I studied at University of Nantes from 2004 to 2012. I first received a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, and then a Master’s degree in Software Engineering. Finally, I earned my PhD in Computer Science in November 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Philippe Lamarre and Dr Sylvie Cazalens.
My research focused on semantic information retrieval in heterogeneous peer-to-peer (P2P) systems. More specifically, I considered P2P systems in which each peer uses an ontology to represent its data. I was interested in the challenging problem related to the semantic heterogeneity that occurs when all the peers do not use the same ontology. Semantic heterogeneity, which is a particular state of the system, prevents perfect interoperability. My goal was to show that reducing heterogeneity improves interoperability. In order to do that, it has been necessary to be able to characterize the semantic heterogeneity of a P2P system. As it is a complex notion, several measures have be defined. After that I proposed two gossip-based protocols to reduce some facets of semantic heterogeneity of a system. Measures have been used to show how these protocols are efficient to reduce heterogeneity. Finally, I showed that reducing semantic heterogeneity allows to improve interoperability.