SADL – Semantic Application Design Language

Dr. Andrew W. Crapo
GE Global Research

 10:00 Tuesday, 7 March 2017

The Web Ontology Language (OWL) has gained considerable acceptance over the past decade. Building on prior work in Description Logics, OWL has sufficient expressivity to be useful in many modeling applications. However, its various serializations do not seem intuitive to subject matter experts in many domains of interest to GE. Consequently, we have developed a controlled-English language and development environment that attempts to make OWL plus rules more accessible to those with knowledge to share but limited interest in studying formal representations. The result is the Semantic Application Design Language (SADL). This talk will review the foundational underpinnings of OWL and introduce the SADL constructs meant to capture, validate, and maintain semantic models over their lifecycle.

Dr. Crapo has been part of GE’s Global Research staff for over 35 years. As an Information Scientist he has built performance and diagnostic models of mechanical, chemical, and electrical systems, and has specialized in human-computer interfaces, decision support systems, machine reasoning and learning, and semantic representation and modeling. His work has included a graphical expert system language (GEN-X), a graphical environment for procedural programming (Fuselet Development Environment), and a semantic-model-driven user-interface for decision support systems (ACUITy). Most recently Andy has been active in developing the Semantic Application Design Language (SADL), enabling GE to leverage worldwide advances and emerging standards in semantic technology and bring them to bear on diverse problems from equipment maintenance optimization to information security.

Last week, UMBC’s Student Government Association held a special referendum in which the student body was invited to vote on a multi-faceted piece of election-related legislation. The changes, which passed with an overwhelming majority, intend to reform an imperfect election board, nominating committee and appeals board.

The special election comes after last year’s tumultuous SGA election that ended with the forced involvement of the administration. Despite the legislation being a step in the right direction for an SGA, the way the referendum was handled could be improved.

The election was publicized solely on the SGA’s myUMBC page, with scattered flyers around campus and through the Facebook posts of various members of the student organization. This meant that although voting on the new legislation was open to all students, very few knew of its existence.

Unless you were connected to members of SGA on Facebook or specifically checked the myUMBC page, one would have almost surely missed the entire affair. In fact, just 447 out of over 10,000 undergraduate students belong to the myUMBC group.

The lack of publicity surrounding the referendum is clearly reflected in its outcome. A meager 162 total votes were cast over the course of the week in which the election was held. A statement posted on the SGA’s website noted, “149 students voted in favor of the constitutional changes, while 13 students voted against it. With a 92 percent majority, the legislation passes. The new policies, including the creation of the nominating committee and appeals board, will take effect for the upcoming SGA candidate election in April, pending final approval from President Hrabowski…”

Had students been given an opportunity to consider the provisions of the legislation prior to the voting period, there would more than likely have been a better showing when it came time to cast ballots.

Last April, an instant run-off voting system was introduced by senator Evan Leiter-Mason. A survey was posted to myUMBC in which students were asked to react to the proposal. The survey garnered over 400 responses. If a similar procedure had been used in the case of the special election referendum, the resulting vote counts would have been far more representative of the student body.

Overall, the changes that will be implemented following the referendum are positive. The election board chair can no longer invalidate the results of elections or determine stipends, satellite-campus campaigning is prohibited and the president no longer can appoint the election board chair, among other things.

The improvements to the process will invariably help the SGA avoid some of the problems that arose in previous years. Going forward, though, it would be good to see more of an effort by the members of the student government to include the entire campus in the decision-making process. The SGA is, after all, for you: the student.

The post SGA’s special election takes tentative steps in the right direction appeared first on The Retriever.

Diverse. Innovative. Up-and-coming. Those are just three words often used to describe UMBC’s campus and culture. Another word, one that’s no less a part of who we are, is caring. We care about our students’ success, both academically and in their home lives. With initiatives like the Stay Black and Gold Fund, an emergency fund for students whose financial need stands between them and their studies, we’re creating that culture of caring from the ground up.

Unlike many scholarship and grant programs on campus, the Stay Black and Gold fund is a student-led initiative. A committee of representatives from the Student Government Association (SGA), the Student Alumni Association (SAA), and other groups on campus, with the help of a staff advisor, will review emergency aid applications from their peers and decide how awards are allocated. While the idea has been around for years, it’s finally coming to fruition thanks to the work of dedicated students like Lillianne Keplinger.

The current sophomore and SGA Senator was inspired to take action on the fund last spring, when she was serving as Assistant Director for Leadership Development for SGA. “I’m a student who takes out loans, and I realize that not everyone is…able to,” she says. “ So it’s unfortunate for people that have to leave the institution because they can’t afford school.” The fund will assist students who experience unexpected life crises that affect their ability to pay for current tuition, fees, books, and other school-related expenses.

Along with with fellow SGA Senator Chiamaka Ugboh and SAA Vice President Ariana Nogin, Keplinger has been working with departments across campus to finalize the committee’s membership and secure an advisor. The fund is already accepting contributions from students, alumni, parents, and friends online.

Leanna Powell ’08, English, UMBC’s Assistant Director of Annual Giving, has worked closely with the students throughout the process. “We hope this will…become a way to help students understand the real impact of philanthropy on campus, and help them become leaders in giving,” she says.

Whether you’re on or off campus, by making a gift today, you can help build and sustain UMBC’s culture of caring.

— Julia Celtnieks ’13

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