Frank Tompa

Post-doctoral students

1. Jane Mason, June 2010 - November 2010.
   current address: Dalhousie University, Canada.
2. Hui Zhang, July 2003 - December 2003.
   current address: Oracle Corp., Redwood City, USA.
3. Tae Gwon Kim, January 2000 - February 2001.
4. Pekka Kilpelaïnen, September 1993 -August 1994.
   current address: University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland

Doctoral students

1. Zhiping Wu, in progress since September 2009.
2. Ahmed Ataullah, Business Policy Modeling and Enforcement in Relational Database Systems, in progress since May 2009.
3. Gregorz Drzadzewski, in progress since September 2008.
4. Andrew Kane, in progress since September 2007.
5. Shahab Kamali, Querying Large Collections of Semistructured Data, 2013.
   current address: Google, Mountain View, USA.
6. David DeHaan, "Equivalence of Queries with Nested Aggregation," 2009.
   current address: SAP, Waterloo, Canada.
7. Robert Warren, "Strategies for Truly Automated Data Discovery, Search and Translation, 2008.
   current address: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
8. Amir Chinaei, "Access Control Administration with Adjustable Decentralization," 2007.
   current address: University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
9. Reem Al-Halimi, "Mining Topic Signals from Text," 2004.
   current address: Waterloo, ON, Canada.
10. Xuerong Tang, "A High-Level Specification Language for Structured Document Transformation," 2003.
    current address: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA
11. Hui Zhang, "XML Query Processing and Optimization," 2003.
    current address: Oracle Corp., Redwood City, USA.
12. Matthew Young-Lai, "Text Recognition Using a Region Algebra," 2001.
    current address: Google, Waterloo, Canada.
13. Glenn Paulley, "Exploiting Functional Dependencies in Query Optimization," 2000.
    (joint supervision with P.-Å. Larson).
    current address: Conestoga College, Kitchener, Canada.
14. Mei Zhou, "The Suffix-Signature Method for Searching for Phrases in Text," 1997.
    current address: The Economical Insurance Group, Waterloo, Canada.
15. Darrell Raymond, "Partial Order Databases," 1996.
    current address: The Gateway Group, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
16. Mert Cramer, "Effects of Structure, Other Mnemonics, and Descriptive Text on Command Language Usability," 1994
    (joint supervision with N. Charness).
    current address: Waterloo, ON, Canada.
17. Jinhua Chen, January 1989 - October 1992 (deceased).
18. Jose I. Icaza, "Adaptive Selection of Query Execution Strategies," 1987.
    current address: Monterrey Technical Inst., Monterrey, Mexico.
19. Jose A. Blakeley, "Updating Materialized Database Views," 1987
    (joint supervision with P.-Å. Larson).
    current address: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA
20. Claudia B. Medeiros, "A Validation Tool for Providing Database Views that Permit Update," 1985.
    current address: Univ. of Sao Paulo at Campinas, Campinas, Brazil.
21. J. Howard Johnson, "Formal Models for String Similarity," 1983.
    current address: NRC, Ottawa, Canada.
22. Raul J. Ramirez Inurrigarro, "Efficient Algorithms for Selecting Efficient Data Storage Structures," 1980.
    current address: Circuitos Impresos de Alta Tecnologia, Saltillo, Mexico.
23. Nicola Santoro, "Efficient Abstract Implementations for Relational Data Structures," 1979.
    current address: Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
24. Tok-Wang Ling, "Improving Data Base Integrity Based on Functional Dependencies," 1978.
    current address: National University of Singapore, Singapore.
25. Sylvia L. Osborn, "Normal Forms for Relational Data Bases," 1977 (joint supervision with J.I. Munro).
    current address: Western University, London, Canada.

Masters students

Theses

1. Ahmed Ataullah, "A Framework for Records Management in Relational Database Systems," 2008.
   (joint supervision with A. Aboulnaga).
   continued with PhD at University of Waterloo.
2. W. Anthony Young, co-op masters, "Communication Cost Modelling for Federated Database Systems," 2005
   (joint supervision with G.N.Paulley).
   current address: Infor Global Solutions, Toronto, ON.
3. Yuhui (George) Wen, "Similarity Search in Metric Spaces," 2004.
   current address: MessageLabs, Toronto, ON.
4. Hai (Helena) Chen, "Supporting Set-at-a-time Extensions for XML through DOM," 2003.
   current address: RIM, Waterloo, ON.
5. Zarrin Langari, "Subject Classification in the Oxford English Dictionary," 2001.
   continued with PhD at University of Waterloo.
6. Matthew Young-Lai, "Application of a Stochastic Grammatical Inference Method to Text Structure," 1996.
   continued with PhD at University of Waterloo.
7. Elizabeth Tudhope, "Query Based Stemming," 1996.
   current address: Stargazer Software, Mt. Hope, ON.
8. Sheng (Patrick) Li, "Using Inverted Lists to Match Structured Text,", 1996.
   current address: Keane Inc., Boston, MA
9. Kar-Yan Ng, "The Use of a Combined Text/Relational Database System to Support Document Management," 1996.
   current address: Oracle Corp., Redwood Shores, CA.
10. Hemin Xiao, "Using a Thesaurus for Query Refinement in Full-text Retrieval," 1994.
    current address: Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA.
11. George Townsend, "Citation Matching in the Oxford English Dictionary," 1989.
    current address: Algoma University, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada.
12. Vilhelm Boggild, "Graphical Specification of Keyword Queries to Videotex Databases," 1986.
13. David Tanguay, "A General System for Managing Videotex Information Structures," 1986.
14. F.N. (Rick) Kazman, "Structuring the Text of the Oxford English Dictionary through Finite State Transduction," 1986.
    current address: Software Engineering Institute, CMU, PA, USA.
15. Darrell R. Raymond, "Personal Data Structuring in Videotex," 1984.
    continued with PhD at University of Waterloo.
16. Florian O. Bruckner, "A Design for the Library History Data Base," 1980.
17. Kam-Leung David Ma, "Design and Implementation of a Student Database System," 1979.
18. A. Stephen Tepper, "A Uniform File System," 1978.
19. James H. Bradford, "Nucleus: A Natural Language Processor Implementation Tool," 1977.
    current address: Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL, USA.
20. Douglas J. Martin, "Graphical Debugging of Data Structures," 1976.

Projects/essays

1. Serge Bourbonnais, "Federated Archives: Transparently Archiving Relational Data," 2004.
   current address: IBM Corp., San Jose, CA, USA.
2. Vahid Karimi, "WebDAV and DeltaV for Collaborative Authoring and Versioning," 2002.
   continued with PhD at University of Waterloo.
3. Tonyang Wang, "A Proposed SQL Standard for Structured Text," 1996.
   current address: Syndesis Ltd., Richmond Hill, Canada.
4. A. Patterson, "Centralization in Distributed Databases: a Case Study," 1986.
5. J. Yeorgaroudakis, "An Implementation of the Math Faculty Database on the Watfile System," 1983.
6. C.B. Yhap, "Path Access Structures for Videotex," 1983.
7. L.M. Wong, "Design Methodologies for Business Applications," 1983.
8. Gary Stewart, "The Design of Tutorials for an Electronic Workbook," 1983.
9. J.A. Blakeley, "A Design for an Electronic Telephone Directory," 1982.
10. M. Seguin, "A Study of Gateway Pages for Videotex," 1982.
11. L. Lozano de Celis, "A Survey of Data Dictionary Systems," 1982.
12. L.K.H. Chan, "A Model for Simulation of Videotex Systems," 1982.
13. E.Y.Y. Poon, "Electronic Forms in Automated Office Systems," 1982.
14. H.C. Ip, "New Student Database System (NSDBS)," 1982.
15. S. Antoft, "Electronic Form Design Facilities," 1982.
16. M. Manding Poirier, "Distributed Videotex Systems: A Study of Alternatives," 1981.
17. A. Aizenman, "The End User Interface Facilities for a Mathematics Faculty Database," 1981
    (joint supervision with D. Rotem).
18. E. C-Y Lam, "Database Support Systems for the Mathematics Faculty Database (MFDB)," 1981
    (joint supervision with D. Rotem).
19. J. Zarzar-Charur, "The Entity-Relationship Model: A Practical Case," 1981.
20. J. Yuk Fai Lai, "Design of a Network Student Database System," 1981.
21. G.T.A. Beattie, "ABC: A High Level Language for Defining Abstract Data Types," 1980.
22. P. Reynolds, "Preparing the Student Database System for Export," 1980.
23. Kim-Leung Lau, "A Structural Approach for Logical Database Design - Total Production Planning Database," 1979.
24. Kin Yan Fong, "On Choosing a Representation Scheme From A Library," 1979.
25. D.B. Seeler, "An Editor's Filing System," 1979.
26. P. Bhatacharyya, "A Study of the Ingres Database System," 1979.
27. Chung Kwong Lau, "Record Partitioning for Database Management Systems," 1978.
28. Lai Cheu Ng, "A Study of ANSI/SPARC's Internal Schema," 1978.
29. Anthony Man-Chi Tong, "Frameworks for Describing External Schemes for Database Systems," 1978.
30. Wai-Ming Ling, "Three Proposed Hardware Implementations for Database Management Systems," 1978.
31. Y.W. Li, "Machine and Device Independence Study in Computer Graphics through Transportation and Enhancement of NCAR Graphics Package," 1977.
32. Jack Wei, "Reliability of Real-Time Systems," 1977.
33. Joyce Lam, "Graphic Facilities for Teaching van Neumann Machine Architecture," 1977
    (joint supervision with J.D. Lawson).
34. H.M. Chan, "A Study of Data Abstraction in Programming Languages," 1977.
35. C.M. Lim, "A Set-oriented Language," 1976.
36. R.M. Chapdelaine, "A Study of High-Level Data Types," 1976.

