Intensive course :
Ontological
Foundations for Conceptual Modeling with Applications
(Modern
Approaches
to the Information Systems Development)
Professor:
Dr. Giancarlo
Guizzardi - http://www.loa-cnr.it/Guizzardi/
Laboratory for
Applied Ontology (LOA),
Institute
Cognitive Science and Technology (ISTC),
National Research
Council (CNR)
&
Ontologies and
Conceptual Modeling Research Group
(NeO)
Computer Science
Department,
Federal
Duration: 20 hours
Presentation - Day 1
Presentation - Day 2
Presentation - Day 3
Presentation - Day 4
Presentation - Day 5
Short Description:
The main objective
of this course is to introduce
graduate students to the theory and practice of advanced conceptual
modeling
through the application of a new emerging discipline named Ontology
Driven
Conceptual Modeling.
Conceptual
Modeling is a discipline of great
importance to several areas in Computer Science. Its main objective is
concerned with identifying, analyzing and describing the essential
concepts and
constraints of a universe of discourse, with the help of a
(diagrammatic)
modeling language that is based on a set of basic modeling concepts
(forming a
metamodel). In this course, we show how conceptual modeling languages
(e.g.,
UML, ORM, EER) can be evaluated and (re)designed with the purpose of
improving their
ontological adequacy. In simple terms, ontological adequacy is a
measure of how
truthful the models produced using a modeling language are to the
situations in
the reality they are supposed to represent, and how easy is for users
use these
models for communicating, domain learning and problem-solving.
The course starts
by proposing a systematic evaluation
method for comparing a metamodel of the concepts underlying a language
to a
reference ontology of the corresponding domain in reality. The focus is
on
general conceptual modeling languages (as opposed to domain specific
ones).
Hence, the reference ontology employed here is a foundational (or
upper-level)
ontology. Moreover, since, it focuses on structural modeling aspects
(as
opposed to dynamic ones), this foundational ontology is an ontology of
objects,
their properties and relations, their parts, the roles they play, and
the types
they instantiate.
The foundational
ontology presented in this course has
been developed by adapting and extending a number of theories coming,
primarily, from formal ontology in philosophy, but also from cognitive
science
and linguistics. Once developed, every sub-theory of the ontology is
used in
the creation of methodological tools (e.g., modeling profiles,
guidelines and
design patterns). The expressiveness and relevance of these tools are
shown
throughout the course to solve some classical and recurrent conceptual
modeling
problems.
Bibliography:
Mandatory Material
“Ontological
Foundations for Structural
Conceptual Models”, Telematica Instituut Fundamental Research
Series
No. 15, ISBN 90-75176-81-3, The
Downloadable from
Additional Material
(all papers
downloadable from http://www.loa-cnr.it/Guizzardi/Education.htm)
Guizzardi, G., Modal Aspects of Object Types and
Part-Whole Relations and the de re/de dicto distinction, 19th
International
Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAISE’07),
Trondheim,
2007, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4495, Springer-Verlag.
DAY 1
Introduction
A.1 Background
A.2 Motivation
A.3 Objectives
A.4 Scope
A.5 Approach and
Structure
Language
Evaluation and Design
B.1 Elements of
Language Design
B.2 A Framework
for Language Evaluation and (Re)Design
B.3
Conceptualization and Ontology
B.4 What is
Conceptual Modeling? - A brief Historical
Overview
B.5 Conceptual
Modeling Languages: Domain-Specific x
General Purpose
DAY 2
Ontology
A.1 Ontology in
Philosophy
A.2 Ontology in
Computer and Information Sciences
A.3 Terminological
Clarifications and Formal
Characterizations
A.4 Ontology,
Conceptual Modeling and Metamodelling
A.5 The criteria
for an Ontologically Well-Founded
Conceptual Modeling Language (and why The Semantic Web languages do not
satisfy
them)
A.6 Designing an
Ontologically Well-Founded Conceptual
Modeling Language: The Approach
A.7 Ontology-Based
Semantics and Language
Comparability
Types and
Taxonomic Structures
B.1 Theory of
Types: Philosophical and Psychological
Foundations
B.2 An
Ontologically Well-Founded Profile for modeling
types and their taxonomic relations in Conceptual Modeling
B.3 Psychological
Evidence
B.4 Formal
Characterization
B.5 An Ontological
Design Pattern for Role
Modeling
B.6 Examples of
use of this Design Pattern
DAY 3
Parts and Wholes
A.1 Formal
Theories of Parts
A.2 Problems with Mereology
as a Theory of
Conceptual Parts
A.3 Integral Wholes
A.4 Secondary
Properties of Part-Whole relations
A.5 Part-Whole
Theories in Linguistics and Cognitive
Sciences
A.6 The Problem of
Transitivity Revisited
A.7 Parts of Roles
Properties
B.1 The Problem of
Universals
B.2 Basic
Ontological Categories
B.3 An Ontological
Foundation for Conceptual Modeling
most Basic Concepts
B.4 Qua
Individuals and some Visual Patterns
for Addressing the Problem of Transitivity in Complex Part-Whole
relations
B.5 Qua
Individuals and The Counting Problem
DAY 4
OntoUML: Designing
complete Ontologically Well-Founded
version of UML for Structural Conceptual Models
A.1 The Unified
Modeling Language 2.0
A.2 Applying the
Theories Developed up to that point
to Re-Design the UML
2.0 Metamodel
How OntoUML can
help to solve semantic
interoperability problems in the Semantic Web Extensions and Other
Applications
of that theory
C.1 Agent-Oriented
Modeling
C.2
C.3 Context-Aware
Computing
C.4 Recommender
Systems
DAY 5
A.1 Assignment and
Group Discussions
A.2 Final
Considerations