UGent Data Science Seminar: Dr Juan Sequeda and Prof Jose Emilio Labra Gayo

UGent Data Science Seminar

First speaker: Dr Juan Sequeda
Affiliation: data.world (US)

Title: The Socio-Technical Phenomena of Data Integration

Abstract:
Data Integration has been an active area of computer science research for over two decades. A modern manifestations of data integration can be seen as Knowledge Graphs which integrates not just data but also knowledge at scale. Tasks such as conceptual modeling, schema/ontology matching, entity matching, data quality among others are fundamental in the data integration process. Research focus has been to study the data integration phenomena from a technical point of view (algorithms and systems) with the ultimate goal of automating these task.
In the process of applying scientific results to real world enterprise data integration scenarios to design and build Knowledge Graphs, we have experienced numerous obstacles. In this talk, I will share insights about these obstacles. I will argue that we need to think outside of a technical box and further study the phenomena of data integration with a human-centric lens: from a socio-technical point of view.

Bio: http://juansequeda.com/#about

Second speaker: Prof Jose Emilio Labra Gayo
Affiliation: University of Oviedo, Spain

Title: Challenges and applications of data shapes

Abstract:
Although RDF can be considered the corner stone of semantic web and knowledge graphs, it has not been embraced by everyday programmers and software architects who want to safely create and access well-structured data. There is a lack of common tools and methodologies that are available in more conventional settings to improve data quality by defining schemas that can later be validated. Two technologies have recently been proposed for RDF validation: Shape Expressions (ShEx) and Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL). In the talk, we will briefly introduce both technologies using some examples and compare them. We will also present some challenges and applications related with data shapes.

Bio: PhD. Jose Emilio Labra Gayo, Associate Professor at the University of Oviedo, Spain. He is the main researcher of the WESO research group and was a member of the RDF Data Shapes working group. He is co-author of the “Validating RDF data” book (http://book.validatingrdf.com), implemented the SHaclEX library which supports both ShEx and SHACL, and maintains the online RDF validation service RDFShape (http://rdfshape.weso.es)

Sandwiches will be served from 30 minutes before the seminar starts for registered participants who join the talks.