Undergraduate research assistants

1. Shadab Ul Rashid, “Web-based Text Search and Display," May 2008-December 2008.
   (joint supervision with B. Tremblay and D. Porreca)
   current address: Blackberry, Waterloo, Canada.
2.  Jingchi (Evan) Chen, "Web interfaces to structured text," January 2004 – April 2004.
   (joint supervision with D. W. Russell).
   current address: Oracle Corp., Mississauga, ON.

Graduate

• CS 540 Programming Principles, Languages, and Techniques
• CS 542 Data Structures
• CS 640 Principles of Database Management and Use
• CS 642 Principles of Programming Languages
• CS 648 Introduction to Database Management
• CS 740 Topics in Software: Data Structure Design
• CS 741 Non-Relational Databases
• CS 748 Topics in Databases

Undergraduate

• CS 100 Introduction to Computing through Applications
• CS 134 Principles of Computer Science
• CS 234 Programming Principles and Practice
• CS 240 Programming Principles, Languages, and Techniques
• CS 242 Systems Software
• CS 250 Machine Structures
• CS 334 Data Types and Structures
• CS 338 Computer Applications in Business: Databases
• CS 340 Data Structures and Algorithms
• CS 354 Systems Software
• CS 442 Principles of Programming Languages
• CS 448 Introduction to Database Management
• CS 454 Operating Systems
• CS 492 Social Implications of Computers
• CS 499 Topics in Computer Science

Other

• Computer Science Fundamentals: Programming Structures
• Computer Science Fundamentals: Data Structures
• Database Concepts
• Data Organization

The long-range objective of my research has been (and will continue to be) to develop a unified methodology for designing data structures from the individual users' models through the enterprise model to the storage structures. This has involved the development of formal models, the development and analysis of effective algorithms, and the application of the ideas to solving large, practical problems.

We pursued this objective first as it applies to conventional record-oriented databases. Doctoral students working with me concentrated on defining and analyzing properties of "normal forms" as part of the design of a conceptual model [Osborn PhD:77, Ling PhD:78]. Collaborating in part with Professor Gaston Gonnet, we examined formalisms for describing data structures to support efficient algorithms [Tompa 1977, Gonnet-Tompa 1983], concentrating particularly on the specification of their abstract structures [Santoro PhD:79, Tompa 1980] and on the design of efficient storage structures and policies [Ramirez PhD:80, Ziviani-Tompa 1982]. More recently, students working with me have concentrated on supporting user models of the data: examining the problems of processing database updates that are expressed in terms of a partial view of the data [Medeiros PhD:85, Brodnik-Tompa 1993] and of keeping a materialized view up-to-date in the presence of change to the underlying stored data [Blakeley PhD:87]. We have also examined algorithms to process users' queries by the most efficient means available [Icaza PhD:87].

Since 1981, we have examined database concerns for non-standard databases, first concentrating on videotex databases. Because the fundamental assumptions about the nature of the data and its uses distinguishes videotex databases from conventional ones, we developed a page-oriented database model that includes query and update facilities [Tanguay MMath:86]. Because of videotex's orientation towards large public-access systems for casual users, several students working with me considered the support of individualized views. We investigated powerful browsing facilities [Raymond MMath:84], graphical query languages [Böggild MMath:86], and the effectiveness of users' classification systems [Raymond-Cañas-Tompa-Safayeni 1989]. Although declining interest in videotex reduced the impact of our work, it served well as a precursor for ongoing work with hypertexts [Tompa 1990, Tompa-Raymond 1991, Tompa-Blake-Raymond 1993].

