Section: Scientific Foundations

Data and Knowledge Integration

A main theme of the group is integration of heterogeneous information. The current explosion of data sources available and the availability of simple technologies for exchanging data has created an important demand for interoperability among resources. It increases the need for techniques which allow their integration and thus also the integration of schemas or ontologies used to describe the data and give it meaning.

Ontologies, which define domain concepts, are essential elements in integration systems. Leo works on ontology-based environments providing access to multiple heterogeneous sources, on reconciliation techniques, and on providing full life-cycle support for ontologies.