Quality Alchemist (品質煉金術師): PolyU Seminar on the Design and Implementation of an AI-powered DBMS

The seminar named “AIxDB: On the Design and Implementation of an AI-powered DBMS” was organized by COMP Dept., PolyU on 30^th Jul 2024. This seminar aims to explore the evolution of data systems with a focus on deepening the fusion of AI and DB; and outline the conceptual and architectural overview of NeurDB. Prof. Beng Chin OOI (Lee Kong Chian Centennial Professor, COMP Dept., National University of Singapore) was the guest speaker. He briefed the seminar outline in the beginning.

Firstly, Prof. OOI introduced the background of database management system (DBMS) which is the cornerstone of most digital applications and proposed to add AI system for analytics.

Then he briefed the AI background for different applications such as healthcare and e-commerce.

Traditionally, DBMS supported online application including Online Transactional Processing (OLTP) and Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) but AI-powered analytics cannot be handled by DBMS alone that needs AI system.

And then Prof. OOI mentioned that integrating AI and DB is not new but expressed about forty years ago. Our department head Prof. Qing Li’s PhD thesis is on this field too!

The most updated paper on the fusion of AI and DB (AIxDB) in 2016 was introduced.

After that he briefed the development history of DBMSs from 1960 to 2010s.

The development history of AI was also stated that “designing and developing next-generation DBMSs is both timely and realizable” he said.

NeurDB is an AI-powered DBMS that was built and its fundamental infrastructure was briefed.

Its overall conceptual for AI-powered application for healthcare, e-commerce and finance were showed.

The in-database model selection is explained and they proposed to use two-phase model selection algorithm. Its design principles included “Filter-and-Refine (FRP)” and “Continue to exploit FRP”.