit y

f

P ado v a consists

f

thirteen F aculties: Agriculture, La w, Pharma- cology , Engineering, Humanities and Philosoph y , T eac her T raining, Medicine, Natural Sciences, P

litical

Sciences, Psyc hology , Statistics, Economics and V eterinary Medicine. The F aculties

rganise

sev eral lecture courses leading to nal degrees. The n um b er

f

dieren t nal ("laurea") degrees a w arded in P ado v a is 45, where in Italy there are

v

er 60 dieren t nal degrees. There are

v

er 50 p

stgraduate

sp ecialisation sc ho

ls

and 70 courses equiv alen t to PhD. A t presen t almost 65,000 studen ts are studying in the univ ersit y . 5

SLIDE 6 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 Around four thousand p eople w

rk

daily in ab

ut

200 Institutes, Departmen ts, Cen tres and Libraries. These ha v e their premises in v arious

ld

palaces

r

mo dern buildings in the to wn cen tre

r

in the

utskirts.

The Departmen t

f

Electronics and Computer Science

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the Univ ersit y

f

P ado v a w as established

n

June 1, 1987 and it w as joined b y scien tists formerly w

rking

with the Sc ho

l
f

Engineering, with the Sc ho

l
f

Statistics, and with the Sc ho

l
f

Psyc hology . In the establish- ing act

f

the Departmen t

f

Electronics and Computer Science, its c haracterising researc h elds w ere iden tied as the follo wing: Bio engineering, Applied and Industrial Electronics, Electronic Instrumen tation, Laser and Quan tum Electronics, Theoretical and Applied Computer Science, T elecomm unication and Information Theory , Con trol and Systems Theory and Applications. Around 30 professors, 30 asso ciate professors, and 20 assistan t professors are at presen t w

rking

in the departmen t together with the tec hnical, administrativ e and library sta. The Information Managemen t Systems (IMS) Researc h Group is

ne
f

the researc h groups

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the departmen t. The group activities are concerned with the design, mo delling and implemen tation

f

adv anced m ultimedia information managemen t systems. The researc h is directed to w ard the study

f

information retriev al, h yp ertext and database systems. The group is in v

lv

ed in Europ ean and Italian researc h pro jects

n

tec hnologies and metho dologies for information managemen t, e.g. seman tic net w

rks,

digital libraries, W eb information managemen t, m ultilingual information retriev al. Key persons

Maristella

Agosti, Professor Maristella Agosti is a professor

f

Computer Science,

f

the Departmen t

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Electronics and Computer Science (DEI), Univ ersit y

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P adua, Italy . She is the group leader

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the Information Managemen t Systems (IMS) Researc h Group

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the Departmen t. Her presen t researc h in terests are related to digital libraries, metho ds and to

ls

for information structuring and represen tation

f

net w

rk

ed information resources (e.g. W

rld

Wide W eb information resources), h yp ertext information retriev al mo dels and systems, and ev aluation

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in teractiv e retriev al systems. She has published more than 100 refereed articles and pap ers

n

in ternational and national journals and conferences, she has also authored

r

co-authored some b

ks
n

information retriev al mo dels, database design, h y- p ertext retriev al mo dels, data mo delling in information retriev al, automatic construction

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h yp ertexts for information retriev al, and digital libraries for m ultimedia collections. F rom 1990 she is mem b er

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the editorial b

ard
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"Information Pro cessing & Managemen t" (P ergamon Press), and from 1997 she is sub ject area editor for Hyp ermedia

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"Infor- mation Retriev al" (Klu w er Academic Publishers). She is program committee mem b er

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sev eral in ternational conferences, including A CM-SIGIR and CIKM. She has b een in v

lv

ed in sev eral national and in ternational researc h pro jects, in particular she has b een the Domain Leader for Information Retriev al and Multimedia

f

the IDOMENEUS ESPRIT Net w

rk
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Excellence No. 6606. She w as a mem b er

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the Re- searc h P anel

f

the EU Information Engineering programme, Luxem b

urg.

