A3: Reasoning


The purpose of this assignment is to incorporate simple rules into an ontology.
Depending on the tools you use, you can either write the rules explicitly in a rule-based language (such as JESS), or use features of the tool. Protégé, for example, offers “characteristics” for object, data, and annotation properties that can be used instead of explicit rules in some situations.

The assignment consists of two parts. In the first part, you will add rules to the family ontology.
In the second part you will add some rules to the ontology you developed in the previous assignment.

Part 1:


Create four additional rules for the family ontology.
These rules should assert relationships such as
  • Siblings (there are more rules we could use for this)
  • Mother, Father
  • Sister, Brother
  • Cousin
  • Marriage
  • Grandparent, or other family relationships.
If you need to extend the ontology with new relations, do so. For example, you can expand the rule set to cover non-traditional family arrangements such as “blended” families, or adopted children.
Describe the intended meaning of the rules, how you chose to implement them, and how you tested their validity. You can give an overview in the “Active Ontology” tab, and then more details as comments in the “Annotation” of the Object Property (or whatever means you chose).

Part 2:


Create four additional rules for your own ontology developed in the last assignment. Document them in the same way as those in Part 1.

Using Protégé and Jess


If you decide to use the Protégé ontology editor in combination with the JESS rule-based system to do this, follow another tutorial developed by Emily Schwarz. Please work through the tutorial, and incorporate the rules as indicated in the tutorial.

Draft Status


Just as the previous one, this assignment is still undergoing some changes. Let me know if you have feedback on the suitability of these tools and environments, or suggestions for improving the tutorial.

Grading Guidelines


This assignment contributes 33% to the overall assignments score, distributed as follows:
  • 40% Family Rules
  • 40% Your ontology Rules
  • 20% Documentation
The score, in particular for the second part, will be determined by the following criteria:
  • scope of the rules (breadth and depth of the concepts covered by the rule sets)
  • complexity of the domain and the ontology (e.g. simple taxonomy vs. use of multiple relationships)
  • rule set design (is the selected rule 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 set of rules, together with the accompanying documentation well organized and easy to follow)
For a high score, your ontology should have at least the following properties:
  • have at least four user-created rules for each part, as specified above
  • all rules must be usable and useful in the ontology
  • an expanded description of the ontology in the “Annotation” field under the “Active Ontology” tab; in addition to the information from the last assignment, the description should include a brief description of the rule set. If several people contribute to one single set of rules, the size of the rule set must be scaled according to the number of people working on it, and the documentation should point out who did what..

Submission and Deadline

The deadline for the assignment is Thursday, Feb. 28 Mar 7, end of the day.

Please submit your ontology through PolyLearn or equivalent.
You need to perform the following tasks for he completion of this assignment:
  • Submit your rules in two separate files, one for each part. For Protégé, these should be .owl files, if you use JESS, you can submit text files instead.
  • Submit a README with an overview of the two rule sets; this can be identical to the documentation in the ”Active Ontology” tab.
  • If you added any relationships to family_example.owl, submit this file as well.
  • If you used JESS, provide feedback about the tutorial and the assignment through the link provided at the end of the tutorial.