Seville, Spain during my sabbatical year in Europe.

Professor Akira Kawaguchi started his research career at Columbia University by studying theoretical and engineering aspects of building novel systems — three projects involving his designs and demonstrative implementations there are the Data-reduction Paradigm (in collaboration with University of Chicago at Illinois), Epsilon Serializability (in collaboration with Oregon Graduate Institute and IBM T.J. Watson Research Center), and the Sword Declarative Object-oriented Database Language (in collaboration with Bell Laboratories and AT&T Research Laboratories). Until early 1998 he also worked as a research consultant in the database research department of Bell Laboratories and AT&T Research Laboratories, and produced two U.S. Patents. Soon later he was given a grant from Savera Systems Inc for the development of efficient database access engines. Settled at the City College of New York he collaborated with Abbe Mowshowitz in the Computer Science department to establish a theoretical foundation of the bias metric concept for today's search capabilities on the Web. He also served as a mission operator with Fred Moshary in the Electric Engineering department to lead NASA SPACE project. Soon funded by Bayer Corporation and LINKfoundation Inc., he led a development team to successfully deliver one type of mobile wireless biometric systems and associated telemecical health informatics, then ahead-of-the-time product for diabetes care. His continuous effort with Anil Agrawal in the Civil Engineering department yielded large federal grants from NYC DEP and NYS DOT for building object-relational data-warehouses and associated analysis tools to facilitate the historical and temporal record investigation of civil-engineering data. His most recent work with Abbe Mowshowitz and IBM U.K. is building an optimal query execution scheduler for a distributed federated database deployed on an engineered hypercube network (HyperD), supported by ITA's Service Management in Distributed Networks task group.

Professor Kawaguchi's recent achievements are roughly grouped into the following six categories, all of which involve demonstrative implementations:

• Engineered Network Paradigm: investigating areas in the context of engineered networks: 1) alignment of logical networks with physical substrates, 2) network vulnerability, and 3) security. The alignment issue is quite challenging as a theoretical question, so we would concentrate on developing acceptable heuristic solutions such as we have proposed in the hypercube case. Network vulnerability would be approached from the perspective of potential attacks that threaten to break a network into several isolated components - we propose to attack this problem by elaborating a sound and practical definition of vulnerability introduced in our previous work. The security part of the research would focus on variations of network coding that can take advantage of known independent paths in an engineered network. In principle this offers an alternative to encryption that has the advantage of using far less bandwidth.
• Distributed Query Optimization: examines the problem of join query optimization in a Dynamic Distributed Federated Database and the role that network topology, specifically an engineered hypercube, could play in the cost estimation. Considering that many nodes in this environment may rely on batteries and wireless radios, we would like to minimize network information transfer to maximize network availability and lifetime. While in any topology it may be assumed a querying node can estimate distance to data sources, in an unknown topology, the querying node has no knowledge of intersite distances. In a hypercube, these distances can be easily calculated at the querying node based on the sites' labels. What is more, query optimization in the past has not fully taken account of the topology of networks as a cost factor in executing joins. We are conducting a quantitative evaluation of distributed query performance that takes account of network topology.
• Data-warehouse and Decision Support: emphases on data quality investigation and enhancement of decision support. Involved in interdisciplinary research work with civil engineering, biomedical engineering, and biology for the development of specialized data-warehouses such as deterioration rate analysis for NYS bridge data elements, asset inventory and internal inspection ratings for NYC water pipe maintenance, wireless biometric data collection capabilities for diabetes care, and easy retrieval of genes whose expression is altered by parasitoid infections. The most recent work spans into mathematical characterizations of database errors and the effect of error propagation in decision support as well as integration of operations research tools into decision making. A new subject in more traditional side, entitled distributed query processing on hypercube network, is also in progress.
• Information Retrieval: examines a real-time measure of bias in Web search engines. The measure introduced in this research is designed to capture the degree to which the distribution of URLs, retrieved in response to a query, deviates from an ideal or fair distribution for that query. Wider dissemination of the bias concept appeared in the September 2002's issue of the Communications of ACM with the introduction of statistical analysis to measure the bias difference. The March 2002 issue of SearchEnigneWatch.com "Are search engines biased?" also cited this work. Our most recent work highlights differences between bias and classical retrieval measures and gathers additional results of experiments examining the influence on bias measurement of subject domains, search engines, and search terms. The bias concept and computation method have become a core part of a NASA funded project in 2004 to develop a system designed to improve aerospace safety by accurately identifying human factors contributing to mishaps.
• Navigation Control Systems: aims to establish a proactive means to prevent marine accidents by using the full potential of the standardized GPS-based Automatic Identification System. The system envisioned will provide adequate decision-making support for group shipping, especially during critical maneuvering in restricted areas such as channel passing and harbor approaches. A decade-long research collaboration with the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology examined a computation model suitable to capture the dynamics of this kind of group-based navigation and extended the model to incorporate kinematics that will characterize movement of various type of vessels, which in turn enabled us to analyze a more realistic cluster behavior model. The recent work is to gather more comprehensive analysis and additional performance measures such as width and height of the group, frequency of direction changes, etc. A study of control systems in the realm of mobile wheelchairs is also in progress.
• Wireless Biometric Application Development: gathers a detailed account of the methodology and technical issues needed to realize a wireless-capable diabetes information management system for practical use. Implementation techniques and key issues for PDA data management are discussed in various articles, including an approach for wireless biometric data management to meet today's security challenges and comply with HIPAA regulations and service-level management system architecture specifications for wireless biometric systems. These are based on an open distributed processing reference model based method. All of the lessons from this work were gathered into a chapter of book entitled Handbook of Wireless Local Area Networks: Applications, Technology, Security, and Standards published from CRC press in 2005.

