Chair of Automata Theory
Institute of Theoretical Computer Science
Faculty of Computer Science
Technische Universität Dresden
Institute of Theoretical Computer Science
Faculty of Computer Science
Technische Universität Dresden
Description Logics
Dr.-Ing. Anni-Yasmin Turhan
Course Description
Description Logics (DLs) are a successful family of logic-based
knowledge representation formalisms, which can be used to represent
the conceptual knowledge of an application domain in a structured
and formally well-understood way. They are employed in various
application domains, such as natural language processing,
configuration, and databases, but their most notable success so far
is the adoption of the DL-based language OWL as standard ontology
language for the semantic web. This course concentrates on
designing and analysing reasoning procedures for DLs. After a short
introduction of predecessor formalisms such as semantic networks
and frames, it will introduce the basic features of DLs such as
concepts, TBoxes and ABoxes, and basic inference problems such as
the subsumption and the instance problem. The course introduces
techniques for solving these problems based on tableau-algorithms,
automata, and other approaches. Also, the complexity of standard
DLs is analysed, identifying expressive DLs for which reasoning is
expensive in the worst case, but still manageable in practice, and
lightweight DLs for which reasoning is tractable.
Organisation
The lecture takes place twice a week. Additionally, there is a
weekly exercise session held by
Marcel Lippmann.
Exercise sheets will be available approximately one week before the
session.
The lectures and the exercise sessions will take place in room E05 at the following times: Tuesdays 16.40–18.10, Wednesdays 14.50–16.20, and Thursdays 16.40–18.10. The exact distribution of lectures and exercise sessions can be found in the table below.
There is a mailing list for discussing organisational and technical issues of the course.
Announcements:
The lectures and the exercise sessions will take place in room E05 at the following times: Tuesdays 16.40–18.10, Wednesdays 14.50–16.20, and Thursdays 16.40–18.10. The exact distribution of lectures and exercise sessions can be found in the table below.
There is a mailing list for discussing organisational and technical issues of the course.
Announcements:
The exercise session of 16 January is cancelled.The lecture of 8 January is cancelled.The exercise sessions will start on 10 October.The lecture will start on 9 October.
| Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | |
| 8 Oct. to 12 Oct. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 1) |
Lecture |
| 15 Oct. to 19 Oct. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 2) |
Lecture |
| 22 Oct. to 26 Oct. | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 3) |
Lecture | Lecture |
| 29 Oct. to 2 Nov. | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 4) |
Public Holiday | Lecture |
| 5 Nov. to 9 Nov. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 5) |
Lecture |
| 12 Nov. to 16 Nov. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 6) |
Lecture |
| 19 Nov. to 23 Nov. | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 7) |
Public Holiday | Lecture |
| 26 Nov. to 30 Nov. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 8) |
Lecture |
| 3 Dec. to 7 Dec. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 9) |
Lecture |
| 10 Dec. to 14 Dec. | Lecture | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 10) |
Lecture |
| 17 Dec. to 21 Dec. | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 11) |
Lecture | Lecture |
| 7 Jan. to 11 Jan. | — | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 12) |
Lecture |
| 14 Jan. to 18 Jan. | Lecture | — | Lecture |
| 21 Jan. to 25 Jan. | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 13) |
Lecture | Lecture |
| 28 Jan. to 1 Feb. | Exercise session (Exercise sheet 14) |
Lecture | Lecture |
SWS/Modules
SWS: 4/2/–
This course can be used in the following modules:
This course can be used in the following modules:
- Bachelor-Studiengang Informatik: INF-B-510 (Vertiefung), INF-B-520 (Vertiefung zur Bachelor-Arbeit)
- Master/Diplom-Studiengang Informatik: INF-BAS6 (Theoretische Informatik), INF-VERT6 (Theoretische Informatik)
- Master in Computational Logic: MCL-TCSL (Theoretical Computer Science and Logic), MCL-PI (Principles of Inference), MCL-KR (Knowledge Representation)
- Diplom-Studiengang Informatik (Studienordnung 2004): Fachgebiet Theorie der Programmierung, Fachgebiet Intelligente Systeme
Lecture Material
A script of this lecture is not available, and students are
strongly recommended to copy what is written on the blackboard.
We provide, however, the slides for the introductory sessions: Also, we provide scanned versions of the example slides used in the session about frames and semantic networks:
We provide, however, the slides for the introductory sessions: Also, we provide scanned versions of the example slides used in the session about frames and semantic networks:
Literature
- F. Baader, D. Calvanese, D. McGuinness, D. Nardi, and P. F. Patel-Schneider, editors. The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
- F. Baader and C. Lutz. Description Logic. In P. Blackburn, J. van Benthem, and F. Wolter, editors, The Handbook of Modal Logic, pages 757–820. Elsevier, 2006.
- F. Baader. Description Logics. In Reasoning Web: Semantic Technologies for Information Systems, 5th International Summer School 2009, volume 5689 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 1–39. Springer-Verlag, 2009.