Applied Ontology Engineering (703705) 2007WS

Applied Ontology Engineering (703705)
Lecture with Hands-on Sessions (VO3) for Master Students

University of Innsbruck

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Martin Hepp
E-mail: martin.hepp(at)deri.org
URI: http://www.heppnetz.de/teaching/aoe/

Course Description:

Building consensual representations of a domain of discourse is a prerequisite for Semantic Systems. In this course, students will learn the fundamental techniques of Ontology Engineering and get hands-on experience by developing non-toy ontologies for various domains. ´

Topics covered include

Fundamentals of Ontologies
Ontology Engineering Methodologies
Ontology Formalisms and Languages: RDF-S, OWL-DL, and WSML
Ontology Design Patterns
Hands-on exercises in the e-Business, Logistics, Tourism, and other domains

Learning Goal

Students will acquire (1) the theoretical knowledge and (2) practical skills necessary to build, maintain, and review real-world ontologies in various ontology formalisms (mainly WSML).

Registration

Registration to this class is mandatory. Please check the ZID system (click here).

Classroom

HS 11, Architecture building

Class Times

Monday, 2:15 - 4:45 p.m. (Coffee break from 3:45 to 4:00 p.m.)

Assignments and Grading Policy

There will be

two quizzes (25 %),
one or more individual assignments (40%) and
one group assignment (35%).

The quizzes will be pre-announced and will check whether you have prepared the mandatory reading. The individual assignments will be to create one ore more small WSML ontology/ontologies plus documentation, plus a presentation, and the group assignment will be review a given ontology.

For the quizzes, no make-up is possible (except in case of absence due to medical reasons, to be certified by a medical doctor).

Relevant Literature

Mandatory Textbook:

[1] Gómez-Pérez/Fernández-López/Corcho: "Ontological Engineering", Springer 2004.

Additional Materials (mandatory): See the Class Schedule below. Additional materials and reading assignments may also be announced in class.

[2] Mike Uschold, Michael Grüninger: Ontologies: Principles, Methods and Applications (1996),
Knowledge Engineering Review, PDF available here (Google for the title if you encounter difficulties; there are plenty of copies on the Web)

Slides will be made available on the Web page after (!) the respective unit.

Class Schedule and Materials Winter 2007/2008

Unit	Date	Topic	Slides (PDF)	Additional Material / Reading Assignments for next class
1	October 8	Ontology Engineering Fundamentals	aoe1.pdf (6 slides per page) aoe1big.pdf (2 slides per page)	none
2	October 15	Ontology Formalisms: RDF-S and WSML / Ontology Tools: WSMT and SWEDE	aoe2.pdf (6 slides per page) aoe2big.pdf (2 slides per page)	Chapter 1 in the textbook [1] and the full Uschold/Gruninger paper [2]
3	October 22	Practical Problems of Building Ontologies	aoe3.pdf (6 slides per page) aoe3big.pdf (2 slides per page)	Read Chapter 3, "Methodologies and Methods for Building Ontologies" (pp. 107-198); there will be a quiz at the beginning of next class.
4	October 29	Ontology Engineering Methodologies	aoe4.pdf (6 slides per page) aoe4big.pdf (2 slides per page)	For the ontology topic assigned to you, complete the following tasks based on Uschold and King‘s methodology 1. Identify purpose: Specify informal competency questions 2. Search for related ontologies and re-usable ontologies, i.e. define proper ontology scope 3. Capture domain using the Middle-out approach Prepare a 4-slide presentation (5 min) and submit it to the instructor no later than Sunday, Nov 4, 11:59 p.m.) Additional materials from unit 4: University library ontology domain capture and competency questions.
5	November 5	Student Presentations of Tasks 1, 2, and 3 of Assignment 1		1. Re-Read Section 3.8.3, “OntoClean" (pp. 185-195) 2. Read Guarino/Welty: "An Overview of OntoClean", PDF available here. There will be a quiz at the beginning of next class.
6	November 12	OntoClean including Exercises	aoe5.pdf (6 slides per page) aoe5big.pdf (2 slides per page) Plus presentations on Chris Welty's page.	Submit updated presentations by Sunday, Nov 19, 2007!
7	November 19	Ontology Engineering Exercises 1
8	November 26	Ontology Engineering Exercises 2
9	December 3	Ontology Engineering Exercises 3
10	December 10	Ontology Engineering Exercises 4
11	January 7	Ontology Engineering Exercises 5
12	January 14	Final Presentations Part 1
13	January 21	Final Presentations Part 2

1	Markus Oberberger	Recipe Ontology
2	Jun Qin	Application Software Ontology
3	Philipp Ruff	Computer Equipment Ontology
4	Alexander Gamper	Alpine Leisure Activities Ontology
5	Doris Silbernagl	Documents and Media Ontology
6	Martin Hofmann	Ski Touring Ontology
7	Gerald Hiebel	History of Mining