NUI Galway researchers head to the Valley


14 May 2007

The Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway will be contributing a significant part to the upcoming Semantic Technologies Conference in Silicon Valley, where it will present on various semantic technologies developed exclusively at the university.

Earlier this month DERI set a world record in advancing the semantic, or intelligent, web by processing seven billion search query statements in fractions of a second.

Sebastian Kruk, a DERI researcher who specialises in e-learning research, will be demonstrating JeromeDL, an intelligent digital library that enables web users to contribute to as well as read digital content.

JeromeDL uses both the semantic web and social networking technology to organise these digital libraries and can be applied to e-learning, web archiving and e-government.

Also to be presented at the conference is ActiveRDF by Eyal Oren, an open source technology that aims to bridge the gap between emerging semantic web developments and existing data structures on the web.

This tool, which National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway said has elicited worldwide interest, will allow web developers to take advantage of the leading-edge advances in the semantic web using familiar software such as Ruby on Rails.

DERI, with a staff of over 100, is presently the largest applied research organisation in the world developing semantic web technology.

“DERI Galway’s leading role in semantic solutions is confirmed again, not only in Europe but also in the Silicon Valley,” said Professor Stefan Decker, director of DERI.

By Marie Boran