[ecoop-info] CFP: Workshop on Ontology-Driven Software Engineering at SPLASH/OOPSLA 2010

[Sergio de Cesare]

*** Call for Papers ***

2nd International Workshop on Ontology-Driven Software Engineering (http://fluidity.org.uk/ConferenceCalls/ODiSE2010.html)

at  the ACM SPLASH Conference 2010 (http://splashcon.org/), Reno/Tahoe, Nevada, U.S.A. (October 17-21, 2010)



Overview:

Ontologies (i.e. formalized models of real world domains and systems) are becoming mainstream in the representation and management of data, information and knowledge. In software engineering, however, the adoption of ontology-driven methods and techniques is still at an initial stage of definition and gestation. A series of initiatives by both academic and industrial groups have highlighted the potential benefits that would derive from software development driven by ontologies. These benefits include:

- Improved understanding of the relation between (system) concepts and the domain.
- Improved ability to automatically reason over aspects of requirements, design and implementation.
- Potential to better cater for differences in requirements/use and/or adapt to context.
- Enhanced communication, trust and consistency.
- Improved interoperability and reusability.

The main theme of this workshop is Ontology-Driven Software Engineering (ODiSE: pronounced odyssey). ODiSE here refers to the different ways in which ontologies (i.e., formalized conceptual models of real world domains) can contribute to improving Software Engineering – its processes and its artifacts. This use of the term encompasses different and interrelated aspects of Software Engineering as a discipline. For example: (1) ontological principles can be used as the basis of improved development languages; (2) ontologies can help improve the way in which software development projects are organized; and (3) ontological domain models can drive or refine typical development phases, such as requirements, design and implementation.

The motivation for organizing a workshop on ODiSE derives from the increased interest that ontologies have generated in recent years within the software community. The relevance of ontologies in Software Engineering is exemplified, for instance, by the successful OOPSLA 2007 workshop on ‘Semantic-Based Systems Development’, various OMG and W3C initiatives, and commercial products based on ‘semantic technologies’. However, regardless of such developments, these efforts still represent pioneering initiatives in the field of Software Engineering. As the state-of-the-art stands, ODiSE is still in its infancy. The adoption of theory and technologies developed by the Semantic Web community to enhance Software Engineering appears promising, with many areas that are worth investigating and exploring.

This workshop is the 7th in a series of OOPSLA/SPLASH workshops on the general theme of ontologies in systems development, evolution and integration. More specifically this is the second event titled Ontology-Driven Software Engineering. After a successful first edition, ODiSE 2010 will focus on the specific themes that emerged in 2009. The general areas that the workshop will address are:

- Ontology as a means to inform the process of gathering requirements.
- Ontology as a means to inform architecture development directly from requirements specifications.
- Ontology as a means to inform the software design directly from the architecture specification.
- Ontology as a means to model the software development process and the software product itself.
- Ontologies as run-time artifacts or to inform the design of run-time artifacts.
- The role of ontology reasoning in the software engineering process.
- The role of ontologies in model-driven development.
- Comparison of different ODiSE mechanisms  (e.g. domain-specific modeling, profiling, … ).
- Comparison of the role of core ontologies vs. domain ontologies in ODiSE.
- Ontology driven development of service software.
- Methodological issues for ODiSE.
- Problems of semantic mismatch between traditional software modeling paradigms, approaches, techniques, etc. and ontological modeling.

ODiSE 2010 aims to bring together researchers and practitioners with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds in order to discuss and analyze the different perspectives, issues and challenges of Ontology-Driven Software Engineering. Researchers and practitioners are invited to provide contributions in the form of research/case study (max. 15 pages) or position/idea papers (2-3 pages) related to the workshop theme. The ODiSE workshop is aimed at promoting discussion among the workshop participants, identifying key research areas of Ontology-Driven Software Engineering and fostering future research collaborations in the form of joint research projects and/or papers.


Important Dates:

- Initial submission - August 13, 2010
-  Author Notification - August 30, 2010
- Early Registration - mid-September, 2010
- Final version - October 4, 2010
- Workshop - October 18, 2010 


Submission:

Authors are invited to submit papers by e-mail to sergio.decesare at brunel.ac.uk. Submissions can be in the form of completed research, research in progress, case study (maximum 15 pages) or position papers (2-3 pages). Papers can be submitted in PDF, MS Word, RTF or Open Office formats. Authors should submit papers according to the ACM style templates available here. This template is adopted in order to provide consistency across workshop papers.


Organizers:

-  Sergio de Cesare, (Brunel University, U.K.).
-  Frederik Gailly, (University of Ghent, Belgium).
-  Grant Holland, (Grant Holland & Associates, U.S.A.).
-  Mark Lycett, (Brunel University, U.K.).
-  Chris Partridge, (BORO Solutions Ltd., U.K).


Program Committee:

- Mutaz Al Debei (Brunel University)
- Laden Aldin (Brunel University)
- Awny Alnusair (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
- Ioannis Athanasiadis (Istituto Dalle Molle di Studi sull'Intelligenza Artificiale, Switzerland).
- David Bell (Brunel University, U.K.).
- Mike Bennett (Hypercube Ltd.)
- Richard Biehl (Data-Oriented Quality Solutions, Orlando, Florida)
- Tony Clarke (Thames Valley University, U.K.).
- Marija Cubric (University of Hertfordshire, U.K.).
- Thierry Declerck (DFKI GmBH, Language Technology Lab, Germany).
- Dragan Gasevic (Athabasca University, Canada).
- Martin Hepp (University of Innsbruck, Austria).
- Pavel Hruby (Microsoft Denmark)
- Michael Lambert (QinetiQ, U.K.).
- Geert Poels (Ghent University)
- Karoly Tilly (Oracle, Hungary).
- Karsten Tolle (Frankfurt University, Germany).
- Leon A. Wilson (Wayne State University, U.S.A.)
- Roberto Zicari (Frankfurt University, Germany).