Monday, 5/21/2007
1:15 PM - 4:45 PM
Level: Technical - Intermediate

This talk presents an overview of ontology, including how formal ontology compares to less formal approaches and how the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO) (www.ontologyportal.org) compares to other formal ontologies. Classes of ontology-based applications are introduced. A detailed description of first order logic is provided. Issues of the capabilities and tradeoffs in first order logic inference are explored. Several exercises are included in the tutorial in order to maximize audience understanding of the concepts and provide the basics needed for ontology creation. The SUMO is also described in detail, along with its mappings to the WordNet lexicon.

Adam Pease has led research in ontology, linguistics, and formal inference, including development of the Suggested Upper Merged Ontology (SUMO), the Controlled English to Logic Translation (CELT) system, the Core Plan Representation (CPR), and the Sigma knowledge engineering environment. Sharing research under open licenses, in order to achieve the widest possible dissemination and technology transfer, has been a core element of his research program and his products have been downloaded by thousands of people around the world.