Levelling data representations

In partnership with BORO Solutions Ltd., this project explores the commercial applications of research developed in connection with the AHRC grant "Properties, Paradox, and Circularity. A New, Type-Free Account" [grant number AH/V015516/1] (abbreviated as PPC hereafter). Cutting across boundaries, the project exploits the practical, commercial potential of abstract philosophical ideas and methods arising in formal philosophy, especially philosophical logic and formal ontology.

One of our principal aims is to aid BORO Solutions in improving its commercial products and services by addressing current commercial challenges faced in the development of information and business systems, where multi-level domains tend to result in fragmented descriptions of data patterns and structures. These challenges are currently dealt with through pragmatic processes, not underpinned by a rigorous foundation.

We provide this rigorous foundation. In so doing, we demonstrate the practical, commercial benefits of these abstract ideas and methods. More specifically, the project aims to: (1) demonstrate the commercial benefits of applying formal methods and technical tools developed in PPC; (2) enable commercial knowledge exchange about improved processes for handling and cleaning data in business systems;

(3) aid BORO Solutions in improving its commercial products and services related to information re-engineering. Based on these aims, the project has the following primary objectives:

(A) providing a rigorous formal foundation for pragmatic processes used to unify currently multi-level typed data structures in information systems;

(B) using this rigorous foundation to (i) review existing processes for handling and cleaning data in business systems and (ii) uncover new opportunities to improve such processes;

(C) documenting and sharing publicly information about the improved processes, thus enabling commercial knowledge exchange;

(D) embedding of the formal methods developed in PPC into BORO Solutions' bCLEARer™ methodology, which underpins many of the company's commercial products and services related to information re-engineering; (E) testing the enhanced version of bCLEARer™ using data from BORO Solutions' commercial projects.