She has participated in the EEC Pro ject JUKEBO X (LIB-JUKEBO X/4-1049), in the EEC Pro ject EUR OIEMASTER (IE2012), EEC ESPRIT W

rking

Group No.20039 Mira, and in the Europ ean Space Agency (ESA) pro ject

n

Seman tic Net w

rk

In ter-Op erations (ESA-SN). 6

SLIDE 7 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011

Massimo

Melucci, Assistan t professor Massimo Melucci receiv ed a "Laurea" degree in Statistics and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science (1996), with a thesis

n

Information Retriev al, from the Univ ersit y

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P ado v a, Italy , where he is Assistan t Professor

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Computer Science since 1999. His presen t researc h in terests are in automatic h yp ertext construction for information retriev al, W eb information retriev al, kno wledge disco v ery in databases, and data mining. He has published sev eral refereed articles

n

in ternational journals and conferences

n

automatic construction

f

h yp ertexts for information retriev al, ev aluation

f

W eb information retriev al, passage retriev al, and m usical information retriev al. He has b een in v

lv

ed in national and in ternational researc h pro jects, in particular in the IDOMENEUS IRIDES pro ject for the design and dev elopmen t

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a protot yp e for the electronic publishing

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a scien tic journal

v

er the In ternet, in a bilateral collab

ration
n

Italian Spanish Information Retriev al (ISIR), in INTERD A T A an Italian national pro ject for the dev elopmen t

f

metho ds and to

ls

for the managemen t

f

data and pro cesses

n

In ternet and In tranet net w

rks,

in the feasibilit y study ADMV for a digital library for the V enetian m usic

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the eigh teen cen tury . 3. FUB

F
ndazione

Ugo Bordoni "F

ndazione

Ugo Bordoni" (FUB) is a non-prot

rganization

founded in 1952 "to aid and promote scien tic and applied researc h in the eld

f

telecomm unications, computing science, electronics and p

stal

services". Un til 2000, FUB carried

ut

the w

rk

mainly under the su- p ervision

f

Ministry

f

Comm unications and w as sp

nsored

b y Italian T elecom. Recen tly , "F

ndazione

Ugo Bordoni" has a new statute whic h sets up "F

ndazione

Ugo Bordoni" as a new Researc h Institute

n

ICT and the new founders are the ma jor licensed telecomm unications companies. FUB is mem b er

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the Standardization Groups in ITU, ISO and ETSI, with also co{ordinating resp

nsibilities.

FUB has a long-standing in ternational exp erience in direct as w ell as consortium-based collab

rations

in man y researc h areas: Radio Propagation, Optical Comm unications, Information Protection, T elecomm unication Net w

rks,

Multimedia Comm unications. The Information Systems Group (ISG)

f

F

ndazione

Ugo Bordoni, whic h will b e directly in- v

lv

ed in the pro ject U-INF OR-ME, brings to the pro ject his strong bac kground in information retriev al, databases and articial in telligence tec hniques. Since early 90's, ISG's activities ha v e fo cused

n

the dev elopmen t

f

eectiv e and ecien t metho ds for end-users access to information. The group has b een in v

lv

ed in b

th

theoretical and exp erimen tal researc h; w e ha v e dev elop ed new mo dels, algorithms and protot yp es for information retriev al and information extraction, exp erimen ting with large scale collections including text, structured databases and W eb data. In particular, ISG in v estigated the areas

f

information ltering and dissemination, digital libraries, do cumen t ranking, visualization and na vigation

f

retriev al results, W eb metadata (e.g., XML, RDF, WML), adaptiv e in terface agen ts, data mining, and m ultimedia information retriev al. ISG ha v e dev elop ed sev eral system protot yp es, some

f

whic h are a v ailable

nline

{VIEWER (Viewing WEb Results), for visualizing W eb retriev al results, D ANTE (Distribution ANalysis 7

SLIDE 8 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 for T erm Extraction), for suggesting terms during W eb searc hes, PR OFILE (PR Obabilistic FILtEring) for a selectiv e dissemination

f

the news

f

USENET. A ma jor result is the dev elopmen t

f

a do cumen t retriev al system that w as successfully tested in the text retriev al conference (TREC-99), the main in ternational forum for large scale ev aluation

f

information retriev al systems. FUB's protot yp e w as rank ed fourth, after New Y

rk

Univ ersit y , Microsoft and A T&T, and ahead

f

ab

ut

fort y main ICT companies and univ ersities. ISG ha v e also conducted sev eral exp erimen tal studies

