APPLYING DATABASE AND ONTOLOGY DESIGN TECHNIQUES TO A NASA BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH REPOSITORY By CHRISTOPHER DAVIDSON A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ENGINEERING

of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Engineering APPLYING DATABASE AND ONTOLOGY DESIGN TECHNIQUES TO A NASA BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH REPOSITORY By Christopher Davidson August 2003 Chair: Howard Beck Major Department: Agricultural and Biological Engineering This thesis discusses the design and implementation of ALLSTAR (Advanced Life Support/Space and Terrestrial Research Repository), an Internet-accessible, objectoriented database application capable of facilitating access to biological experiment data subsets by both human researchers and automated search agents. For decades, researchers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have conducted experiments exploring the feasibility of a bioregenerative life support system. Such a system could potentially extend the duration of manned spaceflight activities—including future trips to the Moon, to the planet Mars, or even farther from Earth. Scientists at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida involved with the Advanced Life Support (ALS) program have conducted hundreds of biological experiments; most studied plant development in closed-environment growth chambers. Over fifty million data observations have been recorded; unfortunately, the underlying