Since 1984, we have concentrated on more general text-dominated databases. The thrust of this research has been directed towards the development of a database system that will be capable of supporting the needs of text creators (such as the editors at the Oxford University Press who will maintain and enhance the Oxford English Dictionary), while simultaneously supporting the needs of text users (writers, editors, humanist scholars) who will access such machine-readable texts interactively. Again the conventional assumptions about data were found to be inappropriate -- even the fundamental concept of ``entity'' does not apply -- and, in close collaboration with Professor Gaston Gonnet, we developed two new models of text data [Blake-Bray-Tompa 1992, Salminen-Tompa 1994]. Because of the great potential, an Ontario company, Open Text Corporation, began operations in July 1989 to develop and market products based on our research. Open Text, which currently employs over 8000 individuals worldwide, has developed the Livelink Intranet application suite including Livelink Search, which has evolved from our research.

Later research includes the design and development of a text/relational database management system, based on a federated model that provides a hybrid query processor that supports extensions to SQL to accommodate structured text such as described using SGML, and the design and development of a system for data resource discovery for deployment on the internet.

The following list of major collaborations is indicative of the value of the research to industry:

• Resource Discovery in Web Databases, with Dr. Mariano Consens, ITRC grant, January 1996 - December 1997.
• Investigation of Text/Relational DBMS, with Professor Paul Larson, Strategic Technologies grant, April 1993 - March 1997, Industrial partner: Open Text Corporation (as part of the Canadian Strategic Sortware Consortium (CSSC), supported in part by Industry Canada and including also Fulcrum Technologies, InContext Systems, Megalith Technologies, Public Service Systems, SoftQuad, and Systèmes Grafnetix).
• Flexible Text Visualization with Applications to CASE, NSERC Industrially Oriented Research grant, August 1991 - July 1994, Industrial partner: IBM Canada Laboratory.
• Text-Dominated Databases, with Professors Gaston Gonnet, Ian Munro, and Sylvia Osborn, NSERC Co-operative Research and Development grant, November 1986 - October 1989, Industrial partner: Oxford University Press
• Data structuring for page-oriented database systems, with Professors Gaston Gonnet, Paul Larson, and Ian Munro, NSERC Strategic grant, November 1983 - October 1986.

• A. R. Kane and F. W. Tompa, "Janus: the intertextuality search engine for the electronic Manipulus florum project," Literary and Linguistic Computing 26, 4 (December 2011) 407-415. 
• H. Zhang and F. W. Tompa, "XQuery Rewriting at the Algebraic Level," in "Trends in XML Technology for the Global Information Infrastructure," a special issue of Journal of Computer Systems, Science, and Engineering, Vol. 18, No. 5 (September 2003) 241-262.
• M. D. Young-Lai and F. W. Tompa, "One-Pass Evaluation of Region Algebra Expressions," Information Systems, Vol. 28 (2003) 159-168.
• M. D. Young-Lai and F. W. Tompa, "Stochastic Grammatical Inference of Text Database Structure," Machine Learning, Vol. 40 (2000) 111-137.
• A. Salminen and F. W. Tompa, "Grammars++ for Modelling Information in Text," Information Systems, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1999) 1-24.
• M. Zhou and F. W. Tompa, "The Suffix-Signature Method for Searching for Phrases in Text," Information Systems, Vol. 23, No. 8 (1998) 567-588.
• L. J. Brown, M. P. Consens, I. J. Davis, C. R. Palmer, and F. W. Tompa, "A Structured Text ADT for Object-Relational Databases," in "Objects, Databases, and the WWW," a special issue of Theory and Practice of Object Systems, Vol. 4, No. 4 (1998) 227-244.
• D. R. Raymond, F. W. Tompa, and D. Wood, "From Data Representation to Data Model: Meta-Semantic Issues in the Evolution of SGML," Computer Standards & Interfaces 18 (1996) 25-36.
• A. Salminen and F. W. Tompa, "PAT Expressions: an algebra for text search," Acta Linguistica Hungarica 41, 1-4 (1992-93) 1994, 277-306.
• G. E. Blake, T. Bray, and F. W. Tompa, "Shortening the OED: Experience with a Grammar-Defined Database," Trans. Information Systems, Vol. 10, No. 3 (July 1992), 213-232.
• F. W. Tompa and J. I. Icaza, "Adaptive Selection of Query Execution Strategies by Learning Automata", Information Sciences, Vol. 50 (1990) 219-240.
• T. J. Benbow, P. J. Carrington, G. P. Johannesen, F. W. Tompa, E. S. C. Weiner, "Report on the New Oxford English Dictionary User Survey", Int. J. Lexicography, Vol. 3, No. 3 (Autumn 1990), 155-203.
• F. W. Tompa, "A Data Model for Flexible Hypertext Database Systems," Trans. Information Systems, Vol. 7, No. 1 (January 1989), 85-100.
• D. R. Raymond, A. J. Cañas, F. W. Tompa, F. Safayeni, "Measuring the Effectiveness of Personal Database Structures", International Journal of Man-Machine Studies 31, (September 1989) 237-256.
• D. R. Raymond and F. W. Tompa, "Hypertext and the Oxford English Dictionary," Communications of the ACM 31(7), (July 1988) 871-879. Also appears in the electronic ACM publication Hypertext on Hypertext released on Hypercard, Hyperties, Guide, and KMS (August 1988). Also appears in the electronic ACM publication ACM Hypertext Compendium released on KMS and Hypercard (November 1991).
• D. R. Raymond and F. W. Tompa, "The Limits of User Consultation in Database Design," Canadian Journal of Information Science12(3/4), (1987) 98-106.

