Alisdair Owens: CV

Contact

Alisdair Owens
e-mail: alisdair@alisdairowens.net

Education: University

PhD: University of Southampton. Completed in 2011.
 - Focus on indexing techniques for high performance in-memory RDF storage and query.

Undergraduate Degree: First Class (Hons) Masters Degree in Computer Science (MEng). BCS accredited.
 - Dissertation on frameworks for hardware communication.
 - Fourth year group project on information visualisation for semantic web data.

Education: A-Levels

Technical Positions

Technical Abilities

Primary:

  • Development in Java including complex multi-threaded applications, low-level knowledge of JVM functionality, and dynamic class loading.
  • Database systems/SQL, including Postgres, DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server.
  • Extensive experience of Semantic Web standards such as RDF and SPARQL, along with related technologies like Apache Jena.
  • Extensive experience using *nix based platforms, including Debian, Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Solaris.
  • Extensive experience using Mac OSX.

Other:

  • Development of database-backed web applications using HTML/CSS and Javascript.
  • Development in Rust.
  • Development in Perl.
  • Java web application development, using Servlet and OSGI spec, on Apache Tomcat and IBM WebSphere servers.
  • Some development in C.
  • Some development in other languages such as Clojure, Tcl, and Python.
  • Experience using Windows.

Hobbies & Interests

  • Coding!
  • Badminton
  • I take a great interest in cricket and enjoy attending local games.
  • Reading (philosophy and sci-fi/fantasy.

Papers & Publications

2011

Owens, A. (2011) Using low latency storage to improve RDF store performance. PhD thesis.

2009

Owens, A. (2009) An Investigation into Improving RDF Store Performance. Mini-Thesis submitted for transfer from MPhil to PhD.

2008

Owens, A., Seaborne, A., Gibbins, N. and schraefel, m. (2008) Clustered TDB: A Clustered Triple Store for Jena. In: WWW2009. (Unpublished)

Owens, A., Gibbins, N. and schraefel, m. (2008) Effective Benchmarking for RDF Stores Using Synthetic Data. In: ISWC 2008: 7th International Semanctic Web Conference, 26/10/2008, Karlsruhe, Germany. (Submitted)

Owens, A. (2008) A Nine Month Progress Report on an Investigation into Mechanisms for Improving Triple Store Performance. Technical Report, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.

2007

Smith, D. A., Owens, A., schraefel, m., Sinclair, P., André, P., Wilson, M., Russell, A., Martinez, K. and Lewis, P. (2007) Challenges in Supporting Faceted Semantic Browsing of Multimedia Collections. In: The Second International Conference on Semantic and Digital Media Technologies (SAMT2007), 5-7 December 2007, Genova, Italy.

Smith, D. A., Owens, A., schraefel, m., Sinclair, P., André, P., Wilson, M., Russell, A., Martinez, K. and Lewis, P. (2007) Challenges in Supporting Faceted Semantic Browsing of Multimedia Collections. In: SAMT2007.

André, P., Wilson, M. L., Russell, A., Smith, D. A., Owens, A. and schraefel, m. c. (2007) Continuum: designing timelines for hierarchies, relationships and scale. In: UIST2007 (ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology), Newport, Rhode Island.

André, P., Wilson, M. L., Owens, A. and Smith, D. A. (2007) Journey planning based on user needs. In: CHI '07 extended abstracts, April 2007, San Jose, CA.

Smith, D. A., Owens, A., schraefel, m., Sinclair, P., André, P., Wilson, M., Russell, A., Martinez, K. and Lewis, P. (2007) Reflections on Challenges in Supporting Faceted Semantic Browsing of Multimedia Collections. Technical Report, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.

2005

schraefel, m. c., Smith, D. a., Owens, A., Russell, A., Harris, C. and Wilson, M. L. (2005) The evolving mSpace platform: leveraging the Semantic Web on the Trail of the Memex. In: Hypertext, 2005, Sept 6-9 2005, Salzburg.

schraefel, m. c., Smith, D. A., Russel, A., Owens, A., Harris, C. and Wilson, M. L. (2005) The mSpace Classical Music Explorer: Improving Access to Classical Music for Real People. In: V MUSICNETWORK OPEN WORKSHOP: Integration of Music in Multimedia Applications, July 4 and 5, 2005, Vienna, Austria.

Wilson, M. L., Russell, A., Smith, D. A., Owens, A. and schraefel, m. c. (2005) mSpace Mobile: A Mobile Application for the Semantic Web. In: End User Semantic Web Workshop, ISWC2005, 07/11/2005, Galway, Ireland.

Owens, A. (2005) Semantic Storage: Overview and Assessment. Technical Report IRP Report 2005, Electronics and Computer Science, U of Southampton. (Unpublished)

2004

Harris, C., Owens, A., Russell, A. and Smith, D. A. (2004) mSpace: Exploring The Semantic Web. A Technical Report in Support of the mSpace software framework. Technical Report, ECS, University of Southampton. (Unpublished)