Tetherless World Constellation

About The Tetherless World Constellation

RPI's Tetherless World Constellation is addressing the emerging area of "Web Science," focusing on the World Wide Web and it's future use. Faculty in the constellation will explore the research and engineering principles that underlie the Web, will enhance the Web's reach beyond the desktop and laptop computer, and will develop new technologies and languages that expand the capabilities of the Web. We will use powerful scientific and mathematical techniques from many disciplines to explore the modeling of the Web from network- and information- centric views. Our goals will include making the next generation web natural to use while being responsive to the growing variety of policy and social needs, whether in the area of privacy, intellectual property, general compliance, or provenance. The Tetherless World Constellation will design new techniques to explore social, scientific, and legal impacts of the evolving technologies deployed on the Web.

Specific topics to be addressed in the constellation will include:

• Semantic Web Technology
• Knowledge Provenance and Explanation
• Privacy, Policy, and Workflow Transparency
• Tetherless and Mobile Web access
• Trust, Social networking and collaboration technologies for the Web
• Network-centric concepts for the defense, industrial and intelligence sectors
• Cyber-infrastructure in general with initial focus on eScience cyberinfrastructure
• Ontology evolution, management and use in diverse disciplines
• Ethical, Policy and Social aspects of Web use and usability

The Constellation is run by Professors Jim Hendler, Deborah L. McGuinness, Peter Fox, and Associate Professor Joanne Luciano.

What is a Constellation

Constellations are multidisciplinary teams of senior faculty, junior faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. The constellation faculty comprise three or more outstanding stars in a particular research field.

Cross-platform and interdisciplinary programs encourage students to broaden their perspectives, to search for new connections and the understanding and discovery that often follow.