Applied Ontology Engineering (703817)
Lecture with Hands-on Sessions (VU2) for Master Students

University of Innsbruck

Lecturer: 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
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

Room 3W03, "Video conference room", TransIT building, level "02" (3rd floor in American counting).

Class Times

Monday, 1.15 - 2.45 p.m. plus one extra unit on  July 3, 12.00 noon – 6.00 p.m.

Assignments and Grading Policy

There will be
The quizzes will be pre-announced (first quiz on March 27) 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 to create one big WSML ontology plus documentation plus a presentation.

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 Summer 2006


Unit Date Topic Slides (PDF) Additional Material / Reading Assignments for next class
1 March 6  Ontology Engineering Fundamentals aoe1.pdf
(6 slides per page)
aoe1big.pdf
(2 slides per page)		  none
March 13 No classes – make-up on July 3 n.a. n.a.
March 20 No classes – make-up on July 3 n.a. n.a.
2 March 27 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]
April 3 No classes – make-up on July 3  n.a.  n.a.
3 April 24 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 May 8 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, May 14, 11:59 p.m.)
5 May 15 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 May 22 OntoClean including Exercises    
7 May 29 Ontology Engineering Exercises 1    
June 12 No classes – make-up on July 3    
8 June 19 Ontology Engineering Exercises 2    
9 June 26 Ontology Engineering Exercises 3    
10 July 3
12.00 noon – 6.00 p.m. 		Final Presentations (mandatory)
12.00 noon – 6.00 p.m.
(also make-up for missed classes)		    



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