Foundational Concepts in Semantic Modeling: a Tutorial in Set Theory, Logic, OWL, and SADL

Last revised 2/16/2021. Contact us.

Introduction

This document is the index to a sequence of topics in semantic modeling and in the use of the Semantic Application Design Language (SADL) to generate models expressed in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) plus rules. It also covers queries and reasoning. The tutorial is divided into three parts, each part being presented in a set of slides and in one or more video segments explaining the slides and exercises.

Approach

Believing that people learn best when they are engaged in inquiry and reflection, the tutorial poses problems and invites the user to pause and to work out his or her own solution to the exercise before continuing. One or more solutions to the problem are then presented. Users of this material are encouraged to engage in the learning process and to not take an entirely passive approach.

Engagement in solving problems and answering questions presupposes some mechanism of model expression and model execution. The tutorial uses the Semantic Application Design Language (SADL) IDE and language as means to this end. Therefore the user is invited to have SADL installed on their computer and to use it in solving the problems presented. See Installation Instructions for SADL-IDE, Version 3. It is also possible to use WebSADL for a browser-based IDE after installing the WebSADL server, see WebSadl installation at https://hub.docker.com/r/theiaide/sadl.

Topics

Tutorial topics are available as slides () or as videos (). Part 3 is a single slide deck but 5 separate videos.