Toshimi Minoura

Voice: (541) 737-5580 (office), 757-3491 (home)
FAX: (541) 737-3014
e-mail: minoura@cs.orst.edu

Office: Kelly, Room 2077
I am most likely to be in my office 10 am - 1 pm AM and 5 - 9 pm.

Courses to Being Taught in 2009-2010

• CS 275, Fall 2009, Introduction to Database Management Systems .
• CS 540, Winter 2010, Database Management Systems .
• CS 275, Spring 2010, Introduction to Database Management Systems .
• CS 549, Spring 2010, Special Topics in Information-Based Systems

Courses Taught Before

• CS 162, Spring 2000, Introduction to Computer Science II.
• CS 261, Spring 2001, Data Structures .
• CS 311, Fall 2002, Operating Systems I .
• CS 540, Spring 2002, Database Management Systems .
• CS 450/550, Spring 2001, Introduction to Computer Graphics .

Current Research

We are developing Web-based GIS/database applications for USDA Oregon Natural Conservation Service, NSF, etc. WebGD applications are useful for those that include important location-based data, such as land parcels, habitat management, transportation, etc.

A WebGD application is a great tool for outreach education. They can be used by students at any levels, from elementary school children to high school students. We have demonstrated them to elementary school children several times. They love to insert geographical features familiar to them, such as schools and fastfood restaurants, on the maps displayed on the Web browsers.

The current WebGD framework supports the following features which are not yet supported by commercial applications.

1. Geographical features, such as the locations of road work and habitats of plants and animals, can be entered, searched, updated, and deleted from standard Web browsers.
2. An application can be created without any programming. The look and behavior of the map interface can be customized with configuration files, and Web scripts for data access can be automatically generated from the description of a database schema. Thus, a WebGD application which costs, say, $200K, when programmed manually, can be created for $20K.
3. A WebGD application can display the maps for different regions in the world with different map projections in order to avoid map distortions.

Some of our WebGD applications can be accessed at
WebGD Applications.

In order to access data, you may have to login with a password. We are currently enhancing the map interface of kaMap, open-source MapServer using the AJAX technology, with several unique features.

1. To allow insertion/updating/deletion of geographical features and the data associated with them from the map inteface.
2. To cover different regions in the world with different map projections. Google Map, for example, uses only the Mercator projection, so the map of an high-latitude area becomes distorted.