Printable CV (PDF) - Vadim Ermolayev

My personal research focus in Ontology Engineering and Knowledge Management is the development ofconceptual and formal theories for business process dynamics, actor coalitions and collaboration, reachingagreements. These theories are evaluated in our projects through implementation as different ontologies andthrough their use in software. Another research focus of my group is developing theoretical andmethodological frameworks as well as prototyping software tools for ontology engineering [C14, W1].Dynamics and Adaptability in Information SystemsMy first attempt to solve the challenging problem of information system adaptability was undertaken in myPh.D. research. This research has been carried out in frame of the project funded by Ukrainian Governmentin 1991-1994. In a conventional RDBMS a MetaData layer is a declarative means describing the structure ofdata. I used the metaphor of a data dictionary and extended it by adding the capabilities of describing theinterrelationships among the data structures and the code of an information system. This enhancementallowed designing information systems which loosely depend on the changes in MetaData and BusinessLogic. Resulting Active MetaData Repository Framework [C40, R17] has been used in designing anddeveloping information systems in the Domains which are substantially dynamic. Some of the softwareartifacts which have been later developed using my framework are commercialized. The first commercialdevelopment was the “University Entrant” Information System [C37-C39] which has been and is used indifferent versions at several Ukrainian Universities since 1994. I also used the framework in my Post Docresearch and development project funded by the Swiss Academy of Engineering and CharmillesTechnologies SA (CT) to design and develop “CT Techno Cookee” Information System [R16, M1, M2] formanaging technology files of CT EDM machines. As a follow-up to my Ph.D work I continued evaluatingmy Active MetaData Repository Framework by applying it to the development of new information systemsfrom scratch or to the refinement of the legacy information systems in Zaporizhzhya State University. Thiswork resulted in the development of Integrated Computational Media at Zaporizhzhya University.Currently I consider this R&D topic out of my focus and do not plan investing resources in it.Intelligent Information Systems and EnterprisesMy further search for more effective ways to capturing dynamics and adaptability in software systemsbrought me to the conclusion that the most promising approach is making a system more intelligent – i.e.being capable of perceiving environmental influences and pro-actively adapting itself to more optimallypursuing its goals. This understanding led me to the study of the Agent-Based Systems. I have chosenintelligent integration of our University Information Systems as a kind of a test bed for evaluation. We havetried and prototyped a very simple agent-based wrapper-mediator architecture integrating three Universityinformation systems as a proof of concept implementation in our Virtual University project (1999-2002). Themajor conceptual approach developed in this project was the Unified Information Space (e.g., [C32]). In theUnified Information Space software agents have been used as intelligent wrappers of the services providedby the legacy information systems in a distributed environment. We also did some work in developinggraphical geo-spatial user-friendly interfaces for this mediator system. The work on intelligent servicewrappers led us to the necessity of capturing the dynamics of typical processes as the assemblies of thoseservices. Agent-based framework for planning process modeling [C34] was one of the interesting results weobtained in this research. At this time my group has become a member of AgentLink and OntoWeb EuropeanNetworks of Excellence. Participation in these networks gave us valuable research stimuli and led to morethorough work in developing descriptive theories (ontologies) for our research field. Our first ontologiesdescribing task planning knowledge using contracting negotiation approach [W6] have been developed as aresult. As a visiting researcher at the Vrije University Amsterdam I spent some effort in verifying if ourframework may be used in e-Business Domain. I found out that the answer is positive. This gave us an extrapush in studying the dynamics and adaptability of business processes in such fields as e-Business and theemerging Semantic Web.My current research focus in the field of Intelligent Information Systems and Enterprises is Informal ProcessAdaptability and Dynamics.Business and Informal Process DynamicsOur approach in developing process models emphasizes business process dynamics. We consider that thetopology of a process can not be fully shaped out at design time but is formed by its intelligent participants atrun time using task and activity patterns for choosing among promising alternative ways to continuation.Such an approach, though more computationally expensive, is capable of modeling and simulating complex