
The Knowledge and Information Systems Science team performs scientific research in computational methods for the extraction, representation, organization, synthesis, discovery, and retrieval of knowledge in databases and information systems. We especially emphasize methods for representing semantic information, and hybrid methodologies combining statistical, numerical, and quantitative with symbolic, logical, and qualitative techniques. Specific technical areas of expertise include: Order and lattice theoretical discrete math approaches to ontological and conceptual semantic systems; Computational linguistic and lexical semantic approaches to natural language processing and text extraction; Representation and discovery in large relational databases and knowledge networks; Generalized and hybrid approaches to uncertainty quantification and information theory; and Software architectures for such techniques emphasizing parallel and high performance methods. A primary application area is computational biology, and thus we have a close working relationship with the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics team. Other application areas include homeland defense, critical infrastructure protection, intelligence analysis, decision support environments, risk and reliability analysis, and defense transformation.

Team Members

Current Projects


Protein Function Inference (Joslyn, Mniszewski, Verspoor)	Inference of protein function as bio-ontological categories from knowledge of sequence, structure, and published literature
Host-Pathogen Interactions (Pathomics) in Avian Influenza (Joslyn, Mniszewski, Verspoor)	Automated ontological protein function inference for influenza host-pathogen interaction
Theoretical and Computational Pathomics (Joslyn, Verspoor)	Knowledge systems technologies for the analysis and management of host-pathogen interactions and social effects of infectious disease
Automated Template Induction for Information Extraction (Verspoor, Lin)	Unsupervised learning and linguistic analysis for induction of templates for information extraction from text
Semantic Networks for Homeland Security (Joslyn, Mniszewski, Verspoor)	Knowledge extraction from text, text canonicalization, ontology research, and machine learning algorithms on large semantic networks
EPISIMS (Mniszewski)	High resolution epidemiological simulations reflecting social contact patterns and disease transmission characteristics
Social Sciences Knowledge Representation (Verspoor, Joslyn)	Determination of subjectivity and opinion analysis in text using information extraction techniques; ontological representations of simulations
Hydrology Modeling (Mniszewski)	Parallelization of watershed simulation codes utilizing domain decomposition based on partitioning of stream reach networks
Generalized Data-Driven Analysis and Integration (Joslyn)	OLAP analysis, multi-dimensional link analysis, schema and ontology interoperability
Institute for Discrete Sciences (Joslyn, Lin)	Instance identification and relational analysis in multi-relational networks; ontologically driven discrete simulations
Generalized Uncertainty Quantification (Joslyn)	Non-traditional approaches to uncertainty quantification for engineering modeling reliability and risk analysis
Epistemic Uncertainty Modeling (Joslyn)	Representation, aggregation, and propagation of hybrid aleatory and epistemic uncertainty through complex software models

F Heylighen and CA Joslyn: (2001) "Cybernetics and Second Order Cybernetics", Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, ed. AJ Meyer, Academic Press, New York, v. 4, pp. 155-170.

CA Joslyn: (2002) "Link Anlaysis of Social Meta-Networks", presented at the 2002 Conf. on Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS 02)

CA Joslyn: (2004) "Poset Ontologies and Concept Lattices as Semantic Hierarchies", in: Conceptual Structures at Work, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, v. 3127, ed. Wolff, Pfeiffer and Delugach, pp. 287-302, Springer-Verlag, Berlin

CA Joslyn and WJ Bruno: (2005) "Weighted Pseudo-Distances for Categorization in Semantic Hierarchies", Conceptual Structures: Common Semantics for Sharing Knowledge, Lecture Notes in AI, v. 3596, eds. F Dau, M-L Mugnier, and G Stumme, pp. 381-395

CA Joslyn, SM Mniszewski, AW Fulmer, and GG Heaton: (2004) "The Gene Ontology Categorizer", Bioinformatics, v. 20:s1, pp. 169-177

K Keahey, P Fasel, and SM Mniszewski: (2001) "PAWS: Collective Interactions and Data Transfers", Proc. 10th IEEE Int. Symp. on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC-10), pp. 47-54

A Maguitman, A Rechtsteiner, KM Verspoor, C Strauss, and LM Rocha: (2006) "Large-Scale Testing of Bibliome Informatics", Proc. of the 2006 Pacific Symposium of Biocomputing (PSB 06)

WL Oberkampf, JC Helton, SF Wojtkiewicz, CA Joslyn, and S Ferson: (2004) "Uncertainty in System Response Given Uncertain Parameters", Reliabilty Engineering and Safety Systems, v. 95:1-3, pp. 11-20

KM Verspoor, JD Cohn, SM Mniszewski, and CA Joslyn: (2006) "A Categorization Approach to Automated Ontological Protein Function Annotation", Protein Science,v. 15, pp. 1544-1549

CL Winter, ES Springer, K Costigan, P Fasel, SM Mniszewski, G Zyvoloski: (2004) "Virtual Watersheds: Simulating the Water Balance of the Rio Grande Basin", IEEE Computers in Science and Engineering, 6:3, pp. 18-26

Knowledge and Information Systems Science Team

Knowledge and Information
Systems Science Team