From distributed systems to machine learning pipelines: BIFOLD contributes broadly to one of the leading forums for data management research
At VLDB 2026, held from August 31 to September 4, 2026, at The Westin Boston Seaport in Boston, USA, BIFOLD researchers will contribute eight research papers, three workshop papers, two demonstrations, a workshop keynote, and a panel participation, alongside an Emerging Reviewer Award and multiple program committee and organizational roles.
The Very Large Data Bases (VLDB) conference is a premier annual international forum for data management, scalable data science, and database research, bringing together researchers, vendors, practitioners, and users from academia and industry. The 2026 edition offers a comprehensive program with research talks, keynotes, panels, tutorials, demonstrations, an industrial track, and specialized workshops such as VecDB and Quality in Databases, with keynotes from industry and academic leaders including Reynold Xin and Jingren Zhou.
The contributions involve several BIFOLD research groups: DIMA – Database Systems and Information Management, DEEM – Management of Data Science Processes, D2IP – Data Integration and Data Preparation, DAMS – Big Data Engineering, and RSiM – Big Data Management for Earth Observation.
Beyond the scientific program, BIFOLD researchers help coordinate the conference. Arnab Phani has been recognized with the AIDB Workshop Emerging Reviewer Award. Stefan Halfpap serves as Proceedings Chair, and Arnab Phani, Haralampos Gavriilidis, Matthias Boehm, Patrick Damme, Steffen Zeuch, Samira Akili, and Ziawasch Abedjan serve on the Proceedings Review Board. David Justen and Olga Ovcharenko serve as Shadow PC Members, Sebastian Schelter and Steffen Zeuch as Associate Editors for the Demo Track, and David Justen, Haralampos Gavriilidis, Samira Akili, Stefan Grafberger, Steffen Zeuch, and Thanasis Georgiadis serve on the Program Committee.
Below is an overview of BIFOLD's contributions:
Meerkat: Scalable, Network-Aware Failure Recovery for the Internet of Things
- Anastasiia Kozar, Ankit Chaudhary, Steffen Zeuch, Volker Markl
- September 3, 2026, 15:45–17:15, R51 – Streamprocessing and IoT
- DOI
- DIMA News
Matryoshka: Uncovering Relevant Features in Data Lakes to Enhance Machine Learning Applications
- Fedor Turchenko, Runjie Zhang, Binger Chen, Matthias Boehm, Babak Salimi, Amir Shaikhha, Ziawasch Abedjan
- September 1, 2026, 10:45–12:15, R3 – Data Discovery over Data Lakes
- Code
- DIMA News
FedAugment: Table Augmentation Search over Decentralized Data Repositories
- Lennart Behme, Emil Badura, Leonard Geissler, Matthias Boehm, Ziawasch Abedjan, Volker Markl
- A study accepted for publication focusing on table augmentation search over decentralized data repositories.
- September 1, 2026, 10:45–12:15, R3 – Data Discovery over Data Lakes
- DIMA News
stratum: A System Infrastructure for Massive Agent-Centric ML Workloads
- Arnab Phani, Elias Strauss, Sebastian Schelter
- September 2, 2026, 10:45–12:15, R19 – Semantic Query Processing
- Preprint
Distilled Documentation for Dialect-Specific SQL Generation
- Till Döhmen, Adithya Krishnan, Hamilton Ulmer, Peter Boncz, Sebastian Schelter
- September 1, 2026, 17:15–18:30, Poster Session 1
- Preprint
SemBench: A Benchmark for Semantic Query Processing Engines
- Jiale Lao, Andreas Zimmerer, Olga Ovcharenko, Tianji Cong, Matthew Russo, Gerardo Vitagliano, Michael Cochez, Fatma Özcan, Gautam Gupta, Thibaud Hottelier, H. V. Jagadish, Kris Kissel, Sebastian Schelter, Andreas Kipf, Immanuel Trummer
- September 2, 2026, 10:45–12:15, R19 – Semantic Query Processing
- Preprint
ReSequel: Robust LLM-assisted Query Rewriting and Optimization using Templatization and Sampling
- Saeed Fathollahzadeh, Essam Mansour, Matthias Boehm
- September 2, 2026, 10:45 – 12:15, R19 – Semantic Query Processing; 17:15 – 18:30 Poster Session 2
- Preprint
Morphing-based Compression for Data-centric ML Pipelines
- Sebastian Baunsgaard, Matthias Boehm
- September 3, 2026, 15:45 –17:15, R39 – ML Pipeline Management
- DOI
SECBench: A Benchmarking Framework for Stream Processing Systems in the Sensor-Edge-Cloud Continuum
- Taha Tekdogan, Lukas Schwerdtfeger, Tilmann Rabl, Steffen Zeuch, Volker Markl
- August 31, 2026, 8:45–17:15, TPCTC Workshop
- Workshop Website
Be Fair! Can Machine Learning Engineering Agents Adhere to Fairness Constraints?
- Anna Richter, Julia Stoyanovich, Sebastian Schelter
- Preprint
- Workshop Website
ArtiFact: A Large-Scale Multi-Modal Cultural Heritage Dataset
- Luciano Duarte, Olga Ovcharenko, Sebastian Schelter
- August 31, 2026, 8:45–17:15, NOVAS Workshop
- Preprint
- Workshop Website
Demonstrating EarthLake: A Model Lake System for Earth Observation Foundation Model Management
- Binger Chen, Haralampos Gavriilidis, Luca Gaedicke, Tacettin Emre Bök, Matthias Boehm, Ziawasch Abedjan, Begüm Demir, Volker Markl
- A joint demonstration system developed alongside DIMA, BigEarth, and DAMS to handle complex analytics and model lifecycles for earth observation data.
- September 1, 2026, 13:45–15:15, and September 2, 2026, 15:45–17:15, Graph, Systems & Infrastructure
- DIMA News
SemPiper: Interactive Code Synthesis for Semantic Operators in Machine Learning Pipelines
- Olga Ovcharenko, Luciano Duarte, Sebastian Schelter
- September 1, 2026, 13:45–15:15, and September 2, 2026, 15:45–17:15, Graph, Systems & Infrastructure
- Preprint
Keynote / QDB Workshop: “Ad-hoc Data Integration in Data Lakes”
- Speaker: Ziawasch Abedjan
- August 31, 2026, QDB Workshop
Panel Participation / Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Panel
- Ziawasch Abedjan
AIDB Workshop Emerging Reviewer Award
- Arnab Phani
- Proceedings Chair: Stefan Halfpap (BIFOLD & Technische Universität Berlin)
- Proceeding Review Board: Arnab Phani, Haralampos Gavriilidis, Matthias Boehm, Patrick Damme, Steffen Zeuch, Samira Akili, Ziawasch Abedjan
- Shadow PC Members: David Justen, Olga Ovcharenko
- Associate Editors (Demo Track): Sebastian Schelter, Steffen Zeuch
- Program Committee (Reviewers): David Justen, Haralampos Gavriilidis, Samira Akili, Stefan Grafberger, Steffen Zeuch, Thanasis Georgiadis