Developed Software Products

• HyperD Distributed Join Query Optimizer — a graphic presentation of the best-identified join sequence as well as the operation breakdown and data transmission cost analysis for a distributed join query. The optimality criterion takes account of the minimization of the total amount of data exchange and transfer over the network. The choice of whole-join or semijoin and the choice to compare overhead against a uniform cost network are realized. The service is accessible here.
• Pathogen Associated Drosophila MicroArray Database (PADMA) — a publicly accessible online database service developed in collaboration with the Biology Department. The system accessible at http://padmadatabase.org houses gene expression data sets from drosophila blood cells after immune activation.
• Force Main Web Application Server (DEPFM) — an online data-warehouse for asset inventory, standards for inspection ratings and technologies for internal inspection, developed for the management of the force mains (pressurized water pipes) of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. The service is accessible here.
• Bridge Element Deteriorating Rate Analyzer — a decision support system based on the Weibull distribution to calculate the deterioration rates of typical bridge elements using historical bridge inspection data, and then comparing the results with those obtained using the Markov chain approach. The system is developed with research funds and delivered to the New York State Department of Transportation.
• Community Information Systems for Supporting Disabled Bus Riders — a prototype web system developed in collaboration with the Toyohashi University of Technology. This system is a case study to enhance the New York City bus transit service for providing value-added transportation services for people with impaired mobility. The service accessible here is under active revision.
• Marine Traffic Simulator using Group Navigation Model — a Java Web Start application developed in conjunction with academic publications for the analysis of the navigation behaviors and interferences of multiple ocean-going vessels, especially in confined areas such as port and water channels. The simulator is accessible here
• Intelligent Search System — a meta-search engine developed in conjunction with several academic publications to demonstrate a theoretical foundation of a real-time measure of bias in search capabilities on the Web. The bias measure captures the degree to which the distribution of URLs, retrieved in response to a query, deviates from an ideal or fair distribution for that query. The service is accessible here.
• Wireless Blood Glucose Level Monitoring System (WBgM) — a wireless-capable diabetes information management system that automatically transfers blood-glucose readings from a hand-held glucose meter to a wireless personal digital assistant (e.g., PDA device), and then to an Internet database. Realized with multi-platform communications between database server, PDA client software, and PC-based database, the whole system was tested comprehensively and delivered to Bayer Corporation for the productization on top of the Windows Mobile environment.
• Virtual Organization Simulator (voSwitch) — a Java Web Start application developed in conjunction with an academic publication for the first approximation to a quantitative version of the switching model of virtual organization. The simulator here demonstrates a quantitative instrument that shows the utility of the switching model and lays the foundation for development of a decision-support tool.
• Influencing Simulation System at Ashridge (ISS-A) — an online training system developed during one-year fellowship stay in the Ashridge Business School, U.K. The system facilitates to practice best influential behavior to deal with a state of discord among individuals working together, featured with the capabilities of viewing video clips containing clash scenarios, followed by responding to a set of questions. The system is intended for the use of self-study of managerial subject in MBA curriculum. Video uploading, test generation, grading, and performance comparisons were implemented on top of Lotus Domino platform and delivered for Ashridge's class use.
• Internet Speech Perception Labs (ISPL) — an experimental academic system developed as a training tool for the communication skills of the people who speak English as a second language. This is collaborative research work with the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. The system accessible here works like a broker application in that the system allows administrative user to upload speech files and exam formats to generate set of exams and to collect test takers' responses via the Internet.
• Online Website Structural Analyzer — an experimental research system that automates the generation of taxonomy-based keyword classifications for Websites. The demonstrated capability provides Website designers with the means to discover similar and/or redundant information, which in turn will assist them in reconfiguring a site to achieve improved presentation and search performance. The service is accessible here.

Dissertation Advising

• Andrew Nagel, August 2009-Present, Distributed database query on hypercube network.
• Guoliang Qian, August 2002-December 2005, Errors in Database, left for industry, now at J.P. Morgan.

Masters Thesis Supervised

• Irfan Yildirim, Query Operations in Highly Distributed Environment, City College Science/Engineering Library, 2014.
• Rodley D. Ferguson, Re-engineering CCNY's Business Process of the Non-Tax Levy Disbursements Requisitions, City College Science/Engineering Library, 2013.
• Ariful H. Mondal, Pathogen Associated Drosophila Microarray Database, City College Science/Engineering Library, 2009.
• Jose Alfredo Perez, Linear Programming for Database Environment, City College Science/Engineering Library, 2007.
• Elias Elia, Simulation and Validation of the Switching Model of Virtual Organization using Linear Programming and the Simplex Algorithm, City College Science/Engineering Library, 2003.
• Stephan Altmueller, Design and Implementation of a Scalable Secure Multicast Communications, Vienna University of Technology Main Library, 1999.