Keywords: conceptual modeling, knowledge representation, ontology, ontological analysis, enterprise modeling, service science, open government
Short profile: I am presently research director at the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the Italian National Research Council (ISTC-CNR), leading the ISTC-CNR Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA) based in Trento. Since 1991 I have been playing a leading role in the ontology field, developing a strongly interdisciplinary approach that combines together Computer Science, Philosophy, and Linguistics. The impact of such approach is testified by a long list of widely cited papers and many keynote talks and tutorials in major conferences involving different communities. Among the most well known results of my lab, the OntoClean methodology and the DOLCE foundational ontology. Current research interests include the ontological foundations of knowledge representation and conceptual modeling, the cognitive transparency for technical artifacts (especially AI artifacts) and socio-technical systems, semantic interoperability within public administrations, service modeling and strategic enterprise modeling. I have been founder and editor-in-chief (with Mark Musen, Stanford University) of the Applied Ontology journal, founder and former president of the International Association for Ontology and its Applications, and editorial board member of Int. Journal of Semantic Web and Information Systems and Journal of Data Semantics. I am also founding member of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence and fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI).
I am especially interested in leveraging on ontological analysis and semantic technologies to improve the cognitive transparency and the social accountability of AI artifacts. More in general, I am interested in using AI technology to improve the transparency, the participatory governance, and the overall resilience of complex socio-technical systems.
Nicola Guarino, research director at the Italian National Research Council (CNR), works at the nation-wide Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies (ISTC-CNR), leading the Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA) located in Trento. A graduate in electronic engineering at Padua university in 1978, since 1991 has been playing a leading role in the ontology field, developing a strongly interdisciplinary approach that combines together Computer Science, Philosophy, and Linguistics. His impact is testified by a long list of widely cited papers and many keynote talks and tutorials in major conferences involving different communities. Among the most well known results of his lab, the OntoClean methodology and the DOLCE foundational ontology. Current research interests include service science, socio-technical systems, and e-government. He is founder and former editor-in-chief (with Mark Musen of Stanford University) of Applied Ontology, founder and past president of the International Association for Ontology and its Applications, former general chair of the international conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS), editorial board member of Journal of Data Semantics, and editor of the IOS Press book series Frontiers in AI and Applications. He is also fellow of the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI).
