Formal Semantics
Dr. Renée J. Miller
Canada Excellence Research Chair in Data Intelligence
Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo
Dr. Renée Miller's research has spent decades on one of computing's most stubborn open problems — how to integrate, exchange, and make trustworthy sense of large volumes of complex, heterogeneous data — and turned it into practical systems the field actually uses. Her recent work on data and model lake management is the same shape of problem UIR needs solved next, applied to a different kind of lake.
Provenance Semirings for Agent Intent
Intent Exchange as Data Exchange
Capability Discovery over Tool Lakes
the partnership
the research
Three potential directions, one thesis at a time.
The collaboration is structured as co-supervised PhD research — Algedonic providing the systems and roadmap context, Dr. Miller’s group providing the formal rigor and publication path.
DIRECTION 01
Provenance Semirings for Agent Intent
Giving UIR’s tool-call witness principle a real mathematical backbone, extending provenance semiring theory from queries to agent action traces.
DIRECTION 02
Intent Exchange as Data Exchange
Treating the translation of intent across MCP, A2A, and ACP as a schema mapping problem, with the correctness guarantees data exchange theory demands.
DIRECTION 03
Capability Discovery over Tool Lakes
Adapting data lake discovery so agents can find the right tool for a given intent — out of thousands — at scale.