This page describes the educational theme Information Systems, which is a part of the Master Course in Informatics.
The description consists of;
It is the interaction between a society's needs and technological resources that drives the technological evolution. Initially, the supply of data was sufficient for the society's needs. Later, when database systems became available at a time when society had already become more complicated, the supply of data grew so over-whelming that the need for filtering and selection techniques became more and more imperative. Subsequently, information systems were developed to enable the control of this information explosion in an organizational context. The next step in this evolution is the emergence of knowledge systems, which derive their knowledge from a multitude of, sometimes distributed, information and knowledge sources. The full impact of this evolution is beyond human imagination, and is the object of exploration.
The department IRIS is dedicated to this line of evolution: from data via information to knowledge, paying attention to such topics as: information modeling, information disclosure, system alignment, data mining, knowledge representation, automated reasoning and knowledge discovery.
The process of exploring new technology is best supported by a fundamental base, which abstracts from best practices
into theories. This base provides guidelines for developing new lines of application. In this context, the need for a general
theory of information supply and retrieval is evident. Investments in a new generation of information and knowledge
systems are to be sanctioned by such theories.
The focus of the department IRIS is researching and educating this fundamental base:
The embedding of these activities in a societal context is considered vital, and expressed by the assignment of several adjunct professors in the department IRIS.
IRIS concentrates its activities around three research foci:
The following sections describe the activities in which the IRIS department is engaged for each of these research foci.
Natural language based modeling of information objects is applied to traditional information modeling areas (e.g. data modeling and databases) as well as to document retrieval. In addition, we examine mechanisms for the adaptation of information objects to the personal needs of particular users. This research has its roots in adaptive hypermedia.
A semiotic theory of knowledge representation is developed of which the universal nature is explored. Practical applications of this theory, for example, in the field of text summarization and possibly also, of proof summarization) as well as problem specification are considered.
In the context of the NWO Pronir project, research that aims to capture the evolving information needs of changing organization in connection to an information system's capabilities will be undertaken. This research will be carried out in collaboration with the InfoLab of the University of Tilburg.
Furthermore, research is done on the representation of uncertain knowledge and preferences in knowledge systems or intelligent systems in general. This research uses model-based techniques, such as Bayesian networks, decision theory and logic, and encompasses research into the mathematical properties of meaningful structures for model-based reasoning; insight in such structures is expected to be practically useful for designing knowledge systems for actual problems, such as in Biomedical Informatics.
In the context of information retrieval research, a general theory of information supply and retrieval is under development. This theory will deal with information objects, their data representations, and corresponding transformations between objects and data. Research areas of data mining and machine learning are being explored. In particular using Bayesian networks and other formalisms encoding stochastic (in)dependence in data.
A system's architecture is usually the first design artifact in the development process -- be it an information system or a software system -- and it is primarily concerned with the highest level view on the design of system. In the construction of the architecture, an attempt is made to meet the most important concerns and requirements of a system. These concerns and requirements can pertain to functional as well as non-functional qualities of a system.
The research efforts therefore explicitly aim to:
During the master phase, the following courses form the key part of the educational theme Information and Knowledge Systems: