| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/J99292/01 |
| Title: |
A NATURAL-LANGUAGE DATABSE INTERFACE |
| Principal Investigator: |
Peyton Jones, Professor L |
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| Department: |
School of Computing Science |
| Organisation: |
University of Glasgow |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 April 1995 |
Ends: |
31 March 1998 |
Value (£): |
26,558
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Information & Knowledge Mgmt |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The aim of the project is to build a sophisticated natural language interface for a commercial database. This will be achieved by building on four major pieces of technology:- LOLITA, one of the worlds most powerful natural language understanding systems;- The Glasgow Haskell Computer (GHC), probably the worlds best Haskell compiler;- A large commercial database, contributed by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA);- A commercial multiprocessor (Sun or Goldrush).The system will take natural-language enquiries, translate them into SQL, pass them on to the (unmodified) underlying database, and display the result. We plan to speed the analysis by executing LOLITA on a multiprocessor using a parallel implementation of the functional language Haskell. The significance of the project goes well beyond a single AEA database. Firstly, since we interface to the database through SQL, our system should be usable with almost any database. Secondly, much of our work will be applicable to knowledge bases other than relational DBMSs. Lastly, the project will be a convincing (and demanding) application of parallel Haskell; from it we expect to learn what is, and what is not, important in large scale parallel programming in the purely-functional paradigm.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.gla.ac.uk |