Monday, Apr 12, 2010

• Management of data poses new challenges
• Database technologies crucial for computing

Vellore: There are examples and success stories in Information Technology (IT) and non-IT sectors making the database as a trans-disciplinary domain. Today, the users, IT developers and organisations are confronted with the explosion of data and information, and at the same time scarcity of meaningful data for making informed decisions. There are a plethora of data sources and data storage systems, making the system designer's job much more challenging. The management of data, whether offline or online, also poses a new set of challenges owing to heterogeneity of data source and sinks.

The advent of the Internet and the digital convergence coupled with advances in the database technologies is promising a new range of path-breaking applications for new business, industry, government, infrastructure management, energy management, telecommunication architecture, urban planning, disaster mitigation and management, and so on. In the above backdrop, the VIT University organised a National Workshop on the Frontiers of Modern Database Technologies at its campus here on Friday and Saturday. Inaugurating the workshop, Seema Acharya, Principal, Education & Research, Infosys Technologies, Mysore presented an industry perspective of business intelligence and how this domain is driving the business, industry and government. The corporate and industry sectors continued investment and development efforts during the recession. D.P. Kothari, Vice-Chancellor of VIT University, who presided, drew a parallel between the developments of computing and power systems.

The database technologies are crucial components for computing and non-computing domains, he said.

Rochak Tarika of Infosys Technologies, Mysore presented a few case studies on business intelligence and demonstrated a few tools. Sendhilkumar of Anna University presented recent research trends in web mining. Jothimani, senior professor of VIT, shared his research and development experiences of ‘GIS (Geographica Information System)-The technology and its application.' Dattathri Srinivasan of Oracle Corporation presented different Spatial Database tools and solutions.

H.R. Vishwakarma, senior professor, Software Engineering Division, School of Information Technology & Engineering (SITE), VIT said the workshop content was designed and developed by Daphne Lopez, Division Leader, Database Management, SITE and the faculty members of the division under the guidance of Bandaru Ramakrishna Rao, Director of SITE. More than 120 persons, mostly faculty members and students of IT and Computer Science and Engineering from different engineering colleges all over India, participated in the workshop.