There have been four distinct phases in the development of the Database Laboratory. They are briefly described here in chronoligical order. To know more about the motivations behind the phases please refer to the section on description of objectives.

Getting started (1988-1989)

The laboratory has been established in October 1988 when Prof. Spaccapietra joined EPFL. It took about one year to set up the laboratory in full format (filling the initial 3 allocated assistant positions, getting FNRS support for more positions, preparing courses and exercises, installing the equipment, etc.).

Getting known (1990)

The lab had to make Swiss potential partners aware of its existence, and database people around the world aware that there was now a database group at EPFL. To demonstrate our know-how, 1990 was devoted to the development of the SUPER prototype of visual user/DBMS interfaces for data definition and data manipulation, based on the ERC+ modeling approach. The prototype was first demonstrated at the 10th International Conference on the Entity-Relationship Approach, organized by the lab at EPFL in October 1990. The conference has been very successful, attracting about 200 participants. Development of SUPER interfaces continued on a small scale until 1992.

Developing research and public relations (1991-1994)

From 1991 to 1996 research activities were given priority over development. All assistants in the lab gradually turned to preparing their Ph.D., which eventually they got between 1993 and 1996. A number of publications have been produced, including those on the SUPER prototype. In parallel, the lab frequently organized industry-oriented seminars and scientific events. To promote international visibility Prof. Spaccapietra also participated into many program committes of international conferences.

Industrial cooperation (1995-1997 and beyond)

With public funding getting scarcer, the action towards industrial cooperation had been strenghtened and in 1995 started to produce concrete results. Several new projects, pursuing different but complementary research directions, were launched in cooperation with industrial partners. These include two european projects. The number of people in the lab, which tended to drop with the completion of many Ph.D., has since significantly increased, including a few engineer positions devoted to R & D projects.

Currently, the lab includes 15 to 20 people.