Computer Science

Although Ontology has existed as a philosophical discipline for hundreds of years, the term has in recent times been adopted by the Computer Science community to encompass a set of formal tools used to describe the  conceptualizations of reality that are embodied in information systems. As such, ontologies are of particular interest in Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Database Theory, Information Engineering, and other areas. The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of key ontological concepts, to introduce specific formal tools for handling these concepts, to examine a number of particular ontologies that have been especially influential in the field, and to explore some specific application areas for ontological theory.

The aim of this module is to provide an understanding of key ontological concepts, to introduce specific formal tools for handling these concepts, to examine a number of particular ontologies that have been especially influential in the field, and to explore some specific application areas for ontological theory.

Module Specific Skills and Knowledge:
1 use some of the main formal techniques used for constructing ontologies;
2 describe the nature and purpose of ontologies in the AI context, and show familiarity with at least one ontological formalism;
3 apply this knowledge to particular domains.
Discipline Specific Skills and Knowledge:
4 demonstrate an understanding of how theoretical investigations can form an essential underpinning to practical research in the Computer Science domain;
5 describe the main trends in logic-based AI research.
Personal and Key Transferable/ Employment Skills and  Knowledge:
6 read and digest research papers from conferences and journals;
7 relate theoretical knowledge to practical concerns.

Historical introduction to ontologies, from ancient philosophy to the semantic web. Basic concepts of formal ontology (taxonomy, mereology, classes, individuals and relations, dependence, inheritance, topology, modality, etc) Formal tools for ontology: first-order logic; description logic. Examples of modern formal ontologies such as Cyc, DOLCE, BFO). Particular application areas (e.g., geographical or biomedical ontologies)

If a module is normally assessed entirely by coursework, all referred/deferred assessments will normally be by assignment.
If a module is normally assessed by examination or examination plus coursework, referred and deferred assessment will normally be by examination. For referrals, only the examination will count, a mark of 40% being awarded if the examination is passed. For deferrals, candidates will be awarded the higher of the deferred examination mark or the deferred examination mark combined with the original coursework mark.

Basic reading:
Proceedings of the FOIS conferences.

Applied Ontology journal (IOS Press)

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk

Reading list for this module: