Research Interests

• Semantic Technologies esp.
• Calculi for expressive knowledge representation languages
• Ontology languages: RDF, RDFS, OWL
• Reasoning systems
• Practical semantic applications
• Information visualization and analytics
• Communication protocols for the Semantic Web
• Linked (Open) Data

Projects

• SFB 527: Integration symbolischer und subsymbolischer Informationsverarbeitung in adaptiven sensomotorischen Systemen (1998 - 2000)
• Semantic service discovery. docomo Eurolabs GmbH, Munich (2003 - 2007)
• Ontology-based document management. EU Network of Excellence: ReSIST (2008 - 2009)
• OWLlink protocol specification. W3C member submission 2010
• Viscover - Visual semantic analysis tool for complex data analysis, Inpol-Land Polas Competence Center (IPCC) (2010)
• Joint theses with industrial partners from Daimler AG, BMW AG, TEMIC Telefunken

Awards and Grants

• IEEE InfoVis Contest Finalist 2007
• IEEE VAST Challenge Award Winnder 2009
• AI Mashup Challenge 2010 (2nd place)
• PhD scholarship from the state of Saxony-Anhalt (1996-1999)
• DAAD exchange grant (1997/1998), Research visit at the Information Sciences Institute (ISI), University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA
• EXIST grant from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) (10/2009 - 09/2010)
• Junge Innovatoren grant from the State Ministry of Science, Research and Art, Baden-Württemberg (MWK) (2011)

Reviewing and Organization

• Co-chair of the international workshop series on Scalable Semantic Web Knowledge Base Systems (SSWS) in 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007.
• Local organizer of KI 2004, Ulm, Germany.
• Reviewer for IBM Systems Journal, Journal of Semantic Web, ECAI 2002, OWLED WS, DL WS, EON WS, Informatik WS, and other events.
• Supervisor of more than 20 theses (diploma, master, bachelor)

Patents

• Middleware for use in a client-server architecture, EP2012490
• Method and apparatus for preference building to be used in service discovery, EP1807773

Miscellaneous

• Certificate Hochschuldidaktik Baden-Württemberg, 2009
• CEO of derivo GmbH, Ulm (since 07/2010)