f

in teractiv e information retriev al in v

lving

real users. Moreo v er, FUB has an

utstanding

record

f

partecipation to pro jects sp

nsored

b y the Eu- rop ean Union in RA CE, A CTS, COST, CTS, DRIVE, ESPRIT and IST (with the pro jects A TLAS, VESPER and ST ARLITE). FUB has also c haired the "T ec hnical Committee T elecom- m unications" for the COST Programme. FUB has partecipated to the net w

rks
f

excellence in Mac hine Learning (MLnet, MLnet 2), in Computational Logic (COMPULOG), in Information Retriev al and DataBases (IDOMENEUS), and to the Net w

rk
f

Excellence for Agen t-based Computing (Agen t Link). Key persons

Giam

battista Amati, Senior Researc her Giam battista "Gianni" Amati is senior researc her in the Multimedia Division w

rking

at the F

ndazione

Ugo Bordoni since 1987. He has b een w

rking

in Information Filtering and Information Retriev al implemen ting a system

n

the WEB for the selectiv e dissemination

f

news from the USENET and an IR system for exp erimen ts

n

TREC collections. His curren t in terests are WEB link analysis and non-parametric probabilistic ranking functions

f

Information Retriev al for WEB collections. Since 1998 he is mem b er

f

Programm Committee

f

SIGIR, the main conference

n

Information Retriev al. He has partecipated to the ESPRIT BRA "MEDLAR" and to the Europ ean Net w

rks
f

excellence IDOMENEUS and COMPULOG. He has published ab

ut

40 pap ers

n

refereed journals, b

ks

and main conferences.

Claudio

Carpineto, Pro ject Manager Claudio Carpineto is the head

f

the group 'Information systems' at F

ndazione

Ugo Bor- doni, in Rome. His researc h in terests include W eb information systems, information indexing and retriev al, user-adapted retriev al in terfaces, data mining, and m ultimedia databases. He has published ab

ut

sixt y pap ers in in ternational journals, b

ks
r

conference pro ceed- ings, and serv ed

n

the program commettee

f

sev eral in ternational conferences, including the recen t ICCS-2001, ICML-2000, and MSL W-2000. He dev elop ed a comprehensiv e do c- umen t ranking system with a no v el comp

nen

t for automatic query expansion that rank ed fourth in the Eigh th T ext REtriev al Conference (TREC-8). He has participated in the MLnet, Idomeneus, and MLnet2 Net w

rk
f

Excellence. 4. QMU

Queen

Mary , Univ ersit y

f

London The researc h

f

the Information Retriev al group at the Departmen t

f

Computer Science, at Queen Mary , Univ ersit y

f

London, fo cuses

n

the dev elopmen t, implemen tation and v alidation

f

formal approac hes for represen ting and retrieving m ultimedia, structured and heterogeneous rep

sitories
f

information. 8

SLIDE 9 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 The information retriev al has a state-of-the-art exp erimen tal platform, HySpirit, for carrying large studies

n

information retriev al, whic h is also curren tly b een commercialized. HySpirit supp

rts

the

b

ject-orien ted represen tation and retriev al

f

complex

b

jects suc h as h yp ermedia do cumen ts, the in tegration

f

retriev al and database tec hnology for com bined do cumen t (con- ten t) and information (fact) searc h, and pro vides a logical platform for exp erimen ts

n

retriev al mo dels and heterogeneous collections. Queen Mary Information Retriev al researc h group will bring to the U-INF OR-ME pro ject, its exp ertise in three k ey areas: the exp erimen tal information retriev al platform, HySpirit; probabilistic approac hes for information retriev al; and the in tegration

f

heterogeneous sources

f

evidence. Since its foundation in 1999, the Information Retriev al group has acquired a n um b er

f

national and in ternational pro jects, including SAMBITS (EU F ramew

rk

5) concerned with the dev el-

pmen

t

f

systems for adv anced m ultimedia broadcast and IT services, where Queen Mary role is the design

f

access metho ds for na vigation and retriev al

f

complex digital m ultimedia data based

n

the MPEG7 up coming standard for describing m ultimedia con ten t; GRIS (Ro y al So ciet y), whic h aims to in v estigate the information seeking b eha viours

f

users querying, bro wsing, and retrieving structured do cumen ts; F OCUS I and I I (EPSR C and British Council), whic h aim to in v estigate eectiv e metho ds for represen ting and retrieving structured do cumen ts; "Re- triev al through explanation" (Library and Information Commission), whic h aims at dev eloping formal approac hes to relev ance feedbac k. All these pro jects address issues related to the eectiv e manipulation

