Speaker: Prof. Andreas Dengel

Abstract: An inherent problem of the Semantic Web is the provision of a shared vocabulary that is acceptable by many users all of whom having big differences in cultural background, education, role, tasks, and interests. In order to create added value and to convince users of the advantages of the new WWW languages, we focus in a first step on the Semantic Desktop.

A Semantic Desktop is a means to manage all personal information across application borders based on Semantic Web standards.It acts as an extended personal memory assisting users to file, relate, share, and access all digital information like documents, multimedia, and messages through a Personal Information Model (PIMO). This PIMO is build on ontological knowledge generated through user observations and interactions and may be seen as a formal and semi-formal complement of the user's mental models. Thus it reflects experience and typical user behavior and may be processed by a computer in order to provide proactive and adaptive information support or allows personalizedsemantic search. The Semantic Desktop is built on a middle ware platform allowing to combine information and native applications like the file-system, Mozilla, Thunderbird or MS-Outlook. In this talk I will show how machine learning techniques may be used to support the generation of a PIMO.

I will further introduce the main concepts, components, and functionalities of the Semantic Desktop, and give examples which show how the Semantic Desktop may be used for creating socio-technical collaborative intelligence

Speaker: Prof. Paolo Traverso

Abstract: Software services are the key paradigm for the development of future distributed applications, e.g. applications that run on the Web. It is widely recognized that semantic unambiguous descriptions of software services open up the possibility to support the construction and execution of service-oriented applications. However, current approaches to semantic web services, in spite of their expressive power, are hard to use in practice. They require indeed comprehensive and usually large ontological descriptions of the services, plus rather complex (and often inefficient) reasoning mechanisms.

In this talk, I will claim that a radical change to the use of semantics for service-oriented applications is required. I will first introduce a “minimalist approach” to semantic annotations of web services. I will then address the problem of the role of services in the recent vision of Future Internet, and the role of semantic models of services in this context.

Speaker: Dr. Edmund Ng Giap Weng

Abstract: Augmented reality (AR) refers to a system in which the physical surroundings of a person are mixed with real-time computer generated information creating an enhanced perception of surrounding environment. Being partly virtual and real, AR applications have quite extreme requirements to be practical to use. It also has very much potential in numerous different application areas. These issues make AR both an interesting and challenging subject from scientific and business perspectives. Numerous application domains make semantic AR a highly multidisciplinary field of research involving signal processing, computer vision, graphics, user interfaces, human factors, wearable computing, mobile computing, computer networks, distributed computing information access, information visualization, and hardware design for new displays. AR is a growing area in virtual reality research. The world environment around us provides a wealth of information that is difficult to duplicate in a computer. It is interesting how a relatively new art of semantic AR brings together computer scientists, electrical engineers, optical scientists, psychologists and HCI-experts, mechanical engineers and even chemists and physicists.

Speaker: Prof. Klaus Tochtermann

Abstract: The talk will introduce the main concepts of the Future Internet, such as Internet of People, Internet of Services etc. In addition, experiences made with semantic technologies in various vertical markets will be summarized. This part of the talk will particularly focus on semantic-enhanced retrieval, semantic-enhanced visualization and semantic technologies to support knowledge workers at work. The third part will then connect semantic technologies with the results of current discussion about Future Internet aiming at the identification of specific challenges (e.g. semantic service discovery) for future research.

Speaker: Prof. Narayanan Kulathuramaiyer

Abstract: E-Learning has brought about learning capabilities reaching out to people all over the world overcoming boundaries of time and space. Beyond this, E-Learningis also being looked upon as a tool to bring about a widespread transformation in empowering citizens to work collaboratively towards a knowledge-based society. But, E-Learning as it stands today has yet to become adequate as a means of educating and transforming future generations. To make things worse, the age of Google is further endangering E-Learning, through the emergence of phenomena such as Google Copy Paste Syndrome, the flattening of expertise, shortened attention span of learners,culture of mediocrity, etc. These developments have reduced the need for deeper insightful analysis having created a trusting community of learners relying entirely on shallow (and unverified) information sources. This talk discusses the challenges faced in ensuring that learning actually takes place. Limitations of current copy-paste detection methods are presented. There is thus a need for advanced research in the area of semantic similarity detection for providing personalized learning services. A comprehensive approach for supporting an individual engaged in learning is then presented. The talk concludes with thoughts on the learning process itself, calling for radical changes in our education system.