PHI 605SEM (13336)
Intensive Ontology Summer School
The World’s Ontology Ecosystem
An intensive five-day introduction to Basic Formal Ontology, ontology engineering, knowledge graphs, semantic interoperability, and ontology-driven applications. All instructional content will be available live online and as recordings, allowing participants to join synchronously or review sessions asynchronously.
Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20004
Course overview
Ontology from philosophical foundations to practical systems
Co-sponsored by the University at Buffalo and the National Center for Ontological Research, this intensive hybrid graduate seminar introduces ontology as both a philosophical discipline and a practical technology for modern information systems.
Participants will examine the foundations of ontology, learn practical ontology engineering methods, and explore applications across science, government, industry, finance, law, national security, and artificial intelligence.
All instructional content will be available online both synchronously and asynchronously. Participants may join sessions live, and recordings will be made available afterward. Those attending in person will therefore be able to revisit material or make up any sessions or portions of sessions they miss.
Program highlights
What you will explore
Foundations
Basic Formal Ontology, realism, universals and particulars, and the role of upper-level ontologies.
Standards
BFO and ISO/IEC 21838, ontology standards, governance, interoperability, and shared semantic infrastructure.
Engineering
Ontology engineering tradecraft, modeling patterns, quality control, evaluation, and maintainable ontology development.
Knowledge graphs
The relationship between ontologies, knowledge graphs, semantic interoperability, and enterprise data integration.
Applications
Ontology applications in science, finance, law, government, national security, industry, and information systems.
Artificial intelligence
AI-assisted ontology construction, ontology-driven AI, emerging systems, and contemporary research directions.
Who should attend?
Designed for a multidisciplinary audience
The Summer School welcomes participants with philosophical, scientific, technical, policy, and operational backgrounds. Prior experience with ontology is helpful but not required.
- Graduate students and prospective graduate students
- Ontology engineers and knowledge-graph developers
- Researchers and data scientists
- Government and national-security professionals
- Industry practitioners and technical leaders
- Anyone interested in applied ontology
Instruction
Course instructors
John Beverley
University at Buffalo and National Center for Ontological Research
Barry Smith
University at Buffalo and National Center for Ontological Research
Registration
Reserve your place
Everyone planning to attend should complete the attendance form, including University at Buffalo students who are registered separately for academic credit.
Students registered for PHI 605SEM (13336) through HUB should also complete the attendance form below.
Complete the attendance form below. There is no attendance fee, and participation is available in person, live online, or through recorded sessions.
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Registration information will be used only by the University at Buffalo and the National Center for Ontological Research to administer the Summer School and communicate with participants about course logistics.
Additional information
Additional materials and course information are available through the Applied Ontology Wiki.
Visit the Applied Ontology Wiki →
1 Daily session times are provisional and may be adjusted according to participant availability and popular demand. Any changes will be communicated to registered participants.