f

large rep

sitories
f

data in a distributed en vironmen t,

ne

concern

f

the U-INF ORM-ME. Mem b ers

f

the group, b efore joining Queen Mary , ha v e previously b een activ e in a n um b er

f

Europ ean pro jects and w

rking

groups in the area

f

information retriev al, for instance: FERMI (F

rmalisation

and Exp erimen tation

n

the Retriev al

f

Multimedia Information), MIR O (Mul- timedia Information Retriev al), MIRA (Ev aluation

f

In teractiv e Multimedia Information Re- triev al Systems), EuroSearc h (A Multilingual Europ ean F ederated Searc h Service) and Euro- Gatherer (A P ersonalised Information Gathering System). These pro jects adv anced the dev el-

pmen

t, implemen tation and ev aluation

f

empirical and formal approac hes to represen t and retriev e m ultimedia, cross-lingual, distributed, structured and distributed information. Key persons

Mounia

Lalmas, Senior Lecturer Dr Mounia Lalmas is a Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary , whic h she joined in 1999. Prior to this, she w as a Researc her at the Univ ersit y

f

Dortm und in 1998, a Lecturer from 1995 to 1997 and Researc h F ello w from 1997 to 1998 at the Univ ersit y

f

Glasgo w, where she receiv ed her PhD in 1996. Her researc h in terests cen tre around the dev elopmen t

f

eectiv e formalisms able to mo del information in the places and in the forms that it app ears in an information retriev al system. In particular, she has exp ertise in kno wledge represen tation, logical mo dels, mo delling uncertain t y; structured and h yp ermedia do cumen t indexing and retriev al. She ha v e widely published

n

these asp ects in conferences, w

rkshops

and journals, and

rganised

a n um b er

f

related ev en ts (WIR UL, LUMIS), and has b een

n

v arious programme committees

f

information retriev al and kno wledge managemen t ev en ts (CIKM, SIGIR, F QAS, BCS IRSG, I I I). 9

SLIDE 10 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011

Thomas

Ro ellek e, Researc h F ello w Dr Thomas Ro ellek e

btained

in 1999 his PhD

n

probabilistic

b

ject-orien ted logical represen tation and retriev al

f

complex

b

jects. Along with his thesis, he published his researc h results in in ternational journals (TOIS), conferences (SIGIR), and related w

rk-

shops. In 1999, he founded the HySpirit compan y , transferring his researc h results and kno wledge in to a pro duct dev elopmen t. In 2000, he b ecame a strategic consultan t for a leading direct brok er, and w as app

in

ted at the same time a researc h fello w at Queen Mary . His curren t tasks and in terests include: information managemen t, strategic IT-consultancy , data w arehousing, data mo delling and soft w are engineering, (semi-)structured do cumen t retriev al, retriev al mo dels and their ev aluation, probabilistic

b

ject-orien ted kno wledge represen tations, in tegration

f

retriev al and database tec hnology , heterogeneous information sources, transfer and usage

f

kno wledge. 5. KPMG

KPMG

Business Advisory Services KPMG In ternational is the global advisory rm whose aim is to turn kno wledge in to v alue for the b enets

f

its clien ts, its p eople, and its comm unities. With more than 100,000 p eople collab

rating

w

rldwide,

the rm pro vides consulting, tax, and legal, nancial advisory and assurance services for more than 820 cities in 159 coun tries. KPMG Business Advisory is part

f

KPMG Netherlands, emplo ying more than 160 p eople. Its goal is sho w clien ts ho w to ac hiev e w

rld

class lev els

f

p erformance in their exploitation and managemen t

f

IT. KPMG Business Advisory Services will bring to the pro ject, its extensiv e exp ertise in e-business and IT pro jects. The selection and implemen tation

f

soft w are to

ls

and W eb tec hnology , suit- able for e-business, is at the comp etence

f

KPMG Business Advisory Services. This exp erience has also aorded KPMG excellen t

pp
rtunit

y to gain a deep understanding

f

the links b et w een the needs and use

f

these new to

ls

and their implemen tation (as a part

f

a so-called business transaction redesign). KPMG BAS exp erience lies also in the eld

f

pro ject managemen t. Key persons

Theo

Huib ers, Senior Manager Dr. Theo Huib ers w

rks

as a senior manager within the KPMG BAS unit. He completed his PhD in Information Science (Information Retriev al) from the Univ ersit y

