Rachel Pottinger
I'm an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the
University of British Columbia (in Vancouver) where I am affilated
with the Data
Management and Mining
group. I finished my PhD
in the database group in
the Computer Science and Engineering Department at
the University of
Washington.
Research
My research centers on (1) how data can be managed in situations where
there are multiple databases and (2) how to manage data that is
currently not well supported by databases. To that end, my students
and I are currently exploring a number of topics, including:
- Coordinating data and updates from sources that are related but
have very little exact overlap. For example, in building a building,
an architect will create a design, and then an estimator will estimate
the costs. If the design changes, the estimate must be redone,
largely from scratch, including determining where changes have
occurred in the design. This is joint work with Michael Lawrence and Sheryl
Staub-French.
- IDEAS2.0: Integrative
Data-Enabled Approaches to Sustainability across Scales.
Many communities have set aggressive economic,
environmental and social sustainability targets. Meeting these
ambitious targets requires better, faster and less expensive ways
of evaluating different design options and tradeoffs against the
most important performance measures (e.g., cost, energy
consumption, quality of life). The problem is that the data and
evidence needed to support this evaluation originates from many
different sources, scales, and formats. This diversity of data
makes it challenging for decision-makers to access the information
they need, in the right format and at the right time in the
collaborative decision-making process. Our long-term goal is to
help organizations make better sustainability decisions.
-
Studying requirements-driven data
warehousing construction that uses large, realistic, data collections
and associated user scenarios and case studies. In particular, we
have created a framework of conceptual, mapping, and storage layers,
much like EDM (in the relational world), only for data warehouses.
This is joint work with Charles (Zhaohong) Chen, Yun Lou, Jamila Salari,
Dibesh Shakya, and Melsa Smith at UBC and
Iluju Kiringa,
Flavio Rizzolo, Kwok Wong, and Fatemeh Nargesian at the University of Ottawa.
Information about some of these topics can be found by looking at my
publications.
Students
One of the great things about this job is that I get to work with a
great group of students (see the list below). If you're interested
in becoming a prospective graduate student in my group, please start
with the information here.
Current Students and Postdocs
- Arianne Dee (BCS)
- Baipeng Han (MSc)
- Jamila Salari (MSc)
- Joyce Zhu (BSc)
- Lan Wei (MSc)
- Melsa Smith (MSc)
- Michael Lawrence (PhD)
- Pirooz Chubak (Postdoc)
- Simona Radu (MSc)
- Wei Sun (MSc)
Graduate Alumni and first positions post graduation
Undegraduate alumni
- Melsa Smith
- Yun Lou
- Piam Kiarostami
- Jamila Salari
- April Webster
- Clarence Kwan
- San Chang
- Kevin Irmscher
- Alex Shyr
Teaching
On the personal side of life, I'm married to Steve Wolfman and the mother of
Naomi. You can also find a bit about my personal history, or see my CV.
Rachel Pottinger
E-mail Address: ![rap [at] cs [dot] ubc [dot] ca](/~rap/address.jpg)
Office Location: ICICS/CS 345
Phone: (604)822-0436
Fax:(604)822-5485
Postal/Courier address:
The Department of Computer Science
University of British Columbia
201-2366 Main Mall
Vancouver, B.C. V6T 1Z4
Canada