His primary research area is formal ontologies, and he has been actively working in the area of biomedical ontologies since 1992.

Prof. Baclawski has been active in the development of the Semantic Web since it was first proposed; being part of the team that developed the DAML+OIL ontology language, later renamed the Web Ontology Language (OWL).

Tutorial
Tutorial on the Semantic Web

For all of its usefulness, the Web is oriented much more toward human interaction than automated processing. While the Web gives access to information, it does not allow one to easily integrate different data sources or to incorporate additional analysis tools. The Semantic Web addresses these problems by annotating Web resources and by providing reasoning and retrieval facilities from heterogeneous sources.

This tutorial introduces the basic languages of the Semantic Web. The objective is to cover the major Web ontology languages, what they mean and how they are used. The emphasis will be on pragmatic application issues. The goal is for participants to have a understanding of the Semantic Web sufficient for them to be able to make decisions about whether and how to use the Semantic Web.

Goals and Objectives
The objective is to cover the Semantic Web languages (XML, RDF, and OWL), what they mean and how they are used. The emphasis will be on pragmatic issues. The goal is for participants to have a understanding of the Semantic Web sufficient for them to be able to make decisions about whether to use it at all, and if so then how to use it.

Audience and Prerequisites
The tutorial is for a general audience, but some experience with databases and XML will be assumed. No programming experience is necessary.

Outline

1. The Semantic Web Languages. Starting with ordinary flat files, the tutorial introduces progressively more complex data, including: taxonomies, general hierarchies and relationships. The semantics of XML, RDF and the three OWL languages will be explained and compared. The advantages and disadvantages of the various languages will be discussed. Summary of topics in this part:
   1. From flat files to hierarchies and XML
   2. Rule based systems
   3. Resource Description Framework
   4. Web Ontology Language
2. Semantic Web Usage. The Semantic Web has many advantages if it ever becomes as commonplace and ubiquitous as the Web is today. Semantic-based search and data mining, improved interoperability of data sources and applications, and more accurate repurposing of data are just some of the possibilities. This part of the tutorial will present some of the tools and services that currently exist and are being developed.
   1. Search: Ontology based information retrieval
   2. Repurposing: Transformation languages and tools
   3. Bayesian Web: Combining logic and probability
   4. Situation Awareness
3. Ontology Design. Before one can benefit from the Semantic Web it is necessary to build high-quality ontologies. Once one has a clear understanding of the purpose of the ontology, there are four major activities that must be undertaken: choosing an ontology language, obtaining a development tool, acquiring domain knowledge, and reusing existing ontologies.

return to program