Ontolog Forum
| Session | Education |
|---|---|
| Duration | 1 hour |
| Date/Time | 20 May 2026 16:00 GMT |
| 9:00am PDT/12:00pm EDT | |
| 5:00pm BST/6:00pm CST | |
| Convener | Ken Baclawski |
Ontology Summit 2026 Education
- John Beverley Ontology Education at the University at Buffalo
- Abstract: Ontology engineering is, at base, an exercise in logic. This is one of the central lessons of the University at Buffalo’s Applied Ontology MS program and emerging PhD training program. In this talk, I use Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) to show how rigorous logical discipline underwrites good ontology engineering: consistency, interoperability, explanatory power, and scalable data quality. Drawing on themes covered throughout UB’s applied ontology curriculum, I examine how BFO’s realist commitments, category distinctions - such as continuant versus occurrent and dependent versus independent entity - and relation hierarchies constrain modeling choices and help prevent common errors. I will also discuss how students and practitioners are trained to translate competency questions into formally testable constraints, construct genus–differentia definitions aligned with BFO categories and use automated reasoning to evaluate ontological commitments.
- Bio: Dr. John Beverley is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo (UB) and director of the MS and PhD in Applied Ontology programs. He is one of the developers of the ISO/IEC 21838-2 top-level standard Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), chair of the IEEE P3195 Mid-Level Ontology standard working group, and core developer on numerous BFO-based ontology projects. Prior to joining UB, Dr. Beverley was Senior Ontologist at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, integrating semantic web technologies with machine learning to support predictive analytics, promote explainable AI, and automate error detection in complex software.
Conference Call Information
- Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2026
- Start Time: 9:00am PDT / 12:00pm EDT / 6:00pm CEST / 5:00pm BST / 1600 UTC
- ref: World Clock
- Expected Call Duration: 1 hour
- Video Conference URL: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86994661673?pwd=mMUeaWyWhBMSzTw3SgH5GjMv2Qx4rH.1
- Meeting ID: 869 9466 1673
- Passcode: 803090
- Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Discussion
12:34:28 OMG: Mike Bennett : If only we have the equivalent of settled science in other domains that are not science.
12:45:45 janet singer : But remember Barry’s and Jobst’s presentation last year about the ‘common sense’ ‘natural’ realist assumption of BFO breaking down wrt quantum physics and relativity. Is foundational physics from 100 years ago settled science?
12:49:24 Arjun Kapoor : Need more clarity on one thing regarding the course.
As the masters program is completely remote, I am not clear how will a student be able to engage with domain experts and actually enjoy the "discussion and collective churning" part of it.
12:50:28 Mike Bennett : Q: Some of your analysis examples look a lot like OntoClean. Do you make reference to that?
12:58:18 Alex Moskowitz : In regards to the human - human / human - machine / machine to machine conversation I believe a quick answer to that is a big part of the job is taking the human --> human (you) --(translate into formal logic)-->machine --> machine . A lot of the work lies in being able to guide in questioning and reason through the information the domain expert is providing into a logical consistent structure. Correct me if i'm wrong please ;p
13:00:04 Sanjam Preet : Will credits from the master’s program transfer to the PhD program?
- John Beverley : 👍
13:00:58 Alex Moskowitz : Mr. Sowa just basically said a better version of what I was trying to say ;p
- John Beverley : 👍
13:01:59 Gary Berg-Cross : an ontology like ENVO includes some descriptive info not formalized in axioms. These represent some conceptualization that emphasizes more contextually expressive, often intuitive descriptions of entities/relations; not always currently suitable for formal representation unless higher logics are used and thus difficult for automated inference.
13:18:07 Soum : Thank you so much :)
13:18:08 Alex Moskowitz : Thanks guys !
Resources
Previous Meetings
| Session | |
|---|---|
| ConferenceCall 2026 05 13 | Interoperability |
| ConferenceCall 2026 05 06 | Interoperability |
| ConferenceCall 2026 04 29 | Interoperability |
| ... further results | |
Next Meetings
| Session | |
|---|---|
| ConferenceCall 2026 05 27 | Education |
| ConferenceCall 2026 06 03 | Cognition |
| ConferenceCall 2026 06 10 | Synthesis |
| ... further results | |