Komplexpraktikum/Project in WS 2005-2006

The topics of this Komplexprakticum will be in the following areas:

- Term rewriting,

- Knowledge representation

There will be no initial meeting for the Komplexpraktikum.

Students interested in working on a project are asked to consult with Barbara Morawska (room 434, email: morawska@tcs.inf.tu-dresden.de) preferably not later than the first two weeks of the semester.

Position in curriculum

- Diplomstudiengang Informatik (Diplom- und Bakkalaureatsabschluß), ab 5. Semester ;Wahlpflichtveranstaltung (-/-/4)
- Course of studies Computation Logic; project (12 credits)

Prerequisites

for computer scientists: Pflichtvorlesung "Grundlagen der Theoretischen Informatik"

Organisation

-On the personal basis (see above) students are presented with available topics. Students then have the opportunity to choose a topic to work on.
- Each student is assigned a tutor, depending on the topic chosen. During the semester, there will be regular meetings of the student and his tutor.
- The results of the praktikum/project will be presented at the end of the semester in a talk given by the student.

Language

Concerning the final presentations, students may choose to present their work in German or in English.

Participants Duties

The participants are expected to read the relevant literature, and to discuss it with their tutor in order to become acquainted with the topic chosen. The required implementation work should be carried out in a structured way, and has to be documented appropriately. If a topic is shared by two or more participants, acquiring team-working skills is another goal of the project. The results of the project have to be described in a project paper (~15 pages) and presented in a 30 minutes talk at the end of the semester.

It is also the duty of the participants to reserve enough time for performing the project. The sharp deadline for finishing the project is the beginning of the following semester, i.e. the allowed time for the project is one semester plus the following semester break. Failure to finish the project in time will result in no credits to be given. It is the obligation of the participant to start the project in time, and to make appointments with the supervisor for regular meetings during the semester.

Topics

When choosing a topic, please take into account the knowledge you have already acquired. For example, if you'd like to do a project concerning knowledge representation, you are expected to have successfully attended the lecture "Logic-based knowledge representation" before starting the project.

(1) Implementation of Tools for the Term Rewriting lecture.

This project is a continuation of the project from the last semester. Look at the description here.

The project involves working (at least for some time) in a team, together with the student who is finishing his work on the project from the previous semester. The project requires knowledge (or fast learning) of programming in Java and automatic editing of files in the Unix environment. The main task will be to find and install new automated tools under existing framework, inventing examples and exercises useful for the students of the Term Rewriting Systems, and writing a manual with a documentation of the work done.

Literature:

• Database of Rewriting Systems, http://rewriting.loria.fr/
• Franz Baader, Tobias Nipkow. Term Rewriting and All That, Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Prerequisites: Lecture "Term Rewriting Systems"

Tutor: Dr. Barbara Morawska,

(2) From encyclopedia knowledge to an ontology

In this project, the student is supposed to develop an ontology for some specific area from the relevant articles of Wikipedia, using one of the existing ontology editors. The area should be large enough to obtain interesting information and to justify the term "ontology". By generating the subsumption hierarchy for the terms used, the student shall determine the consistency of the information presented by Wikipedia, in particular answer the following questions:

• Do the subsumptions acquired by reasoning match those that are given explicitly in the "categories" section of the article?
• If new subsumptions are found: are they correct or do they indicate wrong information?
• If inconsistent concepts are found: what causes the inconsistency?

Literature:

• Baader et al.: The DL Handbook. Cambridge 2003.

Prerequisites: Lecture "Logic-based Knowledge Respresentation"

Tutor:Jan Hladik

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Barbara Morawska