Doctors Enrico Daga, Francesco Osborne, Angelo Salatino, Prof John Domingue and PhD student Marco Ratta recently attended the 2024 edition of the Extended Semantic Web Conference, where they showcased their significant contributions to the field through various research papers and workshops as well as contributing to the leadership of the entire ESWC Community. Although Prof. Motta was unable to attend the conference, he had a contribution as well.

ESWC is a premier international conference focusing on semantic web technologies, artificial intelligence, and knowledge graphs. With a mission to connect researchers, practitioners, and industry leaders, ESWC provides a platform for sharing groundbreaking advancements, fostering collaboration, and stimulating innovation in the field of linked data and semantic technologies. The 2024 edition, themed “Fabrics of Knowledge: Knowledge Graphs and Generative AI,” specifically highlighted the growing significance of knowledge graphs and their convergence with Generative AI (GenAI). This emphasis reflects the increasing importance of structured knowledge representation and its application in driving intelligent systems and applications. ESWC 2024 showcased the latest research in areas such as knowledge graph construction, natural language processing, machine learning, and reasoning, with a particular focus on how these technologies intersect with GenAI to create more intelligent and context-aware applications.

Main conference

At the main conference, Doctors Salatino and Osborne presented a research paper in the main track titled “Large Language Models for Scientific Question Answering: an Extensive Analysis of the SciQA Benchmark.” This paper explores the effectiveness of large language models in answering scientific questions, offering a comprehensive analysis of the SciQA benchmark.

Dr. Daga presented a resource paper titled “Musical Meetups Knowledge Graph (MMKG): A Collection of Evidence for Historical Social Network Analysis“, a flagship output of the EU project Polifonia. Although the primary author, Alba Morales Tirado, could not attend due to visa issues, Dr. Daga effectively represented the team’s work. This paper provides a valuable resource for analyzing historical social networks through the lens of musical meetups, offering insights into the cultural and social dynamics of the past.

Satellite events

In addition to his main track, KMi was extensively involved in satellite events.

Dr. Salatino was involved in two impactful workshop papers:

– Investigating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Discussions in News: A Knowledge Graph Analysis Empowered by AI: This paper delves into how AI and knowledge graph analysis can be used to investigate ESG discussions in news media.

– Leveraging Language Models for Generating Ontologies of Research Topics: This research focuses on how language models can be utilized to generate ontologies for various research topics, providing valuable insights into the organization and categorization of research areas.

Dr. Osborne made additional significant contributions to the ESWC conference.

He co-organized two influential workshops:

– 3rd International Workshop on Knowledge Graph Generation from Text (Text2KG): This workshop focused on the latest advancements in generating knowledge graphs from textual data.

– 2nd International Workshop on Semantic Technologies and Deep Learning Models for Scientific, Technical and Legal Data (SemTech4STLD): This event explored the intersection of semantic technologies and deep learning models, particularly in the context of scientific, technical, and legal data.

Dr. Osborne also delivered a keynote speech at the Natural Scientific Language Processing and Research Knowledge Graphs (NSLP 2024), where he shared his insights and expertise on the integration of natural language processing and knowledge graphs in scientific research.

Furthermore, Dr. Osborne was involved in two additional papers:

– Automating Citation Placement with Natural Language Processing and Transformers: This paper discusses the use of NLP and transformer models to automate the placement of citations in academic writing.

– Knowledge Graphs for Digital Transformation Monitoring in Social Media: This research examines how knowledge graphs can be leveraged to monitor digital transformation trends on social media platforms.

Marco Ratta presented his work on “AI Supported Knowledge Graph Design & Generation” at the PhD Symposium. This presentation focused on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance the design and generation of knowledge graphs, which are essential for organizing and connecting information in meaningful ways.

Dr. Daga was actively involved in several aspects of the conference:

– SemTech4STLD Workshop: Dr. Daga presented a paper titled “Extracting Licence Information from Web Resources with a Large Language Model“. This research explores how large language models can be used to extract and manage license information from various web resources, highlighting the potential for AI to simplify legal and technical data management.

– SemDH Workshop Panel: Dr. Daga was also invited as a panel member at the “First International Workshop of Semantic Digital Humanities (SemDH)”. This workshop focused on the application of semantic technologies in the digital humanities, discussing the latest trends and challenges in the field.

Both Dr. Daga and Marco Ratta presented the “PySPARQL Anything Showcase“, a demo that garnered significant attention at the conference. This innovative tool extends SPARQL, a query language for databases, enabling more versatile data querying capabilities. The demo’s success was highlighted in a LinkedIn post by Dr. Daga, capturing the interest and excitement of the ESWC community. You can check out the LinkedIn post for more details.

Prof. Motta, organized a workshop titled “Actionable Knowledge Representation and Reasoning for Robots (AKR³).” The workshop focused on how robots can be endowed with common sense reasoning to better navigate and perform tasks in dynamic home environments.

Vision and Leadership

A new ESWC Steering Committee was setup during the conference which Prof Domingue will Chair. The Steering Committee Vice Chairs are: Prof. Dr. Dieter Fensel of the University of Innsbruck, Dr. Valentina Presutti Associate Professor at the University of Bologna, Prof. Dr. Harald Sack Vice President Information Service Engineering at FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure and Professor at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Prof. Dr. Rudi Studer former President of the Semantic Web Association, and Dr. Raphael Troncy, Associate Professor at Eurocom. The ESWC Steering Committee will handle all matters related to the scientific future ESWC including the selection of the Conference Chair. 

Next year, ESWC will take place in Portorož (Slovenia) and we look forward to contributing to another brilliant edition.