Author(s): Nabil I. Hachem, Michael A. Gennert, and Matthew O. Ward, Computer Science Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA 01609
Source: Int. Workshop on Global GIS, Tokyo, Aug. 1993.
Abstract: Scientific databases have recently become a challenging research area for a number of reasons: 1) the amount of data stored in scientific databases is rapidly increasing, with orders of magnitude increases on the horizon, 2) the data are becoming increasing complex, as more complicated data structures and data relationships must be captured, 3) there is a need to integrate incompatible data formats, commercial databases, and analysis tools into a seamless environment, and 4) scientific databases are becoming distributed, i.e., no single site can archive all the data potentially required to conduct some experiments. Unless these challenges can be met, the scientific researcher will spend an inordinate amount of time manipulating bits and bytes, instead of focusing on the scientific problems of most interest.
In this paper we discuss these database issues in more depth and then describe the Gaea system, a spatio-temporal database management system under development at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Gaea's main objectives include:
Matthew O. Ward (matt@cs.wpi.edu)