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Welcome to the Linked Data Research Group!

Steven L. MacCall, PhD
Associate Professor
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Alabama

Our activities center on two areas:

1. Applied knowledge graph research: We are applying linked data technologies to semantically index still images and video clips that document game action in sports by incorporating play-by-play datasets into the indexing process by way of an ontology and ETL pipeline process. The resulting knowledge graph can be queried using SPARQL, which allows for precision searching based on queries that incorporate game situation variables. Feel free to view and read the following for additional information:
   1. Video of presentation by Dr. MacCall to the 2020 Linked Data for Libraries (LD4L) conference
   2. Chronology: Data-driven Sports Image Indexing Research, which documents our work up until now.
2. Basic research on philology graphs: We are investigating an ontology that would serve to integrate texts in library collections extending the work of the Collections as Data research community. In Summer 2020, students in our Linked Data course made open access journal articles available on a philology graph:
   1. COVID-19: ICU delirium management during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic
   2. Cardiovascular Risks in Patients with COVID-19: Potential Mechanisms and Areas of Uncertainty

Current researchers (Fall 2020):

1. Dr. Steven L. MacCall
2. Huapu Liu, CIS doctoral student
3. C. Melissa Anderson, SLIS MLIS student
4. Nicole Lewis, SLIS MLIS student
5. Jessica Camano, SLIS MLIS student
6. David Roby, SLIS MLIS student

Affiliate researchers:

1. Dr. Greg Bott in UA Department of Information Systems, Statistics and Management Science for database design and Python programming guidance
   1. Austin Herriott, Dr. Bott's undergraduate students, provided Python programming for the first iteration of our sports ETL pipeline funded with RGC grant monies in fall 2019
2. Dr. Yu Gan in UA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering for digital image processing
   1. Alexander Ramey, Dr. Gan's masters student, is assisting in developing an algorithm for extracting players numbers visible in YouTube game video, which will added to our knowledge graph as named entity data.

Previous SLIS student:

1. Christine Schultz-Richert

Special thanks to David J. McMillan, Executive Director for Enterprise Development & Application Support in the UA Office of Information Technology (OIT)