Invited talk

Why Models (NOT Data) are the 'gold of the information age'!

Abstract

The running trends in computer science research in “data and information management“ are: ‘Big data’, 'data analysis/analytics/science' and 'machine learning'.

“Data is the gold of the information age", or "Data scientist is the sexiest job of the 21st century” are well-known statements in politics, business and in science.

However, beside all these generally accepted trends and statements, the basic needs of industrial software development arise from the complex problem of „integration of software ('interoperability') AND data (at the same time)“, having a market share of 80% (!) of the total software development in the world. These problems heavily impact the ‚every-day-bread-and-butter‘ workload in software companies, most of them SMEs in a deeply specialized 'domain specific' market.

This presentation will give an overview, and, additionally, technicals details and many examples on a long personal record of successful experiences in information systems development & integration methodology, based on three essential paradigms:

• Model (and meta-model) based methods for MBSDI: Why is it (…still and more than ever before …) useful to “waste" a lot of time in the initial phases of software development: software and information modeling?
• Semantic concepts and ontologies: Why mathematics and formal logic (…still and more than ever before …) is an essential skill for each computer scientist and each software developer?
• Patterns: Why we should not re-invent the wheels in each decade from scratch, why not learn from the past?

In the context of BDAS, we will focus on the methodology of MBSDI, and on concrete achievements in information centric solutions for industry.

Short biography

• High school education in Berlin at a „humanistic school“ (Goethe-Gymnasium), i.e. 9 yrs. Latin language, 5 yrs. Old Greek language studies … poooh … (German „Abitur“ in 1974)
• Diploma degree in Mathematics (Dipl.-Math.) at FU Berlin with a minor in C.S. at TU Berlin and some other short minors in Philosophy, Psychology, and Linguistics
• Diploma thesis (in German language): „Differenzenverfahren für mehrdimensionale Diffusions-Konvektions-Probleme“, under supervision of Prof. Dr. Rudolf Gorenflo, 1984, 163 pp. + code listings in appendix.
• Research associate in Theoretical Computer Science (ATFS department, later TAL group, Prof.Siefkes) at TU Berlin
• Textbook (in German language): Dieter Hofbauer, Ralf-D. Kutsche, „Grundlagen des Maschinellen Beweisens“, Vieweg, 1st and 2nd ed.,1989/1991.
• Research Associate at German Heart Institute Berlin („DHZB“), analysing/designing complex integration and interoperability solutions for the cardiology dept. and externals
• Result: Ph.D. at TU Berlin under supervision of Prof. Dr. Bernd Mahr (TU Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Hans-Dieter Ehrich (TU Braunschweig, 2nd reviewer) in applications of formal methods to clinical information systems – “A type-oriented approach to the specification and formal semantics of a distributed heterogeneous object system”, PhD thesis, TU Berlin, 1994. Title of my defense talk: “Bridging the gap between theory and practice”.
• Senior scientist (Academic Director) at TUB chair 'Computation and Information Structures CIS‘ (Prof. Herbert Weber), establishing the focus area 'Heterogeneous Distributed Information Systems’. At the same time, scientific coordinator, project leader and member of the board of leaders with Fraunhofer ISST (lateron -> Fraunhofer FIRST -> Fraunhofer FOKUS).
• 30 months from 2005 provisional head of the CIS group; finally from 2008 (until … ) Acad. Director under new professorship and chair: Prof. Dr. Volker Markl (research group now called: DIMA group)
• Science Chair of both BIZYCLE (2007 thru 2010, approx. 6.5 mio €) and BIZWARE (2010 thru 2013, approx. 11 mio €) project consortia, a large-scale initiative by TU Berlin and industry (6 resp. 8 SMEs) establishing ”Model Based Software and Data Integration” as a focus area for SMEs in Germany in several business domains, funded by German BMBF (under the frame programme “Regional Growth Cores”).
• Coordinator of DIMA’s international Master’s programmes: ERASMUS MUNDUS “IT4BI” (since 2012), EIT Digital “Data Science track” (since 2015), ERASMUS + (EMMJC) “BDMA” (since 2017)
• Co-Initiator of the international Master’s programme IT4Energy with Faculty III/Campus El Gouna