Knowledge graphs (KG) are gaining popularity in a wide range of domains and applications, both in industry and academia. A popular way to build them is by using the W3C Semantic Web standards, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). A crucial step in the engineering of a KG is the design of the ontology that will be used to annotate its nodes and edges to provide real-world semantics. In this talk, I will discuss and illustrate how designing the right ontology for your KG presents both ontological and engineering challenges. The former includes those related to creating a model that accurately reflects how a community understands a domain of interest, while the latter consists of coming up with solutions to address the expressivity limitations of the languages we use. As an answer to these challenges, we have created gUFO, an OWL implementation of the Unified Foundational Ontology. In the talk, I will discuss how gUFO brings together a number of micro-theories from philosophy, logic, and cognitive science to offer knowledge engineers a foundation upon which they can build domain ontologies in a faster and more principled way.

Tiago Prince Sales is a Senior Assistant Professor at the University of Twente The Netherlands, where he is a member of the Semantics, Cybersecurity, and Services department. He is also an elected executive council member of the International Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA). He received his Ph.D. cum laude in 2019 from the University of Trento, Italy. His main research fields are applied ontology and ontology-driven conceptual modeling (ODCM). He is part of the team that develops the Unified Foundational Ontology, OntoUML, and gUFO. He has created several innovative engineering tools for ODCM, such as model simulation and anti-patterns, as well as well-founded reference ontologies for business and social domains, such as value, risk, competition, and trust. He has over fifteen years of experience in industrial and technology transfer projects in a wide range of domains, such as tourism, media asset management, public healthcare, transportation, and oil and gas.