[Bionews] Tutorial Announcement and Call for Registration

[Georgina Moulton]

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

 

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

 

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

There is no charge to members of the JISC community (anyone from a UK University or related institution), but attendees will be responsible for paying for their own travel, accommodation and evening meal.  Inexpensive and convenient, but basic accommodation can normally be arranged through the Manchester Business School.  For other accommodation see contact below. 

 

For other participants the tutorials cost £350 per day.  This includes: 

 

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


To register for advertised tutorials, please contact Dr. Georgina Moulton (georgina.moulton from manchester.ac.uk) 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.

TUTORIAL TIMETABLE 2007-2008

All tutorials will be held at The University of Manchester.

 

2007

October

17/18    An Introduction to Implementing Ontologies in OWL 

 

November

21/22    Modelling Biological Knowledge in OWL

27/28    Modelling Medical Knowledge in OWL

 

2008

March

13-16   An Introduction to Implementing Ontologies in OWL

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

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