Project Info
Investigation of Performant Graph Database Backends for a Semantic Interoperability Tool
Gabe Fierro
gtfierro@mines.edu
Project Goals and Description:
We are building a software development kit, BuildingMOTIF, which uses knowledge graphs to make programming smart buildings easier. As part of its operation, BuildingMOTIF must store hundreds or thousands of knowledge graphs, make cheap copies of these graphs, and execute many small queries over them. During this project, the student will investigate the design of a new graph database backend for BuildingMOTIF. This will start with developing and executing a benchmark workload to evaluate a family of open-source graph databases. We will use the results of this investigation to design and begin implementation of a new graph database backend. This project is a joint effort between Dr. Fierro at Mines and a research team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
More Information:
Grand Challenge: Make solar energy economical.
I have assembled a reading list of publications to start with: <a href="https://home.gtf.fyi/posts/brick-notes/getting-started-brick-research/">https://home.gtf.fyi/posts/brick-notes/getting-started-brick-research/</a>
BuildingMOTIF is described here (<a href="https://home.gtf.fyi/papers/fierro2022application.pdf">https://home.gtf.fyi/papers/fierro2022application.pdf</a>) and is open-sourced at <a href="https://github.com/NREL/BuildingMOTIF">https://github.com/NREL/BuildingMOTIF</a>
Primary Contacts:
Dr. Gabe Fierro, gtfierro@mines.edu
Student Preparation
Qualifications
Comfortable in Python and experience working with large software projects. Experience with relational or graph databases is a bonus, but you will also learn more about these during the project.
TIME COMMITMENT (HRS/WK)
5
SKILLS/TECHNIQUES GAINED
<ul>
<li>Experience working on a larger software development research team</li>
<li>Knowledge graphs, ontologies, and formal methods for organizing smart building data</li>
<li>Design and execution of effective software benchmarks</li>
<li>Internals of graph databases</li>
</ul>
MENTORING PLAN
The student will have a weekly meeting with Dr. Fierro, and will be encouraged to attend the weekly research lab group meetings. In addition, the expectations and work plan will be established at the beginning of the project.
Preferred Student Status
Sophomore
Junior
Senior