Data Management & Visualization Research Group
Transforming Data into Knowledge
Acquisition | Structuring | Formalization | Visualization

Information and the knowledge derived from it have become two of the most important production factors in our economy. The research group breaks down information and expert knowledge into their basic building blocks so they can be integrated into a variety of computer applications.
Expert systems and self-learning, bio-inspired algorithms are used, inter alia, to make information quickly accessible and solution-oriented. The Knowledge Engineering group develops solutions in the fields of big data, high performance computing, data communication and visualisation of multivariate data.
The technologies used range from smart-phone apps to complex integrated online systems, to Hadoop, Spark and Python in the field of high performance computing.
Areas of application
- Collecting and analysing information, data and processes in interdisciplinary projects
- Processing, structuring and integrating large data and knowledge bases
- Implementing self-learning, fault-tolerant algorithms
- Usability concepts and designs
- Interactive communication and visualisation
- «Internet of Things» and Industry 4.0 applications
- High performance computing
Current projects
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Cocoa in Numbers - from data to knowledge
Nowadays consumers of cocoa and chocolate products are not only interested in safe high-quality products but also in products which are sustainable and produced under fair ecological and social conditions. The demand for transparency of information on the condition of cultivation, production and trade as well as on ...
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Development of a web-based food frequency questionnaire
The aim of this study is to develop a web-based food frequency questionnaire (eFFQ-CH), using the menuCH photo book and the framework of a food frequency questionnaire developed at ZHAW Wädenswil (the ZHAW FFQ). The development work will follow a unique approach based on the results of the menuCH Survey, the first ...
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Softscope
Imaging techniques (photography, microscopy, tomography, etc.) have long since become indispensable in the life sciences. A manual evaluation of the images is still difficult to reproduce, due to the large number of high-resolution images, it is practically impossible to do so in time and is rarely statistically ...
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Ecological Engineering Living Lab
In Ecological Engineering, the processes in nature serve as a model for developing new technologies. As in a natural ecosystem, where nutrients and water circulate, the researchers at ZHAW are developing closed-loop systems that function according to the same principle. The aim is to save resources and minimize the ...
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Sustainable Food Chain Model
The goal of this project is the development of a model that calculates the environmental impacts of food systems. This is important to evaluate measures that reduce the resource consumption of food systems and avoid food waste. Through various user interfaces with different levels of complexity the model can be ...