Course Objectives and Outcomes

The goal of this course is to provide motivations, definitions and techniques in support of the usefulness of logic in the effective and efficient modeling of data and knowledge. We aim to motivate students to continue their career with higher interest into logic-based modelling for data and knowledge representation in their own field of expertise, and to produce computer-processable solutions of relevant problems.

 

General Description

The use of logic in computer science is very well-documented. The exponential increase of literature on every area of computer science has forced both definition and use of logical formalisms for knowledge representation and reasoning into greater complexity, and this complexity has in turn necessitated a deeper study of the principles by which logical models may be constucted. It has become more and more apparent, say since the 1989' First International Conference on the Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR-89), that knowledge representation models and reasoning models are only different views of the same common problem.
Different logic-based approaches to data and knowledge representation and reasoning are beginning to converge. It seems therefore useful to try to accelerate this process by trying to provide a survey, as uniform as possible presentation of the whole problem of logic-based modeling of data and knowlege, treating the subject on general theoretical lines, yet filled in with practical examples from real-world scenarios, problems and applications, with a particular attention paid to the borderlines and inter-relationships among all logics presented.
There is as yet no unified theory of logic-based models for data and knowledge representation, and a good deal of practical systems and working devices are not logic-based in their design foundation and unsullied by any logical model. There is nevertheless a real need for the subject to be looked at as a whole.

 

Course modality

Slides will be shown during lectures. They will constitute the main material of the course. Lectures will NOT be recordered.
There will be the possibility to pass the course via two midterm exams. Students need to book the exams on a sheet that will be circulated (see the Calendar).

The course runs from September 14th 2023 till December 15th 2023 with the following schedule

 

• Thursdays, 13:30 - 15:30, Room 104

 

• Fridays, 13:30 - 15:30, Room 104

 

Notice that the titles and structure of the lessons yet to be delivered might change slightly. The rule of the thumb is: if there are links with materials, things won’t change; if there are no links to the materials, titles and content are in draft and may change.

 

Lesson Number	Date	Time	Material	Content of Material	Lecturer(s)	Notes
1	Thu 14 Sep, 2023	13:30	Slides Handouts Part I	Introduction	Giunchiglia
2	Fri 15 Sep, 2023	13:30	Slides	Introduction	Giunchiglia
3	Thu 21 Sep, 2023	13:30	Slides	Exercises	Maltese
4	Fri 22 Sep, 2023	13:30	Slides	Foundations of modeling: set theory, graphs, knowledge graphs	Maltese
5	Thu 28 Sep, 2023	13:30	Slides part I Handouts Part II	World models	Giunchiglia
6	Fri 29 Sep, 2023	13:30	Slides part II Slides part III	World models	Giunchiglia
7	Thu 5 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides part I	Components of all logics	Giunchiglia
8	Fri 6 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides part II	Components of all logics	Giunchiglia
9	Thu 12 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides	Exercises	Maltese
10	Fri 13 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides Handouts part III	Logic of Entities (LOE)	Giunchiglia
11	Thu 19 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides	Logic of Descriptions (LOD)	Giunchiglia
12	Fri 20 Oct, 2023	13:30		Logic of Descriptions (LOD)	Giunchiglia
13	Thu 26 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides WM Slides LOE	Exercises	Maltese	Fixed slides 4-7 in World Models; Fixed slide 3 in LOE
14	Fri 27 Oct, 2023	13:30	Slides	Logic of Descriptions (LOD)	Giunchiglia
15	Fri 2 Nov, 2023	13:30	Slides	Exercises	Maltese
16	Fri 3 Nov, 2023	13:30		Q&A midterm preparation	Giunchiglia
17	Mon 6 Nov, 2023	8:00		MIDTERM EXAM	Giunchiglia, Maltese	>It starts at 8:00. ROOMS A201, A202, B106
18	Thu 9 Nov, 2023	13:30	Slides	Applications of the Logic of Descriptions	Giunchiglia
19	Fri 10 Nov, 2023	13:30				No lecture!
20	Thu 16 Nov, 2023	13:30	Slides	LODE - The logic of Knowledge Bases	Giunchiglia
21	Fri 17 Nov, 2023	13:30	Slides	Exercises	Maltese
22	Thu 23 Nov, 2023	13:30				No lecture!
23	Fri 24 Nov, 2023	13:30	Slides Handouts Part IV	Logic of Propositions	Giunchiglia
24	Thu 30 Nov, 2023	13:30		Logic of Propositions	Giunchiglia
25	Fri 1 Dec, 2023	13:30		Logic of Propositions	Gunchiglia
26	Thu 7 Dec, 2023	13:30	Handouts Part V	Logic of Propositions - DPLL	Gunchiglia	For the DPLL, please refer only to the handouts (no slides)
27	Thu 14 Dec, 2023	13:30	Slides	Exercises	Maltese
28	Fri 15 Dec, 2023	13:30		Exercises	Giunchiglia
29	Mon 18 Dec, 2023	8:30		MIDTERM EXAM	Giunchiglia, Maltese	It starts at 8:00 am ROOMS A201, A202, B106