Research Activities
After several years in technology research, I changed my focus towards the development of next generation business software while remaining involved in related research areas.
My current work is centered around Internet of Things where I'm primarily interested in applications and innovations for enabling the Digital Transformation with a special focus on transport and logistics. This is, among many others, based on research insights on the so-called Future Internet that aims at leveraging emerging technologies like IoT, IoS, Cloud, and Business Networks for novel industrial solutions for the 21st century. Previously, I have been working on Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) with particular attention to the Semantic Web and semantically enabled SOA technologies.
While referring to my publication list for details on published research results, the following provides information on my activities in the scientific community.
PhD Thesis
In my PhD thesis - entitled "Scalable Semantic Web Service Discovery for Goal-driven Service Oriented Architectures" - I have developed an efficient and scalable technique for automated Web service discovery in Semantic Web service environments. This is based on semantic matchmaking that works on sufficiently rich functional descriptions of goals and Web services, and is extended with a caching mechanism for enhancing the computational performance of the discovery task.
- available as a book
- a comprehensive collection of material is provided at my PhD thesis website
- extended abstract is given here:
R&D Projects
FIspace. As a case project in Phase 2 of the Future Internet PPP program run be the European Commission, the FIspace project develops a novel cloud-based infrastructure for seamless and integrated Collaboration in Business Networks with early trails in Agri-Food, Transport and Logistics.
- Homepage: www.fispace.eu
- Role: Chief Software Engineer, FI PPP Steering Board Deputy Member, SAP Project Lead
- Period: 2013 - 2015
FInest. As the use case project on Transport & Logistics in the Future Internet PPP program run be the European Commission, the FInest Project develops a next generation platform for optimizing the collaboration within logistics business networks.
- Homepage: www.finest-ppp.eu
- Role: FI PPP Alignment Coordinator, FI PPP Steering Board Member, SAP Project Lead
- Period: 2011 - 2013
SHAPE. The EU FP 7 STREP Project SHAPE develops an integrated framework for the model-driven development of SOA applications with extensions for variability modeling and support for several technology platforms, including meta-models, a development tool suite, and methodological support for the engigneering process of SOA systems.
- Homepage: http://www.shape-project.eu/
- Role: Technical Coordinator, SAP Project Lead
- Period: 2008 - 2010
SUPER. The EU FP 6 Integrated Project SUPER develops a methodology and technical infrastructure for semantically enhancing Business Process Management (BPM) technologies.
- Homepage: http://ip-super.org/
- Role: Researcher, lead tutorials & industry training
- Period: 2007 - 2008
DIP. The EU Integrated Project DIP has developed a comprehensive framework for Semantic Web Services (SWS), providing a technical infrastructure wherein clients and providers in SOA environments can interact and cooperate automatically.
- Homepage: http://dip.semanticweb.org/
- Role: Researcher, Work Package Manager, Executive Management Board Member
- Period: 2004 - 2006
Semantic Web Fred (SWF). The SWF project funded by the Austrian government has extended the agent platform developed by NetDynamics (Vienna) with Semantic Web and Semantic Web service technologies.
- Homepage: http://swf.deri.at/
- Role: Researcher and Project Manager
- Period: 2003 - 2005
h-TechSight. The EU FP 5 Project h-Techight has developed a ontology-based knowledge management platform for knowledge intensive industries.
- Homepage: Summary
- Role: Researcher and Management Board Member
- Period: 2003 - 2004
Tutorials
I have been responsible for the organization of a series of more than 30 tutorials on Semantic Web and Semantic Web Service technologies that have been held in international events as well as for industry in the years 2004 to 2007. The aim has been to provide attendees with a comprehensive overview on the latest developments in Semantic Web and semantic SOA technologies, ranging from high-level presentations to detailed hands-on trainings on the usage of the technologies developed at DERI and its partner institutes.
- Details on all tutorials can be found at WSMO Tutorial Website
- Material on a 4-day industry training can be found at at the SESA Tutorial Website
- Information on Tutorials on Semantic Business Process Management can be found at the SUPER Project Website
Affiliations & Memberships
- Semantic Technology Institute (STI)
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):
- Object Management Group (OMG)
- Organization for Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), Semantic Execution Environment Technical Committee (SEE)
- European Semantic Systems Initiative (ESSI)
- Semantic Web Service Initiative (SWSI)
- Web Service Modeling Ontology Working Group (WSMO)
- Ontology Management Working Group (OMWG)
- Semantic Web Portals Working Groups
Event Organization
- Program Chair on Services & Software Track, 8th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2011), Heraklion, Greece, May 29 - June 4, 2011.
