A2: Ontology
The goal of this assignment is for you to gain experience in constructing simple ontologies. You will use the Protégé ontology editor to do this, guided by a tutorial developed by a former 581 student, Emily Schwarz. Please work through the tutorial, and make the changes to the sample ontology as indicated in the tutorial. At the end, you will take a quiz to evaluate the understanding and retention of the concepts discussed in the tutorial.
The main part of this assignment is the development of an ontology for a domain of your own choice. Preferably this should be the topic of your team project and based on the concept map developed in the first assignment, but you can also select something else. The emphasis in this assignment is on the design of the ontology, but you will also use a reasoner in combination with Protégé.
Draft Status
The assignment as a whole, and in particular the tutorial, are newly developed, and still undergoing some changes. I am considering replacing the Jess and CLIPS environments used in CSC 481 with Protégé, OWL, and Jena. Your feedback on the suitability of these tools and environments and your suggestions for improving the tutorial are most welcome.
Grading Guidelines
This assignment contributes 33% to the overall assignments score. The score will be determined by the following criteria:
• scope of the domain and the ontology (breadth and depth of the concepts covered)
• complexity of the domain and the ontology (e.g. simple taxonomy vs. use of multiple relationships)
• ontology design (is the selected representation and structure consistent, coherent, and does it reflect the relevant aspects of the domain)
• accuracy (is the material presented correct, consistent, and complete)
• organization and readability of the write-up (is the ontology and the accompanying documentation well organized and easy to follow)
• presentation and appearance (is the appearance of the ontology and the documentation of professional quality, e.g. without spelling or grammatical errors,)
For a high score, your ontology should have at least the following properties:
• Have 8 user created classes (“Thing” does not count)
• Have a combined total of 8 object and data properties. You must also have at least one of each.
• Have 8 individuals with a combined total of 8 asserted properties, including type definitions (except asserting type “Thing”, that doesn't count).
• Once the reasoner is run, the individuals will have a combined total of at least 5 inferred properties, including type definitions (except inferring type “Thing”, still that doesn't count).
• All classes and properties must be used at least once somewhere in the ontology
• Your ontology must make sense
• A description of the ontology must be in the “Annotation” field under the “Active Ontology” tab; this description should include the creator and context of the ontology (e.g. “Franz Kurfess, Cal Poly CSC 481-W11 Assignment 1”), a brief overview of the domain, and a description of the main constructs used to specify the ontology; for an example see the family example ontology.
If several people contribute to one single map, the size of the map must be scaled according to the number of people working on it.
Submission
You need to perform the following tasks for he completion of this assignment:
• submit an OWL file with your ontology, together with a README file that describes the ontology;
• take the quiz and provide feedback about the tutorial and the assignment
This material should be submitted via Blackboard or equivalent.