Workshop on Array Databases

co-located with EDBT/ICDT 2011, Uppsala / Sweden
submission deadline: December 31, 2011


Workshop Theme

From the fundamental collection paradigms known in conceptual modeling - sets, bags, lists, and arrays - it is the array concept which has long been neglected by the database community. However, as sensors are becoming ubiquitous and inexpensive, and as further simulations become large, multi-dimensional arrays are attributed a large share of today's archive spaces. Geoscientific examples include 1-D sensor time series, 2-D satellite imagery, 3-D x/y/t image time series and x/y/z geology data, and 4-D x/y/z/t climate and ocean simulation data. A similar wealth of array data can be found in space, life, and other sciences. Sparse arrays appear in OLAP. In summary, arrays (by practitioners often referred to as raster data) comprise the natural representation of n-dimensional sensor, array, and statistics data. Typically these data come in massive volumes, with Petabyte - in future Exabyte - sizes for single arrays.

Unleashing this huge data reservoir for online analytics by scientists, industry, government, and citizens represents a major information services challenge. As traditional databases do not support large arays, in today's practice ad-hoc implementations prevail, often done by service providers themselves and centered around some particular data formats. Databases are hardly involved for array management. Many researchers believe, however, that database technology can offer its traditional benefits, such as information integration, flexibility of query language, scalability, and dynamic optimization, on arrays as well.

Currently no forum is existing which expressly concentrates on array databases. Filling this gap, this workshop will gather experts interested in theory, architecture, applications, standardization, and any other relevant aspect of array services. In the closing panel, foundation will be laid towards a research agenda for this emerging field.


Topics of Interest

Submissions of original research contributions and software demonstrations are invited for all array relevant topics, including - but not limited to - the ones below:
array theory: algebras and calculi
query languages for massive array data analytics
logical and physical optimization
storage methods
storage hierarchies
compression
array database architectures, including both servers and clients
distribution and virtualization
data quality
uncertainty
sensor data
MOLAP
applications and standardization, such as in Earth, Space, and Life Sciences
beyond arrays: meshes and other space-time varying data
system demonstrations

This one-day workshop on March 25, 2011 will be co-located with EDBT/ICDT 2011 at Uppsala, Sweden. Workshop participants will have to register for EDBT/ICDT; attendance to all workshops will be included in the overall registration fee.

Important dates
submission deadline: December 31, 2011
notification to authors: January 15, 2011
camera ready paper due: February 01, 2011
workshop: March 25, 2011


Submission guidelines

Research and demo papers should all be formatted using the ACM double-column format (templates available at:
http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates.
The maximal length is:
12 pages for research papers
5 pages for demo papers
All papers must be submitted in PDF format to the workshop chairs.


Workshop chairs

Peter Baumann, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany
Bill Howe, Washington University, USA


Workshop program committee (to be completed)

Peter Baumann
Bill Howe
Martin Kersten

Publication and IP issues

Papers will be made available in online conference proceedings, possibly hosted within the ACM Digital Library (subject to approval).
*** To enable conference attendees and the general community to
*** glimpse at the content a bit ahead of the conference, we plan
*** to make the papers electronically available before the
*** conference, on March 10, 2011.
*** Authors are thus encouraged to make sure the necessary
*** patent issues are solved and enable publication by this date.