IMPLEMENTING ONTOLOGIES IN OWL

Tutorial Announcement and Call for Registration

The Bio-Health Informatics Group at The University of Manchester invites you to participate in their internationally renowned OWL Ontology tutorials.

**INTRODUCTORY COURSE**

Introduction to Implementing Ontologies in OWL

December 11/12 2007

This two-day introductory ‘hands-on’ workshop aims to provide attendees with both the theoretical foundations and practical experience to begin building OWL ontologies using the latest version of the Protégé-OWL tools (Protege4).

TEACHING OUTCOMES

In this tutorial attendees will:

• Learn the basic principles of OWL based ontologies using styles developed at The University of Manchester and in the Semantic Web Best Practice Working Party
• Gain hands-on experience with ontology development using the Protégé-OWL tools
• Learn how to use the expressive power of OWL and to take advantage of its inferencing capabilities to build robust, reusable models
• Learn about knowledge acquisition techniques and use them to model a subject domain
• Be introduced to the skills needed to participate in the growing community of users/developers of OWL

The tutorial is very much a ‘hands-on’ experience. By the end of the tutorial you will have gained sufficient experience in order to model knowledge using the Protégé software. Short talks included in both days introduce the theoretical aspects of ontology design.

ADVANCED COURSE

Modelling Biological Knowledge in OWL

December 13 2007

This is an advanced tutorial aimed at those researchers who are interested in modelling life sciences in OWL. Participants should have a basic understanding of OWL concepts and biology terms, which can be gained by attending the introductory course.

AIMS

The overall goals for this tutorial are fourfold:

1. To highlight what requirements in the biological domain are met by OWL’s model
2. To illustrate possible solutions to overcome some limitations of OWL
3. To provide an insight into the challenges posed by biology and aspects of biological knowledge that cannot be captured in OWL
4. To understand what aspects of the way we think about biology are sensibly captured in an OWL ontology

TEACHING OUTCOMES

At the end of the tutorial attendees will have an understanding of how to model biological concepts in OWL; understand the limitations that OWL presents and be able to overcome some of these using design patterns. This understanding will include what can reasonably be done in an OWL ontology.

REGISTRATION FOR COURSES

The tutorials cost £350 per day:
Implementing Ontologies in OWL (Introductory Course) at a cost of £700
Modelling Biological Knowledge in OWL at £350

• Use of in-class hands-on equipment
• Comprehensive course material
• Morning and afternoon refreshments
• Lunch
• Course Completion Certificate

Please note: participants must arrange their own accommodation and travel

To register for advertised tutorials, please e-mail us with the following details:

1. Course title and date for attendance
2. Contact details (including Name of Organisation, Address, Phone)
3. Special dietary requirements
4. Need for accommodation

Confirmation of your place will be returned within 24 hours of your request.

FURTHER INFORMATION

For further information about the courses please visit the Northwest Institute for Bio-Health Informatics website (http://www.nibhi.org.uk ) or the CO-ODE project website (http://www.co-ode.org ).