What we do
In our laboratory, we primarily focus on processing of available data, of which huge amounts exist, but whose use lags behind. In the lab, new applications, analyses and conclusions can be created using this data that will make everyday life simpler. In this way, processing of this data provides an opportunity to spare or streamline the existing processes and improve people’s everyday lives.
You can sample some of our projects at GitHub. The projects concern, for example, invoices from ministries and other organizations, public procurement, bid prices or the Prague Integrated Transport system. However, with each year, the number of published data increases, there are datasets of provided solar energy subsidies and EU subsidies, weather, electoral participation, personal bankruptcies, etc.
The laboratory is involved in research in the field of open and linked data. We also focus on efficient exploration of the linked data environment or data administration in heterogeneous and dynamic environments. This helps in the solution of practical tasks in the above mentioned areas, but not only in them. At the same time, this helps create demand for opening and linking of other interesting sources of data of the public administration that can subsequently be publicly accessible in the National Open Data Catalogue.
Another interesting avenue is the research into the use of knowledge graphs and bases for enrichment of open data and vice versa. The increasing amount of open data from various fields can significantly enrich the knowledge bases that are used in a number of other applications.
We also solve tasks related to text processing. For instance, the register of contracts contains a large amount of machine-readable documents. We have solutions for categorization of documents, searching for addresses, contact information and common parts of documents in a scope comparable to that of commercial apps. We have also been tasked with processing of images and sound.
In the lab, students can work with open data sources. This provides them with a unique opportunity to study data on transportation services, the government’s economic policy, the environment and many other areas in their course projects and theses.
