Torsten Hahmann
Current work
Currently I'm working with Autodesk Research and Sheila McIlraith on the Parametric Human Project. I'm particularly interested in developing an ontology for the spatial aspects of anatomy and how to deal with human variation in such an ontology.
In November 2013, I will join the faculty of the School of Computing and Information Science and the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at the University of Maine.
PhD dissertation
I successfully defended my PhD thesis in February 2013 under the supervision of Michael Gruninger in the Semantic Technologies Lab and the Knowledge Representation Group at the University of Toronto.
The ontologies I developed with all the proofs, which verify the nontrivial consistency of the ontologies as well as many intuitive properties.
Research Interests
I am generally interested in everything that involves formal representations of knowledge, so-called knowledge representation.
More specifically I'm interested in ontologies, semantic integration, semantic interoperability, and semantic technologies in general.
My research interests encompass the following areas:
- Expressive and lightweight ontologies
- Ontology verification, modularity, and repositories and tools to help with ontology design & maintenance & integration
- Semantic technologies, interoperability, data and knowledge integration
- Spatial intelligence, including qualitative spatial reasoning (QSR) and the combination of high-level spatial reasoning with low-level, geometric reasoning
- Spatial ontologies and spatial data, including geospatial data, earth science (geological, hydrological, environmental) data, urban planning data, transportation data, building information, product specifications
- Commonsense representations of space, cognitive and philosophical aspects of space
- Automated reasoning with first-order logic (FOL), FOL theorem proving and model finding
- Geometry, topology, mereology, manifolds
- Mathematical logic, model theory
My current research activities resolve around two areas:
(1) Spatial (and Spatio-Temporal) Representation and Reasoning
- Semantic integration of spatial knowledge from disparate conceptualizations of space
- The ontologies I developed, including automated proofs of key theorems (arising from competency questions), consistency proofs, and proofs of some integration results from my PhD thesis can be found
- Qualitative Spatial Reasoning (QSR) in general
- Qualitatitive representations of multidimensional, commonsensical space
- Mereotopologies (region-based QSR), in particular multidimensional mereotopology, and point-free ('pointless')
representations of space and their axiomatization in first-order theories (spatial ontologies)
- Mathematical (in particular algebraic and topological) representation of basic spatial ontologies
(2) Expressive Ontologies, in particular ontologies specified in first-order logic
- Ontology Repositories of first-order ontologies
- Modularization of ontologies, hierarchies of ontologies
- First-order ontologies for spatial knowledge (Geographic Information Systems (GIS), manufacturing, and hydrogeology)
- Semantic integration (full integration and comparative integration) of ontologies
- (Semi-)automated verification of first-order ontologies
- I have started developing a toolset for ontology verification called Macleod
- Automated reasoning with first-order ontologies
- Common Logic