Open PostDoc position in spatial network databases available! More information is here.

I am an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (FUB). I received a M.Sc. degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Vienna (1989) and a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the RWTH Aachen (1996).

My research interests include data intensive systems with a particular focus on advanced database technologies for processing time and space referenced data, approximate matching of hierarchical data structures, and data warehousing and analysis.

I am a member of the Center for Database and Information Systems (DIS) at the FUB. DIS pursues research in the field of advanced data management and analysis technologies. Our research methods include fundamental research, system development, and empirical evaluation. The problems investigated originate from real-world applications, such as eGovernment, eTourism, and Health-care Informatics.

Research Projects

• AQuiST: The project aims to advance current query processing technologies in spatial network databases, concentrating mainly on the following queries: (1) Isochrones to determine all space points from where a query point is reachable within a given time span; they are used, for example, in urban planning to assess the coverage of a city with services such as schools. (2) Sequenced spatio-temporal aggregation to compute aggregations over moving objects in road networks, e.g., to determine the traffic density. [more]

• FITTS: The fast development of GPS technologies and GIS-based services offers new possibilities to advance services in the tourism sector. The aim of this project is to investigate and develop new solutions in this field and includes the following topics: analyse historical trips to discover the most interesting points of interests (POIs) or sequeneces of POIs, search for similar trips, or the computation of the best path for a touristic round trip for given user preferences and domain constraints.

• MEDAN: This project aims at creating competences in data warehousing and analysis technologies for the health care sector. A specific focus is on multidimensional modeling of time-varying data, in particular (slowly) changing dimensions, and on complex event set pattern matching, where the order of matching events is irrelevant. MEDAN is a collaboration with the Hospital of Meran and builds on real-world use cases from the hospital. [more]

• Finished projects: eBZ, eMayor

Selected Publications (Full list, DBLP)

1. J. Gordevicius, J. Gamper, M. Böhlen. Parsimonious temporal aggregation. The VLDB Journal. Appears in 2011.
2. I. Timko, M.H. Böhlen, J. Gamper. Sequenced spatiotemporal aggregation for coarse query granularities. The VLDB Journal, 20(5): 721-741, 2011.
3. N. Augsten, M. Böhlen, C. Dyreson, and J. Gamper. Windowed pq-Grams for Approximate Joins of Data-Centric XML. The VLDB Journal. Appears in 2011.
4. M. Akinde, M.H. Böhlen, D. Chatziantoniou, J. Gamper. Theta-constrained multi-dimensional aggregation. Information Systems, 36(2): 341-358, 2011.
5. B. Cadonna, J. Gamper, M.H. Böhlen. Sequenced event set pattern matching. EDBT-11, pages 33-44.
6. N. Augsten, M. H. Böhlen, J. Gamper. The pq-gram distance between ordered labeled trees. TODS, 35(1):1-36, 2010.
7. I. Timko, M. Böhlen, J. Gamper. Sequenced spatio-temporal aggregation in road networks. EDBT-09, pages 48-59.
8. N. Augsten, M.H. Böhlen, C. Dyreson, J. Gamper. Approximate joins for data centric XML. ICDE-08, pages 814-823.
9. N. Augsten, M.H. Böhlen, J. Gamper. An incrementally maintainable index for approximate lookups in hierarchical data. VLDB-06, pages 247-258. [pdf]
10. M. Böhlen, J. Gamper, C.S. Jensen. An algebraic framework for temporal attribute characteristics. Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence, 46:249-374, 2006. [pdf]
11. M. Böhlen, J. Gamper, C. S. Jensen. Multi-dimensional aggregation for temporal data. EDBT-06, pages 257-275. [pdf]
12. N. Augsten, M. Böhlen, J. Gamper. Approximate matching of hierarchical data using pq-grams. VLDB-05, pages 141-152. [pdf]

Teaching

I am teaching the following courses:

• Database Warehouse and Data Mining, MSc students, Winter term
• Seminars in Databases, BSc/MSc students, Winter term
• Database Management Systems, BSc students, Summer term

Proposals for BSc/MSc theses are available here. Contact me if you are interested in one of these topics and want to do a thesis under my supervision.