COMP62342: Ontology Engineering for the Semantic

Web

Semester 2, Period 4Sean Bechhofer & Uli Sattler

sean.bechhofer@manchester.ac.ukulrike.sattler@manchester.ac.uk

The Web

•  A network of interlinked computers, protocols, software and applications

•  A socio-cultural phenomenon

•  Changed society over the last 20 years–  work, trade, education,

science, entertainment, culture….

•  Rapidly evolving–  underlying technologies–  usage

•  Huge–  50 Billion pages indexed by

Google1

1 http://www.worldwidewebsize.com/

The Semantic Web

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A Semantic Web, which makes this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The "intelligent agents" people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”

Tim Berners-Lee, 1999

COMP62342: Ontology Engineering for the SW

Ontology•  A representation of the shared background knowledge for

a community•  Providing the intended meaning of a formal vocabulary

used to describe a certain conceptualisation of objects in a domain of interest

•  A vocabulary of terms plus explicit characterisations of the assumptions made in interpreting those terms

•  Nearly always includes some notion of hierarchical classification (is-a)

•  Richer languages allow the definition of classes through description of their characteristics–  Introduce the possibility of using inference to help in

management and deployment of the knowledge.

COMP62342: Ontology Engineering for the SW

•  Knowledge Representation and Ontologies–  Increasing role in applications–  W3C’s OWL and SKOS established standards

•  Key Technologies in realising the Semantic Web and Web of Data

•  Module provides Foundations and Practice of understanding, developing and using OWL ontologies–  Develop an understanding of the underlying languages

and the tradeoffs in their design. –  Acquire practical experience of ontology modelling.

COMP62342: Ontology Engineering for the SW

Theory•  Foundations•  Description Logics•  Reasoning•  Methodologies

Practice•  Knowledge Acquisition•  Ontology Development•  Applications•  Comment/critique

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COMP62342: Ontology Engineering for the SW

Assessment•  50% Exam

–  Electronic/On-line•  50% Coursework

–  Weekly short questions/tests–  Practical exercises

§  Knowledge Acquisition§  Modelling

§  Ontology Critique§  Use of tools§  Application Development

Research Related to this Theme

•  UoM is a Leading Research Centre in Ontology Engineering, Language Design and Semantic Applications

•  Instrumental in W3C Standardization–  Web Ontology Language OWL–  Simple Knowledge Organisation Systems SKOS–  SPARQL Query language

•  Tool Development–  OWL API, Protégé, FaCT++, SWOOP

•  Applications–  Life Sciences, eScience

Is it for me?

•  This unit is not for…–  those who just want to build �

web pages–  those who don’t like to “get their hands dirty”–  those who don’t like to read around the subject

•  This unit is for…–  those who are seeking a deeper understanding of the

technologies that are being used to support the continuing evolution of the Web.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/-bast-/349497988/