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NSF Support for Semantic Web Research

Frank Olken National Science Foundation CISE/IIS folken@nsf.gov Presentation to SICOP Special Conference Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice Falls Church, VA Version 8 – Approved for Public Presentation by D. Crawford Feb. 5, 2008. NSF Support for Semantic Web Research.

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NSF Support for Semantic Web Research

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  1. Frank Olken National Science Foundation CISE/IIS folken@nsf.gov Presentation to SICOP Special Conference Semantic Interoperability Community of Practice Falls Church, VA Version 8 – Approved for Public Presentation by D. Crawford Feb. 5, 2008 NSF Support for Semantic Web Research

  2. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Outline of Talk • What is semantic web research? • Why is NSF interested? • Semantic web research is routine at NSF • Searches of Award Abstracts • Examples • NSF Funding Sources & Solicitations • Conclusions • Reviewers Wanted • Contact Information

  3. F. 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 • Other logics (F-logic, IKL)‏ • Graph DBMS (for RDF, etc.)‏

  4. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web 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 • Data semantics

  5. NSF is routinely funding semantic web research proposals as part of its normal research programs and solicitations. Semantic Web Funding at NSF F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

  6. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Semantic Web NSF Awards (active)‏ • 25 awards= “semantic web” in title/abstract • 70 awards = “semantic” and “web” in title/abstract • 105 awards = “ontology” in title/abstract • 12 awards = “ontology” in title only • 35 awards = “semantic” in title only • 206 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 • Typical IIS award = 3 years

  7. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF Funded Semantic Web Research • Marine Metadata Initiative • P. Bogden, et al., funded by OCE • uses OWL encoded ontologies for metadata attributes, taxonomies, ... • Linking Evolution to Genomics Using Phenotype Ontologies • PI: P. Mabee (USD), funded by BIO DBI • Ontologies for clades and phenotypes of fish, e.g. Zebra fish

  8. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF Funded Semantic Web Research • BIOPAX • PI: J. Luciano (Harvard), funded by CISE IIS III • Uses OWL for data interchange standard for biopathways (metabolic, signaling, gene regulatory networks) data • Workshop on Web Service Discovery & Composition • PI: B. Blake (Georegetown)‏ • Uses OWL-S to specify web services • Funded by CISE IIS HCC

  9. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF Funded Semantic Web Research • Formal Theory of Distributed Ontologies for Semantic Web • PI: J. Heflin (Lehigh Univ.)‏ • Funded by CISE IIS RI

  10. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research • Scalable Querying and Mining of Graphs • PI: A Singh (UCSB)‏ • Funded by CISE IIS III • graph query algorithms for RDF, etc. • TANGO: Table Analysis for Semiautomatic Generation of Ontologies • PIs: G. Nagy (RPI) & David Embley (BYU)‏ • Funded by CISE IIS III • analyses tables in web pages to construct ontologies

  11. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research • Encoding Rights, Permissions and Obligations: Privacy Policy Specification and Compliance • PI: A. Anton (NCSU) , funded by CISE CCF • Uses ontologies, modal action logic, deontic action logic for privacy policy specifications and compliance checking • IKL Inference Engine • IKL = KR interlingua = FOL + named propositions • PI: Pat Hayes (IHMC), funded by CISE IIS III

  12. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF funded Semantic Web Research • Workshop on Semantics of Financial Information Systems • e.g., XBRL, SDMX, ... • PI: William McCarthy (Michigan State Univ.)‏ • Upcoming in 2008, funded by CISE IIS III • A Semantic Framework for Policy Specification and Enforcement in a Need to Share Environment • PI: T. Finin (UMBC) & B. Thuraisingham (UTD)‏ • Funded by CISE CNS Cyber Trust

  13. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF Funded Semantic Web Research • Semi-Automated Construction of an Ontology for Amphibian Morphology • PI: J. Leopold (U. Missouri-Rolla) • Funded by BIO DBI • SemDIS: Discovering Complex Relationships in the Semantic Web • PI: A. Sheth (Wright State), funded by CISE IIS

  14. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Examples of NSF FundedSemantic Web Research • Science on the Semantic Web -- Prototypes in Bioinformatics • PIs: T. Finin (UMBC), J. Hendler (RPI), et al. • Funded by CISE IIS III • BioLogica--Deductive Integration of Heterogeneous Biological Data Sources • PI: C. Talcott (SRI)‏ • Funded by CISE IIS III

  15. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web 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, Cyber Trust • SBE/BCS – e.g., linguistics • BIO/DBI – bioinformatics • OCI – cyberinfrastructure, archives, • OCE - Oceanography

  16. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Debates about semantic web research • Skepticism about adoption of semantic tagging by the masses (and the quality of the tagging)‏ • Somewhat less of a problem with semantic tagging by scientific community ... • Skepticism of semantics by most of the database research community: • Slowly changing. We now run a special panel for most small IIS/III semantic web / KR proposals, and special panels on IIS graph related proposals (joint III & RI). • Skepticism about scalability of semantic search and inference engines • Open research issue ...

