Professor, Cardiff School of Computer Science

Knowledge and Information Systems Research Group

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Professor W. Alex Gray heads the Knowledge and Information Systems research group within the Cardiff School of Computer Science. He is also Director of Research for the School.

Research interests

Alex Gray has been active in the field of distributed database research for 20 years, with an emphasis on the interoperation of database systems through canonical data models and federation to overcome heterogeneity problems caused by different representations and diverse quality of information. This led to research in agent based Virtual Organisations, supporting collaborative use of GRID resources which allow access to tools and information resources in a seamless fashion. He has current research grants from EPSRC, CRW, and EU. In health informatics he has successfully supervised 4 PhD students and is currently supervising 5 students. This research has created a clinical workbench for oncologists, and found ways to improve communication of information between clinicians in primary and secondary care. Current investigations are the role of ontologies in linking information in heterogeneous medical databases, data mining of primary medical records to find ways to identify at an early stage adverse drug reactions, and use of wireless technologies in medical information systems to improve patient care.