Recognizing relevant events in a data stream: Core at EDBT/ICDT 2026

In a world where data generation is constant and massive, the ability to react to critical events within milliseconds has become a fundamental pillar for development. Many areas in which millions of data points are generated constantly and in very little time -a data stream- require tools that allow them to identify relevant events in time frames as close to real time as possible.

In this context, Cristian Riveros, faculty member of the Computer Science Department at Universidad Católica and researcher at the Millennium Institute for Foundational Research on Data (IMFD), together with a team of researchers, proposes CORE: a complex event recognition engine, designed to process information flows at high speed, identifying patterns that represent critical situations right at the moment they occur.

The researcher was a Keynote speaker at the 29th International Conference Extended Database Technology EDBT/ICDT 2026, where he presented the technical foundations of CORE in the talk “The Dissection of a Complex Event Recognition Engine”.

“The challenge is not just capturing the data, but understanding its relevance before it loses value. In continuous flow systems, the importance of an event decays rapidly; if you do not process it in real time, the opportunity to act disappears,” explains Riveros regarding the urgency these technologies face.

For the researcher, the invitation to present the initiative at EDBT/ICDT 2026 represents recognition of the quality of data science produced in Chile. “CORE is an important theoretical advance, and also a practical and efficient solution, designed to tackle scalability problems that current engines are still trying to solve.” The academic highlights that the tool has the capacity to deliver relevant information to people in charge of decision-making in areas where information is being generated permanently and constantly. “We think, for example, of smart cities, events on social media, sensors in nature reserves: there are many areas that need to extract useful information from the millions of data points being generated daily,” he notes. 

In addition to the technical aspects, the talk addressed open research problems in the CER field, mapping out the roadmap for the next generation of data engineers and scientists. Riveros’s participation at EDBT/ICDT underscores the leadership of Chilean academia in developing critical infrastructure for the data intelligence era.

The Joint Conference EDBT/ICDT stands as one of the most influential research and technological development forums in the world in the field of data management. This international gathering brings together two critical pillars of computing: the International Conference on Database Theory (ICDT), which leads the theoretical and mathematical foundations of the field, and the Extending Database Technology (EDBT), focused on the creation of applied systems and cutting-edge engineering solutions.

“It is at EDBT/ICDT where the advances that today sustain global digital infrastructure have historically been presented, so this invitation confirms that solutions developed in the country for processing critical flows are at the forefront of international discussion, competing directly with advances from the world’s leading technological powers,” adds Riveros.

You can find more information about CORE at: https://core.ing.uc.cl/