f

Utrec h t, Utrec h t, Netherlands, in 1996. He in v en ted a metho d whic h mak es it p

ssible

to theoretically compare information retriev al systems. Dr. Theo Huib ers also w

rk

ed

n

the connection b et w een information disco v ery and e-commerce. His curren t sp ecialisation within KPMG BAS is the (re)design

f

business information pro cesses with the aid

f

IT

n

the basis

f

a strategic

r

tactical reorien tation. His exp erience sp ecically lies in the elds

f

P ac k age Selection, Information Retriev al, Do cumen t Managemen t, W

rko

w Managemen t and the W eb. His k ey areas

f

exp erience include: Do cumen t Managemen t, Information Retriev al, Organisational c hanges, and P erformance impro v emen ts.

Jero

en V an Den Oev er, Senior Manager Jero en is a Senior Manager in KPMG BAS. Jero en has a Univ ersit y degree in business economics at the F acult y

f

Economic Sciences

f

the Dutc h Univ ersit y

f

Braban t and P

stgraduate

studies in nancial audit at the Dutc h Univ ersit y

f

Braban t. He did the 10

SLIDE 11 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 In tro ductory studies in Managemen t

f

Information Science at the same Univ ersit y . He joined KPMG in 1991 in the Dutc h practice. Jero en has 9,5 y ears exp erience in the area

f

IT Managemen t and Business Con trol. He com bines his business con trol bac kground and w

rk

exp erience with education and exp erience in

ptimisation
f

business pro cesses

f

ICT

rganisations

and the implemen tation

f

information retriev al pro jects. He has pro cess redesign exp erience in b

th

core business areas and nancial/administrativ e pro cesses. His areas

f

sp ecialisation include the selection and implemen tation

f

in tegrated pac k aged soft w are and the managemen t

f
rganisational

c hange. He has w

rk

exp erience in W

rld

Class IT pro jects including b enc hmarking and redesign

f

administrativ e pro cesses. In recen t y ears, he gained exp erience in a large n um b er

f

branc hes

f

industry in b

th

the prot and non-prot sectors and esp ecially in the comm unication tec hnology industry . He has also written sev eral articles ab

ut

w

rk

pro cess

ptimisation

and pac k aged soft w are, IT managemen t, business con trol and c hange managemen t.

Leo

v an den Ho ek, Resp

nsible

Manager Leo v an den Ho ek is a partner and resp

nsible

for Business Advisory Services in The Netherlands, the advisory activities

f

the function Assurance. Leo v an den Ho ek is also c hairman

f

the KPMG Accession P

licy

Committee. Leo v an den Ho ek has b een with KPMG since 1974, initially as assistan t-auditor (1974/1975) and since 1975 as consultan t. Leo has w

rk

ed

n

a large n um b er

f

advisory pro jects in the eld

f

managemen t b eha viour and managemen t issues in b

th

the prot and the not-for-prot sector. In recen t y ears he has w

rk

ed in particular

n

the eld

f

planning & con trol

f
rganisations

Leo v an den Ho ek has also b een in v

lv

ed in the dev elopmen t and teac hing

f

a n um b er

f

(managemen t-orien ted) training courses. He has a long exp erience in

rganisational

managemen t; managemen t &

rganisation

audits; coac hing

f

managemen t teams; managemen t

f

c hange; pro ject managemen t and training. 6. ED

Europ

ean Dynamics Europ ean Dynamics (ED) is a leading Europ ean IT and T elecomm unications systems in tegrator headquartered in A thens, Greece. The compan y w as established in No v em b er 1993 in A thens, Greece with an

b

jectiv e to pro vide pro ducts and services in the elds

f

Information T ec hnology and T elecomm unications (IT&T). The main activities

f

ED are telecomm unication and information systems in tegration, soft- w are and applications dev elopmen t, hardw are and soft w are distribution and tec hnical supp

rt,

facilities and applications managemen t, and consulting services. ED Oers its services to

rgan-

isations in the public and priv ate sectors, b

th

in Greece and in 25

ther

coun tries w

rld-wide.

