Experiencing OptiqueVQS: A Multi-paradigm and Ontology-based Visual Query System for End Users

This is author's post-print version, published version available on http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10209-015-0404-5Data access in an enterprise setting is a determining factor for value creation processes, such as sense-making, decision-making, and intelligence analysis. Particularly, in an enterprise setting, intuitive data access tools that directly engage domain experts with data could substantially increase competitiveness and profitability. In this respect, the use of ontologies as a natural communication medium between end users and computers has emerged as a prominent approach. To this end, this article introduces a novel ontology-based visual query system, named OptiqueVQS, for end users. OptiqueVQS is built on a powerful and scalable data access platform and has a user-centric design supported by a widget-based flexible and extensible architecture allowing multiple coordinated representation and interaction paradigms to be employed. The results of a usability experiment performed with non-expert users suggest that OptiqueVQS provides a decent level of expressivity and high usability and hence is quite promising

E-maintenance platform design for public infrastructure maintenance based on IFC ontology and Semantic Web services

As an important kind of infrastructure, a tunnel's life is estimated to be 100 years or more. During its service life, an effective maintenance strategy plays an essential role in keeping its availability and safety. Maintenance work involves a set of participants, activities, and resources, and in this case, tunnel-related data are distributed to heterogeneous information management systems in varying formats, bringing difficulties to implement effective maintenance. This paper proposes an E-maintenance Framework for Public Infrastructure (EFPI), combining Building Information Modeling (BIM), Industry Foundation Classes (IFC), and Semantic Web technologies to help integrate heterogeneous data and expert knowledge, enable information sharing through the whole life cycle, and support maintenance managers to make effective maintenance decisions. A cost estimation case is provided in this paper to illustrate the implementation mechanism and validate the proposed approach