Mathematical Foundations for System Interoperability
Information Technology Laboratory, Software and Systems Division
NIST only participates in the February and August reviews.
This research aims to study the formalization of information processes and systems, using modern approaches and techniques from mathematics. Distinct entities, each having its own database, ontology, or other model of the world, need to collaborate with one another. To do so, the entities must continue to communicate as the situation changes; this involves constantly rebuilding their shared language as well as updating their own model. Current logical frameworks are not flexible enough to manage the constant schema design changes that arise in healthcare and manufacturing systems. The eventual goal is to develop a framework for enabling system interoperability. Background in algebraic topology or similar field in mathematics, or in the theory of programming languages would be useful.