Learning outcomes

The goal of the course is to learn to recognise and analyse human concepts and theories on them, and to produce human concepts and concept systems used in the design of information systems, to construct conceptual models and conceptual schemes by applying different ontologies and principles and to transform them into a restricted technical form. The properties of conceptual models based on different ontologies are compared and evaluated in the course, and the good and bad sides of modern technical description methods are evaluated.

Contents

Human knowledge as the basis of design. Intensional and extensional modelling. Theory, techniques and methodologies of the conceptual modelling of domain, knowledge on a domain and the data processing of a domain. Complex abstraction patterns. The concept of concept, conceptual operations, conceptual modelling. Ontologies, conceptual systems and concept schemas. The languages and instruments of modelling. Representing knowledge using concept languages, construction and joint use of knowledge. Basics of the definition of concept languages. Development trends.

Teaching methods

Teaching method	Contact	Online
Lectures	52 h	0 h
Exercises	24 h	0 h

Teaching language

Finnish

Evaluation

Numeric 1-5.

Recommended year of study

Or later, in advanced studies.

Study materials

Additional reading:

1. Margolis, E., Laurence, S., (Eds.) Concepts - Core readings. MIT Press, 1999;
2. Chen, P.P., Akoka, J., Kangassalo, H., Thalheim, B., (Eds.) Conceptual Modeling: Current Issues and Future Directions. Springer-Verlag, 1999.

Selected articles and handouts and selected parts of each book.

1. Guarino, N., (ed.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems. IOS Press 1998;
2. Wrobel, S., Concept Formation and Knowledge Revision. Kluwer 1994;
3. Boman, Bubenko, Johannesson, Wangler, Conceptual Modelling. Prentice Hall 1997.

Belongs to following study modules