Areas of Research
Methods and technologies for software development
Distributed, embedded and mobile systems
Information security and applied cryptography
Management, integration and analysis of data and knowledge
Software applications for the challenges of society
Software Development Methods and Technologies
Software development processes are becoming increasingly complex, so it is necessary to dedicate a great effort to automation of software production methods. In this sense, the main objective of this line of research is to propose new methods and processes that facilitate and shorten development times and help manage the evolution of software products, guaranteeing correctness and final quality. Addressing this goal is not trivial as advanced software development technologies are becoming increasingly complex and new application domains are continually emerging, such as the Internet of the Future (Future Internet).
Distributed, Embedded and Mobile Systems
The software for distributed, embedded and mobile systems presents a specific problem that is given, among other factors, by features such as:
- Its execution in hardware with limited resources.
- Running permanently, unlike usual applications.
- The large number of interconnected devices.
- The presence of discrete behaviors with other continuous ones.
- The importance of time in its execution.
- The need to save energy.
- The use of very specific execution environments (operating systems).
Since the mobile phone and the network-connected monitoring and control devices are becoming much more widespread than the computer as a platform to run the software, it is mandatory to address its development techniques in the ITIS research program.
Information Security and Applied Cryptography
Security is a transversal aspect to the whole field of ICT. Similarly, making a computer system secure is an objective that requires the application of fields of knowledge, not only in the field of computing, but they extend to other disciplines such as mathematics or physics. This pervasive and multidisciplinary nature of security means that it can only be successfully applied when approached with a global vision and a robust engineering approach.
Management, Integration and Analysis of Data and Knowledge
The management, integration and analysis of data and knowledge will be one of the Institute's main research topics. Our experience ranges from scalable reasoning over very large ontologies (including two proprietary reasoners with Relational BD technologies and NoSQL technology) to the development of highly scalable metaheuristic algorithms, developed on the Apache Spark framework. This experience has been used for the classification of Web users based on their fingerprint, through the publication, integration and analysis of data in the context of the Data Web and Linked Open Data technologies and the Semantic Web . We also have extensive experience in the development of semantic middleware (based on ontologies), discovery of relationships between ontologies, semantic web services, content recommendation based on semantics, optimization algorithms, semantic extension of databases and use of technologies. semantics in e-Science and e-Health.
Software Applications for Society's Challenges
The promotion of R&D at the Spanish level means giving future support to fundamental scientific and technical research towards the eight major challenges identified in the Spanish Strategy for Science and Technology and Innovation, aligned with those established in the Research Strategy and Innovation of Europe 2020:
- Health, demographic change and well-being.
- Safety, food quality; productive and sustainable agricultural activity; sustainability of natural resources, marine and maritime research.
- Safe, sustainable and clean energy.
- Smart, sustainable and integrated transport.
- Action on climate change and efficiency in the use of resources and raw materials.
- Changes and social innovations.
- Digital economy and society.
- Security, protection and defense.