Course Details for A.Y. 2019/2020

The information on this page refer to the academic year 2019/2020. Therefore, several links are not available and data may be incomplete. To read the current information on the course, if it is still available, go to the university course catalogue . To read information relating other academic years, use the list at the bottom of this page.

A. Year:

2019/2020

Name:

Description Logics and Web Ontologies / Description Logics and Web Ontologies

Type:

Course

Basic information

Code:

DT0210

Sector:

INF/01

Credits:

: Master Degree in Computer Science 3 CFU (d)

Term:

1^st semester

Degree(s):

Master Degree in Computer Science 1^st anno curriculum GSEEM Elective
Master Degree in Computer Science 1^st anno curriculum General Elective
Master Degree in Computer Science 1^st anno curriculum NEDAS Elective
Master Degree in Computer Science 1^st anno curriculum SEAS Elective
Master Degree in Computer Science 1^st anno curriculum UBIDIS Elective

Language:

English

Teacher(s):

Stefania Costantini

Course Objectives

The Semantic Web is a huge successful effort to enhance the current web so that computers can process the information presented on the web, interpret and connect it; this in order to allow applications, on behalf of humans users, to identify and obtain the required knowledge. In the same way as the web is a huge distributed hypertext system, Semantic Web is intended to form a huge distributed knowledge based system. Ontology languages allow to define such knowledge bases, called "Ontologies", that are used for sharing knowledge between different systems, and between human users and computers. Ontologies are nowadays the most important way of expressing data, and are employed not only for the Semantic Web, but for every kind of application, including those in Advanced Databases, Bioinformatics, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Objective of this Course is to make students able to understand the Semantic Web, to know and use in practice the main Semantic Web languages and to understand their semantics (which is based on Description Logics).

Course Content

Introduction to the Semantic Web and Ontologies
The RDF and RDFS Ontology Languages
The SPARQL query language
OWL as an extension to RDF(S)
Description Logics (in a nutshell)
Datalog+- (in a nutshell)

Learning Outcomes (Dublin Descriptors)

On successful completion of this course, the student should

On successful completion of this course the student should have acquire knowledge about the Semantic Web, its related technologies and their semantic foundations, and competences about how to use these technologies. The student should be able to understand, define and query web ontologies, and understand their meaning. The student should be able to understand the role of ontologies in web applications, and should be able to develop sample ontology-based applications. The student should be able to understand and apply, in the future, possible technological new development.

Pre-Assessment There is no formal pre-assessment, but Course pre-requisites are clearly stated on the Module website. Fulfilment of such pre-requisites is verified by formative assessment. Additional lectures or short seminars or individual homework are provided by the teacher in case significant problems are detected.

Formative Assessment The formative assessment is performed via interactive interaction beteween teacher and students during lectures. Students are aware since the beginning of the Course that they will be involved (in turns) in:

Questioning and discussion, by means of open oral questions to the class or to single students.
Exit Slips: students may be assigned written questions or exercises to be answered in 10 minutes, and a student is then selected for oral presentation of her/his solution to the class.
Short seminars: students may be assigned personalized homework, that they will have to illustrate to the class by means of 20 minutes’ short seminars.

Summative Assessment Project (with written report) followed by an oral exam.

The Project is aimed at: verification of skills in understanding and solving a significant exercise, and in explaining the proposed solution. This in order to verify the ability of application of techniques learnt during the Course, of analysis of problems and synthesis of suitable solutions, and of evaluation of alternative solutions. Criteria of evaluation will be: the level of knowledge and practical ability; the property of use of the technical/mathematical language; the clarity and completeness of explanations.

The oral exam will occur within one week of the written test and will typically cover the points of the Project that need clarification plus, possibly, plus additional subjects proposed by the teacher. Assessment breakdown: 100% end-of-semester summative assessment.

Prerequisites and Learning Activities

Prerequisites: basic competences in Mathematical Logic and basic knowledge of Programming Languages and about the Web, and its languages HTML and XML.

Assessment Methods and Criteria

Practical Projects

Textbooks

Gregoris Antoniou and Frank Van Harmelen, A Semantic Web Primer , The MIT Press. 2008. Pdf freely available https:
wtlab.um.ac.ir/images/reports/The.MIT.Press.Semantic.Web.Primer.2nd.Edition.Mar.2008.eBook-D
Stefania Costantini, Lecture Notes

Notes

Orario di ricevimento: Mercoledi' 10:30-12:30 oppure su appuntamento email (the lecturer can meet the students on Wednesday, 10:30-12:30 or by making an appointment via email) Curriculum Vitae docente (Lecturer CV): http://www.di.univaq.it/stefcost/curring.htm The goal of this Course is to introduce what the Semantic Web is, why it needs ontologies, which are the related technologies, and where description logics (DLs) come into play. We will provide an introduction to the Semantic Web and its basic related languages, namely RDF, RDFS. We introduce SPARQL as a query language for such languages. We motivate the reason why an extension of such languages is needed, and we introduce OWL. We then introduce description logics, and argue why they are well-suited to provide semantic foundations for the Semantic Web. We finally mention datalog+- as an alternative formalism. We will discuss significant example of use of all languages/formalism that we introduce.

Course page updates

This course page is available (with possible updates) also for the following academic years:

To read the current information on this course, if it is still available, go to the university course catalogue .

Course information last updated on: 25 gennaio 2018, 12:55