HTW Berlin Fachbereich 4 Internationaler Studiengang Internationale Medieninformatik (Master) Semantic Modeling Summer Term 2011

This course is an Introduction to Semantic Modeling. Those who have studied programming with me may have heard me state "It's only syntax!" as you struggled with Java. In this course we will be investigating how we can go about defining not just the syntax of a system, but its semantics, and what we can learn from manipulating semantical models.

One of the most popular uses for semantic modeling is found in the Semantic Web, and thus we will be concentrating on this, although we will also be taking excursions into more mathematical topics such as consistency and completeness, as well as term rewriting.

The course is a 2 SWS course, but is worth 5 credits. This means that you will be expected to do a lot of reading and writing on your own. We will be meeting every week on Tuesday afternoons 13.45-15.15 in WH C 442, or down by the Spree if it gets too hot. I am assuming that everyone has a laptop, so please bring it to class with you.

We will start April 7, 2011. The schedule is, as always, tentative and gives you an idea of the topics planned. We have a Moodle collaboration room, too, for submitting your work.

There are three textbooks that I will be using for the course:

1. Antoniou, G. and van Harmelen, F. A Semantic Web Primer (Cooperative Information Systems). MIT Press : Cambridge, MA. 2nd edition. ISBN-13: 978-0262012423, 2009.
2. Dean Allemang and James A. Hendler. Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Effective Modeling in RDFS and OWL. Morgan Kaufmann : Amsterdam. ISBN-13: 978-0123735560, 2008.
3. John Hebeler, Matthew Fisher, Ryan Blace, and Andrew Perez-Lopez. Semantic Web Programming. Wiley : Indianapolis, IN. ISBN-13: 978-0470418017, 2009. This will be the main book.

You also need some software tools. Beside Eclipse and Java 1.6 (which I am assuming you already have), please download and install the Protégé Ontology Editor, the Semantic Web Programming Framework Jena, and the Ontology Reasoner Pellet. You might also want to have graphviz around.

Your grade will be a combination of participation in class, preparing and presenting exercises, and reading and presenting current papers in the field. In groups of two or three you will be presenting material on a topic at the end of the semester. There will be no exam.

To earn an 1.0 in this course, you should regularly demonstrate mastery of the material, have a strong understanding of and performance in laboratory work, be a valuable participant in course meetings and collaborations, and complete all portions of the course work in a timely fashion.

To earn a 2.0 in this course, you should demonstrate a solid grasp of most of the course material, competently perform laboratory work, participate in course meetings and collaborations, and complete all portions of the course work in a timely fashion.

To earn a 3.0 in this course, you should demonstrate a sufficient understanding of the course materials that you can go on to build on that understanding in subsequent courses or employment, participate in course meetings and collaborations, and complete all portions of the course work in a timely fashion.

If none of the three descriptions above fits you at the end of the course, there are two possibilities:

1. Your understanding of the material and demonstrable performance of that understanding is inadequate to build on in subsequent coursework. In this case, you are ineligable for a final grade of 4.0 or above. You will need to repeat the course and pass within 2 semesters in order to be able to continue with this program, or choose a different course line. 
2. Your understanding of the material and demonstrable performance is adequate to receive a 3.0 or higher, but you did not participate in course meetings and collaborations or you did not complete all portions of the course work in a timely fashion. In this case, your final grade will be adjusted to reflect this factor as follows:



Missing one session will add 0,3 to your grade (i.e. lower your grade).
Missing two sessions will add 0,7 to your grade.
Missing three sessions will give you a 5.0 for the course.