I am the head of the database systems group at the Faculty of Engineering of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. Since October 2019, I serve as Vice-Rector for Research. My main research interests are in data-intensive systems with a focus on database technologies for the processing and analysis of data, with a particular emphasis on time-referenced and time series data. The adopted research methodology combines fundamental research, system development, and empirical evaluation. Research problems originate from different application areas, e.g., government, tourism, health-care, agriculture.

Research Projects

• ISTeP: This project aims at boosting the efficiency and scalability of the Temporal Alignment (TA) framework (http://tpg.inf.unibz.it/), which is the first relational implementation with comprehensive temporal query support. The research topics include: customized temporal alignment primitives; advanced cost estimates; equivalence rules between temporal primitives and RA operators. The project is funded by the research grant # I52F20000250003 (ISTeP) of Research Südtirol / Alto Adige 2019. [more]
• Temporal RDBMS: This project aims at extending RDBMSs with support for querying interval-timestamped data under sequenced semantics by reducing the temporal operators to the non-temporal counterparts. Our solution has been implemented in the kernel of PostgreSQL. [more]
• Temporal Data Analytics: This project aims at developing solutions for analyzing temporal data. Specifically adressed research problems include the efficient computation of aggregation operators, approximate aggregations, and visual data analysis. [more]
• Finished projects: PREMISE, DASA, Isochrones, AQuiST, MEDAN, eBZ, eMayor

Selected Publications (DBLP, Google Scholar)

• M. Ceccarello, J. Gamper. Fast and scalable mining of time series motifs with probabilistic guarantees. PVLDB 2022 [pdf]
• A. Dignös, M.H. Böhlen, J. Gamper, C.S. Jensen, P. Moser. Leveraging range joins for the computation of overlap joins. VLDB Journal 2021. [pdf]
• M. Shekelyan, A. Dignös, J. Gamper, M. Garofalakis. Approximating multidimensional range counts with maximum error guarantees. ICDE 2021.
• T. Chondrogiannis, P. Bouros, J. Gamper, U. Leser, D.B. Blumenthal. Finding k-shortest paths with limited overlap. VLDB Journal 2020. [pdf]
• D.B. Blumenthal, N. Boria, J. Gamper, S. Bougleux, L. Brun. Comparing heuristics for graph edit distance computation. VLDB Journal 2020. [pdf]
• A. Dignös, B. Glavic, X. Niu, J. Gamper, M. H. Böhlen. Snapshot semantics for temporal multiset relations. PVLDB 2019. [pdf]
• M. Shekelyan, A. Dignös, J. Gamper. DigitHist: a histogram-based data summary with tight error bounds. PVLDB 2017. [pdf]
• A. Dignös, M.H. Böhlen, J. Gamper, C.S. Jensen. Extending the kernel of a relational DBMS with comprehensive support for sequenced temporal queries. TODS 2016. [pdf] (Selected by ACM Computing Reviews for the 21st Annual Best of Computing — Notable Books and Articles)
• A. Dignös, M.H. Böhlen, J. Gamper. Overlap interval partition join. SIGMOD 2014. [pdf]
• A. Dignös, M.H. Böhlen, J. Gamper. Temporal alignment. SIGMOD 2012. [pdf]
• J. Gordevicius, J. Gamper, M.H. Böhlen. Parsimonious temporal aggregation. VLDB Journal 2012.
• N. Augsten, M. Böhlen, J. Gamper. The pq-gram distance between ordered labeled trees. TODS 2010. [pdf]

Scientific Services

Chairs: Area chair ICDE 2023, Demo Co-chair of ICDE 2021, PC Co-chair DaWaK 2023 and 2022, General Co-chair of SOFSEM 2021, General Chair of SSDBM 2018, PC Co-chair of TIME 2019, Local Chair of TIME 2020, Workshops Co-chair of ADBIS 2023, 2019 and 2017.
Program committee memberships: PVLDB/VLDB (2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 demo, 2017, 2015 demo), SIGMOD (2023, 2019 demo, 2014 demo, 2011), ICDE (2017, 2016, 2010), EDBT (2021, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2009), SIGSPATIAL/GIS (2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011), SSDBM (2015, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010), DASFAA (2018, 2017, 2015, 2014), ADBIS (2021, 2020, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2009, 2008).
Reviewing for journals: TODS, VLDBJ, TKDE, SIGMOD Record, Information Systems, DKE, AICOM, AIM.
I am a member of ACM and IEEE CS.

Teaching and Student Supervision

Current PhD students: Adam Charane, Mohamed Sabri Hafidi, Kassem Sabeh, Siddeeq Shahbaz, Rasheed Zeeshan

Former PhD students: Giovanni Mahlknecht, David B. Blumenthal, Michael Shekelyan, Theodoros Chondrogiannis, Daniel Taliun, Bruno Cadonna, Juozas Gordevicius, Markus Innerebner. Co-supervision: Nikolaus Augsten, Romans Kasperovics, Judith Knapp.

Courses I am currently teaching: Database Management Systems (BSc)

Proposals for BSc/MSc theses are on the database systems group page. [here]