• A. A. Ataullah and F. W. Tompa, "Business Policy Modeling and Enforcement in Databases," Proc. Very Large Data Bases (VLDB 2011), Seattle, 11 pp. (to appear).
• S. Kamali and F. W. Tompa, "Grammar Inference for Web Documents," 14th International Workshop on the Web and Databases (WebDB 2011), Athens, June 12, 2011, 6 pp.
• A. A. Ataullah and F. W. Tompa, "Lifecycle Management of Relational Records for External Auditing and Regulatory Compliance," IEEE International Symposium on Policies for Distributed Systems and Networks (Policy 2011), Pisa, June 6-8, 2011, 8 pp.
• S. Kamali and F. W. Tompa, "A New Mathematics Retrieval System," ACM 19th Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2010), Toronto, October 26-30, 2010, 1413-1416.
• S. Kamali and F. W. Tompa, "Improving Mathematics Retrieval," 2nd Workshop Towards a Digital Mathematics Library (DML 2009), Grand Bend, Canada, July 8-9, 2009, 37-48.
• A. Chinaei, K. Barker, and F. W.Tompa, "Space of Access Control Administration Models", 4th International Conference on Information Technology (ICIT'2009), Amman, Jordan, June 3-5, 2009; published in UbiCC Journal 4, 3, "Special Issue on ICIT 2009 Conference Web and Agent Systems," 525-532.
• A. A. Ataullah, A. Aboulnaga, and F. W. Tompa, "Records Retention in Relational Database Systems," ACM 17th Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2008), Napa, CA, October 26-28, 2008, 873-882.
• A. H. Chinaei, H. R. Chinaei, and F. W. Tompa, "A Unified Conflict Resolution Algorithm," 4th VLDB Workshop on Secure Data Management 2007 (SDM'07), September 2007, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4721, 1-17.
• N. Bansal, F. Chiang, N. Koudas, and F. W. Tompa, "Seeking Stable Clusters in the Blogosphere," VLDB 2007, Vienna (September 2007), 806-817.
• D.E.DeHaan and F. W. Tompa, "Optimal Top-Down Join Enumeration," ACM SIGMOD 2007, Beijing (June 2007), 785-796.
• R. H. Warren and F. W. Tompa, "Multi-column Substring Matching for Database Schema Translation," Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 32, September 2006, 331-342.
• A.H.Chinaei and F.W.Tompa, "User-Managed Access Control for Health Care Systems," Secure Data Management: Second VLDB Workshop (SDM 2005), August 2005, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 3674, 63-72.
• H. Zhang and F. W. Tompa, "Querying XML documents by dynamic shredding," ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, October 2004, 21-30.
• H. Chen and F. W. Tompa, "Set-at-a-time Access to XML through DOM," ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, November 2003, 225-233.
• Z. Langari and F. W. Tompa, "Subject Classification in the Oxford English Dictionary," IEEE Int. Conf. on Data Mining (ICDM'01), November 2001, 329-336.
• A. Salminen and F. W. Tompa, "Requirements for XML Document Database Systems," ACM Symposium on Document Engineering, November 2001, 85-94.
• X. Tang and F. W. Tompa, "Specifying Transformations for Structured Documents," Proc. 4th Int. Workshop on the Web and Databases (WebDB'2001), May 24-25, 2001, 67-72.
• M. Cramer, F. W. Tompa, and N. Charness, "Testing the Task-Action Grammar Model in a Workstation Environment," Proc. 7th European Conf. on Cognitive Ergonomics, Bonn (September 5-8, 1994).
• G. E. Blake, M. P. Consens, P. Kilpeläinen, P.-A. Larson, T. Snider, and F. W. Tompa "Text / Relational Database Management Systems: Harmonizing SQL and SGML," Proc. Applications of Databases (ADB-94), Vadstena, June 21-23, 1994, 267-280.
• F. W. Tompa, G. E. Blake, and D. R. Raymond "Hypertext by Link-Resolving Components," Hypertext '93, Seattle, Washington, (November 14-18, 1993) 118-130.
• D. R. Raymond, F. W. Tompa, and D. Wood, "Markup Revisited," 1st International Workshop on Principles of Document Processing, Washington, D.C. (October 21-23, 1992)
• F. W. Tompa and D. R. Raymond, "Database Design for a Dynamic Dictionary," Research in Humanities Computing I: Papers From the 1989 ACH-ALLC Conference, Ian Lancashire (ed)., Oxford University Press (1991) 257-272.
• R. A. Amsler and F. W. Tompa, "An SGML-based Standard for English Monolingual Dictionaries," Information in Text, Proc. 4th Conf. of Univ. of Waterloo Centre for the New OED (October 26-28, 1988), pp. 61-80.
• D. R. Raymond and F. W. Tompa, "The Limits of User Consultation in Database Design," 1st Toronto Conference on Database Users, Faculty of Library and Information Science, University of Toronto (June 1-3, 1988).
• G. H. Gonnet and F. W. Tompa, "Mind Your Grammar: a New Approach to Modelling Text" Very Large Data Bases (VLDB), 13, September 1987, pp. 339-346.

