CFP: International Conference on Biomedical Ontology (ICBO) and Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FIOS)

7th International Conference on Formal Ontologies in Information Systems (FOIS 2012)
held together with the 3rd International Conference on Biomedical Ontology (ICBO 2012)

7th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems

Ontology began as a fundamental part of philosophical enquiry concerned with the analysis and categorization of what exists. In recent years, the subject has taken a practical turn with the advent of complex information systems which rely on robust and coherent representations of their subject matter. The systematization and elaboration of such representations and their associated reasoning techniques constitute the modern discipline of formal ontology. Formal Ontology is now applied to such diverse domains as artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, bioinformatics, GIS, knowledge engineering, information retrieval, and the Semantic Web. FOIS is intended to gather researchers with an interest in formal ontology, where both theoretical issues and concrete applications can be explored in an interdisciplinary spirit.

Poster session (submissions by young scientists only!)

The poster session at FOIS 2012 will give young scientists the opportunity to present their current work related to formal ontology in information systems and discuss their approach, results, problems and methods with the other participants of the conference.

As this poster session is particularly intended to provide an opportunity for young ontologists to disseminate, and obtain feedback on, their work, __submission is restricted__ to students
who are working towards a postgraduate qualification (Master's or Ph.D.).

The selection of poster contributions will pay specific attention to their relevance to the topics of FOIS 2012.

Topics of interest

Topic areas of interest include in particular:

Foundational Issues

• Kinds of entity: particulars/universals, continuants/occurrents, abstracta/concreta, dependent entities/independent entities, natural objects/artifacts
• Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence,
• constitution, subsumption, instantiation
• Vagueness and granularity
• Identity and change
• Formal comparison among ontologies
• Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion)
• Ontology of biological reality (genes, proteins, cells, organisms)
• Ontology of artifacts, functions and roles
• Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions, emotions)
• Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms, social relationships, artistic expressions)
• Ontology of the information society (information, communication, meaning negotiation)
• Ontology and Natural Language Semantics, Ontology and Cognition

Methodologies and Applications

• Top-level vs application ontologies
• Ontology integration and alignment; role of reference ontologies
• Ontology-driven information systems design
• Ontological foundations for conceptual modeling
• Ontology-based application systems
• Requirements engineering
• Knowledge engineering
• Knowledge management and organization
• Knowledge representation; Qualitative modeling
• Computational lexicons; Terminology
• Information retrieval; Question-answering
• Semantic web; Web services; Grid computing
• Domain-specific ontologies, especially for: Biomedical science, E-business, Enterprise integration, Engineering, Geography, Law, Library science, Linguistics

Important dates

We encourage graduate students to submit posters to FOIS 2012.

Poster submission:        May 01, 2012
Poster notification:        Jun 01, 2012
Final poster submission: Jun 25, 2012
Electronic publication:    Jul 10, 2012

Author instructions for posters

Poster submission should consist of

1. an electronic copy of the poster itself (for printing at A2 size), preferably in PDF format, and 
2. a cover letter giving the author's contact details and a statement of current status, including the year of expected graduation at the PhD or Master's level.

All poster submissions should have the subject line "FOIS poster" and should be mailed to

[email protected]

Accepted posters will be published electronically and made available via the conference web page.

ICBO 2012: 3rd International Conference on Biomedical Ontology

Ontologies are increasingly used in biology and medicine, and their use in annotation of both clinical and experimental data is now common technique in integrative translational research. They are being developed for the description of biological and biomedical phenomena. To be maximally effective, such ontologies must work well together. As ontologies become more commonly used, the problems involved in achieving coordination in ontology development become ever more urgent. This conference addresses these problems. It brings together representatives of all major communities involved in the development and application of ontologies in biomedicical research, health care, and related areas. In addition to papers, the conference will feature workshops and tutorials, as well as software demonstrations and a doctoral symposium.

See the ICBO FOIS 2012 conference website for more information about submission.