  17. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web 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.

  18. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Debates about semantic web research • Ontology Merging is very hard: • Currently subject of research, • See Ontoclean work by Guarino & Welty • See also work by C. Joslyn, et al. on use of partial orders. • See also work by N. Noy and M. Musen. • See also IKL work by Pat Hayes, et al. For representing mappings among ontologies.

  19. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Where to apply for NSF funding for semantic web research? • CISE/IIS Division Unified Solicitation 07-577 • III (Information Integration and Informatics)‏ • Funds data management, information retrieval, knowledge management, digital libraries, digital government, semantic web, rules engines, bioinformatics, DB security and privacy • RI (Robust Intelligence)‏ • Funds machine learning, artificial intelligence, speech, vision,robotics, ... • HCC (Human Centered Computing)‏ • Funds user interface research, assistive technologies, ... • Single IIS annual solicitation !

  20. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Where to apply for NSF funding for semantic web research? • CISE CNS – Cyber Trust, networks, systems, .. • CISE CCF – CS Theory, logics, ... • 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, ...

  21. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web 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 • Funds work on interoperability and data archives • Note: CRI and OCI support infrastructure, not direct research support !

  22. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web NSF Solicitations Relevant to Semantic Web Research • 07-577 CISE IIS Division solicitation • Interop (OCI & CISE) interoperability • Datanet Partners (OCI & CISE) scientific archives • Cybersecurity (CISE CNS) security/privacy policy languages • Cyberenabled Discovery and Innovation (CDI) (NSF/CISE) - data to knowledge • Expeditions in Computing (CISE) carte blanche

  23. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Cyberenabled Discovery and Innovation • From Data to Knowledge (1 of 3 themes)‏ • Is knowledge representation within scope? • Yes [J. Wing] • Note all proposals must encompass at least 2 scientific disciplines (directorates). Panels are organized by subject area discipline (not CS discipline) • Implies few KR proposals per panel • Implies few KR reviewers per panel

  24. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Datanet Partners • Joint solicitation of OCI & CISE • Data archiving, digital preservation • OCI = wants operational archiving system • CISE = support research related to archiving • Data semantics, semantic enabled search are key issues • Large awards = $20 M / award, 5 year awards • PDs: Sylvia Spengler (CISE), Lucy Nowell (OCI)‏

  25. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Upcoming Changes in NSF Solicitations Relevant to Semantic Web Research • Cyberenabled Discovery and Innovation – possible increase in funding in FY 09 ++ - not yet approved • CISE/IIS Division Solicitation is scheduled for revision this Spring for FY 09 proposals

  26. NSF continues to routinely fund semantic web research. Conclusion F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web

  27. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Reviewers Wanted !! • Panelists are need to review NSF CISE/IIS/III proposals related to semantic web, knowledge representation, etc. • Panel will be in March or early April. • Also need panelists for graph related proposals (e.g., RDF engines, query languages) to CISE/IIS • This panel will also be in March • Email: folken@nsf.gov put “volunteer panelist” in the subject line.

  28. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Contact Information

  29. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Steve Griffin, sgriffin@nsf.gov Digital libraries Larry Brandt, lbrandt@nsf.gov Digital government Le Gruenwald,lgruenwa@nsf.gov Data management, security and privacy, ... Jim French, jfrench@nsf.gov Information retrieval, data integration, privacy and security, cloud computing 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, Interop, Datanet Partners (archives)‏

  30. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Contact InformationNSF/CISE/IIS • Tanya Korelsky,tkorelsky@nsf.gov • Natural Language Processing • Doug Fisher,dhfisher@nsf.gov • Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Representation, • Machine Learning

  31. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Contact InformationBDI • Peter McCartney, • pmccartn@nsf.gov • Bioinformatics, computational biology, ...

  32. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web Contact InformationNSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure • Lucy Nowell, lnowell@nsf.gov • Data Management cyberinfrastructure, bioinformatics, data collections • Interop solicitation • Datanet Partners solicitation - archiving • Kevin Thompson, kthompso@nsf.gov • Software / middleware cyberinfrastructure

  33. F. Olken, NSF Funding of Semantic Web 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)‏

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