- Tutorial Chair at the 3rd European Semantic Web Conference ESWC 2006, Przno, Montenegro, June 11-14, 2006.
- W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services, Innsbruck, Austria, June 9 - 10, 2005.
- Semantic Web Service Week, Innsbruck, Austria, 6 - 10 June, 2005.
- 1st International Workshop on Web Service Choreography and Orchestration for Business Process Management, held at the Third International Conference on Business Process Management (BPM 2005), Nancy, France, September 5, 2004.
- Workshop on Application of Semantic Web technologies to Web Communities. 16th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2004 (ECAI 2004), Valencia, Spain, August 23, 2004.
Program Committee Membership
- 9th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2012)
- 5th International Workshop on Architecture, Concepts and Technologies for Service Oriented Computing (ACT4SOC 2011)
- 7th Extended Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2010)
- 4th IEEE International Workshop on Engineering Semantic Agent Systems (ESAS 2009)
- 4th Annual Asian Semantic Web Conference (ASWC 2009)
- 4th IEEE International Workshop on Engineering Semantic Agent Systems (ESAS 2009)
- Poster and Demonstration Track of the 6th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2009)
- 6th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2009)
- 3rd Asian Semantic Web Conference (ASWC 2008)
- 2nd IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC-2008)
- Workshop "Semantic Web meets Geospatial Applications" at the AGILE 2008 conference
- 5th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2008)
- 3rd IEEE International Workshop on Engineering Semantic Agent Systems (ESAS 2008)
- Semantic Web Technology in Business Information Systems workshop co-located with the Multikonferenz Wirtschaftsinformatik (MKWI 2008)
- Technical Track "Semantic-Based Resource Discovery, Retrieval and Composition" at the 22nd ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2007)
- 2nd IEEE International Workshop on Engineering Semantic Agent Systems (ESAS 2007)
- International Conference on Advanced Engineering Computing and Applications in Sciences (ADVCOMP 2007)
- Canadian Semantic Web Working Symposium 2006
- 3rd European Semantic Web Conference ESWC 2006
- International Workshop on Engineering Semantic Agent Systems (ESAS 2006)
Reviewer for Journals
- Knowledge and Information Systems - International Journal (KAIS), since 2010.
- International Journal of Semantic Computing (IJSC), since 2008.
- Journal of Web Semantics (JWS), since 2007.
- Data & Knowledge Engineering (DKE), since 2007.
- IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering (TKDE), Special Issue on Customer Relationship Management, 2006.
Other Reviews & Jury Memberships
- Evaluation Committee (Scientific Expert) for Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), France, 2010.
- External Reviewer for the EU Project Service Finder, 2009.
- Grant Agency of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 2008.
- ZIT - Zentrum für Innovation und Technologie, Vienna, Austria, 2008.
Invited Talks
- Panelist on "Which Semantic Web Service standards?" at the First AKT Workshop on Semantic Web Services (AKT-SWS04), Milton Keynes, UK, December 8, 2004
- Panelist on "Alternative Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services: Possibilities for Inclusion in Future Standards" at the Second International Workshop on Semantic and Dynamic Web Processes (SDWP 2005). held at the 3rd International Conference on Web Services (ICWS 2005), Orlando, Florida, USA, July 11, 2005
- Talk at SRI International on "Efficient Service Discovery in Goal-driven Architectures", 23rd March, 2006, SRI International Main Campus in Menlo Park, CA, see: http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/detail.php?id=139.
- Invited Talk "Semantically Enabled Service Oriented Architectures"
at the 3rd
ZGDV Congress on "Semantic Web und Wissenstechnologien", 19 October 2006, Darmstadt (Germany).
slides:
- Invited Talk "Process Interoperability with Semantic Web Services"
at the Harmonization in eTourism Workshop colocated with the
ENTER 2007 Conference, 26 January 2007, Ljubljana (Slovenia).
slides:
- Invited Talk "Impacts of the Semantic Web on the Knowledge Society"
at the Media, Knowledge & Education congress, 26 June 2007, Innsbruck (Austria).
slides: