The Semantic Systems Research Lab performs foundational and applied research in the area of information systems enabled by semantic (web) technologies. Its work is situated at the confluence of Semantic Web and Human Computation research areas, and focuses on the following main research questions:

(1) How to involve people in (semantic) system design both for information and software engineering? We investigate the use of Human Computation methods for acquiring and verifying knowledge structures such as ontologies and knowledge graphs (HOnEst). We also use Human Computation methods for verifying software engineering models.

(2) How to ensure that (semantic) information systems operate in reliable (trustworthy) and ethically acceptable ways? We perform work on using semantic technologies to make information systems auditable (OBARIS, WellFort, VasQua). Additionally, we extend this research to cyber-physical systems (CPS) where we aim to enable their explainability (ExpCPS).

(3) How can semantic (web) technologies improve information systems? We investigate in particular the benefits of semantic methods from the area of data integration (CitySPIN, CDL-Flex) and exploratory search (OntoTrans, STAR) in information systems from a broad range of domains including Smart City, Industrie 4.0, material engineering, and medical science.

Join Us!

We are always happy to welcome new members to our group! Please take a look at the student topics for possible bachelor and master thesis topics, as well as Ph.D. positions at our job page.