• F. W. Tompa, "Views of text," Digital Media Information Base (DMIB'97), Nara, Japan, November 26-28, 1997.
• F. W. Tompa, "Exposing text: How questions for the OED led to answers for the World Wide Web," Friends of the Library Spring Event, University of Waterloo, May 8, 1996.
• F. W. Tompa, "Not Just Another Database Project: Developments at UW," Reflections on the Future of Text, Proc. 10th Conf. of Univ. of Waterloo Centre for the New OED (October 20-21, 1994), pp. 82-89.
• F. W. Tompa, "Recovering Information from Stored Text," Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Series VI, Volume V (presented at the symposium, Calgary, June 11, 1994) pp. 105-109.
• F. W. Tompa, "An Overview of Waterloo's Database Software for the OED,"Proc. Symp. on Historical Dictionary Databases and Data Retrieval Requirements (Toronto, October 1991), in CCH (Centre for Computing in the Humanities) Working Papers 2 (1992) pp.123-143.
• F. W. Tompa, "What is (Tagged) Text?" Dictionaries in the Electronic Age, Proc. 5th Conf. of Univ. of Waterloo Centre for the New OED (September 1989) pp. 81-93.

Except where indicated, proceedings are available for $20.00 each.

• "Information in Data,'' Proceedings of the First Annual Conference of the UW Centre for the New OED, Waterloo, Ontario, November 1985 (out of print).
• "Advances in Lexicology,'' Proceedings of the Second Annual Conference of the UW Centre for the New OED, Waterloo, Ontario, November 1986.
• "The Uses of Large Text Databases,'' Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference of the UW Centre for the New OED, Waterloo, Ontario, November 1987 (out of print).
• "Information in Text,'' Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference of the UW Centre for the New OED, Waterloo, Ontario, October 1988.
• "Dictionaries in The Electronic Age,'' Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference of the UW Centre for the New OED, Oxford, England, September 1989.
• "Electronic Text Research,'' Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Conference of UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research, Waterloo, Ontario, October 1990 (out of print).
• "Using Corpora,'' Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Conference of UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research, Oxford, England, September 1991.
• "Screening Words: User Interfaces for Text,'' Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research, Waterloo, Ontario, October 1992.
• "Making Sense of Words,'' Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research, Oxford, England, October 1993.
• "Reflections on the Future of Text,'' Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Conference of UW Centre for the New OED and Text Research, Waterloo, Ontario, October 1994.