These include go v ernmen t institutions, m ultinational corp

rations

and large companies, researc h and academic institutes. The compan y has a particular exp ertise in ASP , E-commerce (B2C, B2B, B2E, etc.), group w are and w

rko

w managemen t dev eloping its

wn

soft w are applications and to

ls

in these domains. All E-commerce services that are dev elop ed b y the E-commerce Division

f

ED, comprise In ternet / WWW solutions adjusted to business requiremen ts and/

r

customer needs prescrib ed in adv ance, in co-op eration with

ur

E-commerce exp erts. The compan y has kno w-ho w and skills to in tegrate and pro vide solutions in v arious arc hitectures and v endor platforms/pro ducts (MS Site Serv er, In tershop Mall, IBM W ebSphere, Oracle ICS, etc). More sp ecically , the E-commerce 11

SLIDE 12 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 Division has dev elop ed signican t kno w-ho w in Microsoft & Oracle databases as bac k-oce platforms, C++ / CORBA / DCOM

b

jects as middle-w are platforms, and Ja v a/ASP as clien t applications. All these exp ertise will b e brough t to the U-INDF OR-ME pro ject. Some

f

the most recen t inno v ativ e e-commerce pro jects include the Konstan tak atos Bros pro ject that aims at dev eloping an e-shop and also a corp

rate

p

rtal

for automating the comm unication and information exc hange

f

sta w

rking

at their dieren t subsidiaries, the Sidenor/So v el pro ject that aims at dev eloping In tranet applications to automate the

p

eration

f

pro visioning c hannels, supp

rting

corp

rate

database access and the exc hange

f

customer

rders

in v

ices,

pa ymen t

rders

and shipping

rders

E-shops, an Electronic Mall (h ttp://eshops.eone.gr), where e-shops

f

dieren t retailers are b eing hosted and also an adv anced eshop generation engine

p

erates, automating the design, installation and main tenance

f

e-shops, customised to the needs

f

the merc han ts, facilitating the adv ertising and selling

f

their pro ducts

v

er the In ternet, and supp

rting

secure electronic pa ymen ts

f

customers using credit cards, a corp

rate

p

rtal

for UNILEVER HELLAS and nally an In ternet p

rtal

for e-one (h ttp://www.eone.gr/) that constitutes a global B2C concept, pro vides news, lifest yle, information, tec hnical and business information, etc., and supp

rts

classieds and v

ting

mec hanisms, electronic directories, w eb- mail and w eb-space facilities, discussion fora, journals, p

lls

and surv eys, calendars, corp

rate

news, do cumen t rep

sitories,

etc. Additionally ED recen tly launc hed a pro ject for the dev elopmen t

f

an in telligen t soft w are agen t (Legal Information Soft w are Agen t

LISA)

capable

f

supplying through the In ternet legal information ab

ut

IPR (In tellectual Prop ert y Righ ts). EPI-SP ARK pro ject nanced b y Europ ean Commission in the framew

rk
f

IST-99 Programme will create an E-commerce site for the pro vision

f

faster, c heap er and more comprehensiv e IPR services, principally for Europ ean Small and Medium En terprises. By the end

f

the pro ject in 2002, LISA system will b e capable

f

handling for all EC coun tries, a 100 T ec hniques used for the dev elopmen t

f

LISA system are classied as follo ws:

Information

extraction and enco ding: a natural-language tec hnology is adapted to facilitate extraction

f

sp ecic information from structured natural language text.

Mec

hanisms for storing and accessing legal kno wledge that is needed to answ er IPR ques- tions: existing legal

n

tology and deon tic formalism represen tation

f

legal kno wledge will b e emplo y ed and customised to matc h the sp ecic requiremen ts

f

the IPR sector. This will facilitate accurate retriev al

f

all, and

nly

, relev an t legal information that is necessary to answ er the queries subscrib ed to the system.

Clien

t DB and E-commerce infrastructure: Lisa m ust b e able to access information ab

ut

the clien t (e.g. what information is already receiv ed, what existing IPR protection is

btained,

and for whic h designs/in v en tions, etc). All these e-commerce functionalities will b e implemen ted to supp

rt

LISA and the Information Extraction w

rk,

through a set

f

in telligen t agen ts dev elop ed using XML to

ls

and Ja v a / serv elet tec hnologies.

