Colloquium Details
Towards a semantics-based infrastructure for Biomedical Informatics
| Author: | Vipul Kashyap Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications, National Library of Medicine |
|---|---|
| Date: | March 09, 2004 |
| Time: | 15:30 |
| Location: | 220 Deschutes |
Note: Special Day
Abstract
Metadata descriptions, and domain specific ontologies and vocabularies form a crucial component of any biomedical informatics infrastructure, that is based on semantics. We first discuss the relationship between semantics, metadata and ontology and identify some ontology/vocabulary building efforts in the context of bioinformatics. Realizing the vision of a semantics-based infrastructure for bioinformatics requires the large scale availability of domain specific ontologies. In this talk, we provide an overview of the broad strategies and challenges to address this problem:
- bootstrapping approaches using statistical and NLP techniques;
- sociological approaches involving subject matter experts to refine the bootstrapped ontologies;
- approaches to enhance existing resources such as database schemata and thesauri;
- re-use of pre-existing independently developed domain ontologies;
- representation of these (underspecified) and ambiguous ontologies using rich semantic standards such as OWL.
We will present examples in the context of past and ongoing research projects. Their role in developing a semantics-based biomedical informatics infrastructure will also be discussed.
Vipul Kashyap is a Fellow at the Lister Hill National Center for Biomedical Communications in the National Library of Medicine, where he is investigating the role of the emerging Semantic Web in creating a flexible and interoperable infrastructure for Healthcare, Medicine and Bio- Informatics. He has worked on issues related to semantic information modeling and integration in an industrial setting. Prior to working at the NLM, Vipul has worked at Micro-electronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) and Applied Research Labs of Telcordia Technologies (formerly known as Bellcore), and has been a consultant for start-up companies: Semagix, Inc. and Global IDs, Inc. Dr. Kashyap received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University and is active in the Semantic Web research community. He has published books on Information Brokering and the Semantic Web and over 40 research papers and articles. Vipul has participated on panels and has been a member of Program Committees of prestigious international conferences, such as the WWW 2003 track on the Semantic Web, and the International Semantic Web Conference 2003. He has also co-organized and co-chaired workshops and conferences, such as the workshop on Semantic Web and Databases (co-located with VLDB 2004, Berlin), the international workshop on Cooperative Information Agents (CIA 2004) and the International Conference on Semantics of a Networked World: Semantics for Grid Databases (in co-operation with SIGMOD 2004, Paris).
Biography
Dr. Vipul Kashyap received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University, 1997. He received a M.S. in Computer Science from Rutgers University, 1993, and a B. Tech. in Computer Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, 1988. His research interests include issues related to design, development and realization of the Next Generation of Web Architecture and Infrastructure; Semantic Web, including Semantic Information and Interoperation across multiple databases, use of Metadata and Ontologies for structuring information spaces on the web and accessing data on the web at higher levels of abstraction.