2006-01-16

NSF Support for Semantic Web Research

Frank OlkenNational Science Foundation

CISE/IIS

Presentation toSICOP Meeting at NSF

Jan. 16, 2007

2006-01-16 2F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

What is Semantic Web Research?

Description Logic (OWL, etc.) Resource Description Framework (RDF) Ontologies, Ontology Building Tools, etc. Logic and Inference Engines Query Languages over RDF, etc. (SPARQL) Rules Languages, Inference Engines

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Semantic Web Funding at NSF

NSF is routinely funding semantic web research proposals as part of its

normal research programs and solicitations.

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Semantic Web Proposals Funded by NSF (active awards)

25 awards= “semantic web” in title/abstract

88 awards = “semantic” and “web” in title/abstract

86 awards = “ontology” in title/abstract

16 awards = “ontology” in title only

43 awards = “semantic” in title only

272 awards = “semantic” in title/abstract

Many of these are traditional linguistics or programming language semantics

26 awards = “knowledge representation” in title/abstract

Total IIS active awards = 1,000

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Examples of NSF Supported Semantic Web Research

Marine Metadata Initiative uses OWL encoded ontologies for metadata

attributes, taxonomies, ... Microbial Genome Sequencing: Gene

Ontology Terms for Standardized Annotation of Plant-Associated Microbe Genomes standardized terms for describing all the functions

of genes in living organisms (extensions of Gene Ontology (GO))

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More Examples of NSF Supported Semantic Web Research

BIOPAX Uses OWL for data interchange standard for

biopathways (metabolic, signaling, gene regulatory networks) data

Workshop on Web Service Discovery & Composition Uses OWL-S to specify web services

Formal Theory of Distributed Ontologies for Semantic Web

QPQ: An Open Source Deductive Software Repository

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More examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research

Scalable Querying and Mining of Graphs graph query algorithms for RDF, etc.

TANGO: Table Analysis for Semiautomatic Generation of Ontologies analyses tables in web pages to construct

ontologies Deductive Integration of Heterogeneous

Biological Data Sources

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More examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research

Encoding Rights, Permissions and Obligations: Privacy Policy Specification and Compliance Uses ontologies, modal action logic, deontic action

logic for privacy policy specifications and compliance checking

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Funding of Semantic Web Proposals by NSF Divisions

CISE/IIS – DM, KM, IR, science informatics, ecoinformatics, AI, machine learning, ...

CISE/CCF -theory CISE/CNS – systems SBE/BCS – e.g., linguistics BIO/DBI – bioinformatics OCI – cyberinfrastructure OCE - Oceanography

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Why does NSF care about semantic web technologies?

Formalization of scientific knowledge Facilitate sharing of scientific data Facilitate access to scientific data and knowledge Natural language processing (information extraction,

digital libraries, ...) Support for digital government (semantic rules

languages, disaster support, ...) Support for machine learning Support for math/science education

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Debates about semantic web research

Skepticism about adoption of semantic tagging by the masses (and the quality of the tagging) NSF is concerned about scientific / govt uses, not MySpace.

Skepticism of semantics by most of the database research community: Still somewhat an issue, because semantic proposals often

go to to DB panels

Skepticism about scalability of semantic search and inference engines Open research issue

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More debates about semantic web research

Description Logic vs. First Order Logic Heated debates in KR research community about whether

description logics are adequate or whether FOL or other logics should be used.

Scalability and structuring of rule bases Concerns about the software engineering of large rule bases

(or collections of logic axioms). Efforts to partition such large rule bases / logic axiom collections (cf. Cyc's microtheories, etc.) This remains an open research topic.

Poor Quality Ontologies Ontology development and assessment remains difficult,

rare skill. Some progress (e.g., Ontoclean), clear need for more research and more training of practitioners.

2006-01-16 13F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

More debates about semantic web research

Ontology Merging is very very hard: Currently subject of research, see Ontoclean work,

also work by Joslyn, et al. on use of partial orders.

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Where to apply for NSF funding for semantic web research?

CISE/IIS Division III (Information Integration and Informatics)

Funds data management, information retrieval, knowledge management, digital libraries, digital government

RI (Robust Intelligence) Funds machine learning, artificial intelligence, speech,

vision, ...

CISE CNS Division (systems) CISE CCF Division (theory)

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Where to apply for NSF funding for semantic web research?

Biology, Geosciences, ... directorates Fund domain specific ontologies for their specific

research areas May fund software tools for particular research

areas – e.g., bioinformatics sequence annotation, ...

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Where to apply for NSF funding of semantic web development?

CISE/CRI Funds infrastructure for computer science research

OCI (Office of CyberInfrastructure) Funds software development for tools of use to

broad scientific communities (biology, etc.) Anticipates funding data exchange standards and

domain specific ontologies Note: CRI and OCI support infrastructure,

not direct research support !

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Proposal Deadlines for 06-572

NSF 06-572 Program Solicitation Deadline for small (<$450K) proposals was Dec. 6,

2006 Deadlines for large ($900K-$1.8M) and medium

($450K-$900K) proposals have past (Oct/Nov) Only one solicitation for IIS division this year Future solicitations expected annually with similar

deadlines.

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Contact Information for NSF CISE / IIS / III Frank Olken, folken@nsf.gov

data semantics, data/ontology integration, workflow, eng./sci. informatics, metadata registries, ...

Maria Zemankova, mzemanko@nsf.gov

Knowledge management, information retrieval, workflow, vizualization, ...

Sylvia Spengler, sspengle@nsf.gov, III Cluster Leader

Ontologies, bioinformatics, ...

Steve Griffin, sgriffin@nsf.gov

Digital libraries

Larry Brandt, lbrandt@nsf.gov

Digital government

Le Gruenwald, lgruenwa@nsf.gov

Data management, security and privacy, ...

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Contact InformationNSF/CISE/IIS

Tanya Korelsky, tkorelsky@nsf.gov Natural Language Processing

Edwina Rissland, erissland@nsf.gov Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation

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Contact InformationNSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure Chris Greer, cgreer@nsf.gov

Data Management cyberinfrastructure, bioinformatics, data collections

Kevin Thompson, kthompso@nsf.gov Software / middleware cyberinfrastructure

To be hired, Additional staff in data collections, knowledge

management

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Contact Info for Speaker

Frank Olken National Science Foundation CISE Directorate / IIS Division / III Cluster 4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1125 Arlington, VA 22230 Email: folken@nsf.gov Tel: 703-292-8930 (receptionist) Tel: 703-292-7350 (direct) Cell: 510-703-2764 (does not work within NSF)