HST Summer Institute

Ph.D. Dissertation Defense

Supporting Citizen Science and
Biodiversity Informatics on the Semantic Web

Joel Sachs

10:00am Friday, 14 December 2012, ITE 325b

It is common for Semantic Web documents to use terms from multiple ontologies, with no expectation that the full semantics of each ontology will be imported by consuming applications. This makes sense, because importing all ontologies referenced by a document causes both practical and logical problems. But it has the drawback of leaving it to the consuming application to determine appropriate semantics for the terms being used. We describe an approach to constructing ontologies by layer, designed to make it easier for both data publishers and application developers to tailor-fit semantics to use cases.

The layers that we develop correspond to patterns in the RDF graph. This contrasts with typical approaches to modular ontology development, where the layers are domain based. The three primary motivations for this approach are i) preserving computational tractability; ii) enabling easy coupling and decoupling with foundational ontologies and iii) maintaining cognitive tractability. This third motivation is still under-studied in semantic web development; we consider it in relation to reducing the ease with which ontology users can publish data that accidentally implies things that they do not mean. This is important always, but becomes especially so in citizen science, where users will naturally bring intuitive semantics to the terms that they encounter.

We describe case studies that involved deploying our approach in the context of citizen science activities, and which provided opportunities to assess its capabilities and limitations. We also describe subsequent work aimed at addressing these limitations, and, by applying newly defined layers over the underlying data, show that we are able to improve the competency of our knowledge base. More generally, we show that appropriately combining triple-pattern-based layers allows us to support a wide variety of use cases with varied (and occasionally conflicting) requirements.

In addition to our approach to semantic layering, contributions include an improved understanding of how to blend social and semantic computing to support citizen science, and a collection of layers for representing biodiversity information in RDF, with a focus on invasive species. Compared with other proposed “semanticizations” of the Darwin Core standard for representing biodiversity occurrence data, these layers involve minimal modification to the Darwin Core vocabulary, and make maximal use of the Darwin Core namespace, thereby simplifying the transition of current practices onto the semantic web.

Committee: Drs. Tim Finin (Chair), Anupam Joshi, Tim Oates, Cynthia Parr, Yelena Yesha, Laura Zavala

FROM: Greg Simmons, Vice President for Institutional Advancement & Keith Harmon, Director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program

Earnestine Baker announced Monday at a combined Meyerhoff Scholars Family Meeting that she will retire from UMBC this month. Ernie has been an extraordinary member of the UMBC community for almost 30 years, and it is fitting that the Meyerhoff Scholars be among the first to receive this news, as she has spent most of her career at UMBC working to support the growth and success of this program and its students.

Ernie joined UMBC in 1983 as the Coordinator of Minority Recruitment in the Office of Admissions.  Between 1987 and 1992 she served as Associate Director for Scholarships at the University. In 1992, she was appointed Director of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program. For two decades, she has worked tirelessly alongside President Freeman Hrabowski and campus faculty and staff to build the program into a nationally recognized model for talented students interested in pursuing terminal degrees in the sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computer science.

Ernie, now Executive Director of the program, has a well-earned reputation as a firm but fair mentor, colleague, and leader. More than 1,000 Meyerhoff Scholars have been introduced to “Ms. Baker” at Meyerhoff scholarship “selection weekends” and Summer Bridge programs as a demanding, but dedicated and compassionate presence.  Her expectations – clearly and directly stated – were that each Meyerhoff Scholar prepare rigorously for the classroom and lab, act professionally in any situation, and serve compassionately on campus and in the community. Her deep relationships with Meyerhoff Scholars have extended far beyond graduation.  She has advised and mentored graduates in their pursuit of graduate degrees, and networked on behalf of our graduates to ensure that they have good and clear options available at vital career junctures.

In July 2009, Science, the leading journal of scientific research, news and commentary, recognized UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholars Program as a national model demonstrating “what it takes” to help more minority students earn science degrees. Ernie has been a fundamental part of the program’s success.  Throughout the years, she has been a tireless advocate for students, applying her rich knowledge of the academic community with an innovative and pragmatic approach to problem solving. This approach has allowed her to build solid and lasting partnerships with research faculty, develop internships and summer research experiences, and forge institutional relationships for UMBC with the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities. Her standards have been high and exacting; at the same time, she has generously demonstrated the magnanimity of spirit, humility, and compassion that is required to prepare future leaders for success.

Through her work with the Meyerhoff Program, Ernie also has served on numerous STEM advisory boards and represented the program at conferences and events throughout the nation and abroad, including participating in the 2012 College Completion Symposium with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Her dedication and commitment was recognized by the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents, which honored Ernie as the USM Outstanding Staff Member for extraordinary public service to the university and the greater community in 2008.

Ernie has served the UMBC community with dignity, grace, and wisdom for almost 30 years. She will continue to serve on several commissions and boards, and will consult with UMBC and the Meyerhoff Scholars Program on several on-going initiatives. We intend to host a reception in January for Ernie to celebrate her numerous contributions to the UMBC community, and will share that information as details are solidified. Until that time, please join us in congratulating her for all that she has accomplished at UMBC.

On December 10, the New York Times profiled weather prognosticator William O’Toole, III, of the J. Gruber’s Hagerstown Town and Country Almanack in an article entitled “Divining the Weather, With Methods Old and New.”

Maryland Traditions, the folklife program of the Maryland State Arts Council, which is a partner with UMBC, recently honored the Almanack with its annual “Achievement in Living Traditions and Arts” Award. Maryland Traditions partnered with the New Media Studio to produce a short film for the awards ceremony, which was featured in the New York Times story.

The video can be seen here:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BfA1OOhaCY&w=560&h=315]

On November 28, Jessica Berman, professor of English, gave a talk to Georgetown University’s Modernities Working Group. Her talk was entitled “Is the Trans in Transnational the Trans in Transgender?”

Berman co-edits, with Paul Saint-Amour, the Modernist Latitudes Series at Columbia University Press, and serves on the boards of the American Comparative Literature Association and the Modernist Studies Association. Her most recent book is Modernist Commitments: Ethics, Politics, and Transnational Modernism.

In the latest post on Governing magazine’s blog “Better Faster Cheaper,” John M. Kamensky, senior fellow with the IBM Center for the Business of Government, reports on compelling new findings from a study by UMBC’s Eric Zeemering, assistant professor of public policy, and co-researcher Daryl Delabbi.

Zeemering and Delabbi have found that more than half of county officials across the country are either participating in or delivering shared services or are in active discussions to do so. Why counties? Kemensky writes, “Typically, small local governments jealously guard their independence. County government is a natural place to turn to coordinate or deliver common services, whether they are police investigative services, road paving or group-purchasing contracts.” To learn more, read “The Accelerating Movement to Share Services” or see the full study, “A County Manager’s Guide to Shared Services in Local Government” (pdf).