Net

w

rk

Infrastructure & Securit y: dieren t tec hniques will b e emplo y ed to supp

rt

user access con trol and registration, certication pro vision, secure transp

rt

proto cols, go

d

net w

rk

connectivit y , etc. 12

SLIDE 13 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 Finally , ED eorts to w ards the dev elopmen t

f

new soft w are agen ts facilitating the ecien t monitoring

f

con trol systems has led to launc hing

f

LIAISE pro ject, aiming to pro duce a commercial to

l

automating the negotiation and conguration

f

pro cess existing con trol systems. The LIAISE system constitutes a m ulti-la y er system, with eac h la y er comprising a No de comm u- nicating with No des

f
ther

lev els (upp er

r

lo w er). Eac h actor within LIAISE system 'o wns' a cop y

f

LIAISE-No de arc hitecture. Users access the system through a cen tral 'LIASE P

rtal'

and get assistance in prescribing their requiremen ts in to a formal request for quotations sub- mitted to the system and forw arded to selected man ufacturers. Eac h man ufacturer con tacted will in turn try to satisfy the request and reply accordingly , while comp

nen

ts not supplied b y addressed man ufacturers, are next requested from

thers

in the list. The pro cess spreads the computational eort throughout the LIAISE en vironmen t, greatly increasing its sp eed and exibilit y . Once man ufacturers ha v e pro vided their replies/oers, the Liase-No de arc hitecture selects 'b est' solution and then passes information and con trol to an upp er lev el for taking nal decisions. The resulting decision will b e an aggregation

f

'b est solutions' that form a complete prop

sal

to the User that triggered the system. The LIAISE system incorp

rates

articial in- telligence in the form

f

rule-based and case-based reasoning. This allo ws, in theory , the system to

p

erate completely without h uman in terv en tion. The system describ ed ab

v

e mak es up the Op erational La y er, complimen ted b y a Supp

rt

La y er pro viding the necessary data and

ther

utilities, suc h as registration, news and

nline

assistance. F urthermore, an Infrastructure La y er sc hedules and con trols the

p

erations within the no des and system resources, guaran teeing that none

f

system no des b ecomes

v

erloaded. A scalable arc hitecture is implemen ted to allo w the LIAISE en vironmen t gro w and shrink dynamically . Six ma jor mo dules exist within the LIAISE system arc hitecture, supp

rted

b y separate databases and rep

sitories.

The system is hosted within a separate infrastructure la y er, supp

rting

comm unication and sc heduling. Finally , an inno v ativ e negotiation pro cess is b eing implemen ted, allo wing the LIAISE system to

p

erate a cyclical negotiation system that enables man ufacturers to impro v e their

ers

against eac h

ther.

This pro vides the b est p

ssible

solution to the customer and greatly reduces the resp

nse

time. Key persons

Nikitas

Tsop elas, Business Group Manager Dr. Nikitas Tsop elas: he has a PhD in Computer Science from Queen Mary College, Uni- v ersit y

f

London and a Diploma in Mec hanical Engineering from the National T ec hnical Univ ersit y

f

A thens. Dr Tsop elas is no w leading the Electronic Commerce Section

f

EU- R OPEAN D YNAMICS and under this capacit y he sup ervises all the electronic pro jects

f

the compan y . He has dened the compan y strategy in this eld b y sp ecifying the tec hno- logical and business en vironmen t and dev elop ed the business b y leading negotiations with Greek industrial and commerce establishmen ts.

Elias

Lizardos, Information Analyst Mr Elias Lizardos holds an MSc in Computer Science and BSc in Computer Engineering, b

th

from George W ashington Univ ersit y , USA. He is an

utstanding

electronic commerce and catalogue services exp ert, and in EUR OPEAN D YNAMICS, he has undertak en the dev elopmen t

f

e-shops for customers using dieren t commercial pro ducts.

Ioannis

Boutlas, Information Analyst 13

SLIDE 14 U-INF OR-ME F ebruary 21, 2001 Prop

sal

No: IST-2001-32011 Mr. Ioannis Boutlas holds and MSc. in Engineering Business Managemen t from W arwic k Univ ersit y and a BEng. in Mec hanical Engineering from Surrey Univ ersit y . He has an ex- p ertise in Financial E-Commerce applications for the bank and sto c k brok erage industry and an extensiv e pro ject managemen t exp erience in inno v ativ e e-commerce framew

rks

(Europ ean Dynamic's XML framew

rk,

Europ ean Dynamic's W eb Comp

nen

t En vironmen t framew

rk

etc.) 14