Dr Martin Dzbor, MBA

About my research

A key aspect of my research is focusing on supporting an ordinary user's perspectives on the emerging Semantic Web technology (SWT). One substantial part of my personal research interest concerns the aspects of interpreting and interacting with ontologies; a research line, novel in the field of ontology engineering, I developed in the context of NeOn project, and previously in the AKT: Advanced Knowledge Technologies, in the KnowledgeWeb project, and generally in my Magpie research and development.

The second substantial item of my research agenda concerns designing robust infrastructures for semantically and socially enriched web applications and tasks (such as semantic web navigation or contextual visualization) that are usable by and accessible to ordinary users. This latter line of research has been particularly strong in my Magpie Semantic Web Browser, but also in the climateprediction.net and BuddySpace Instant Messaging projects.

2006-2010: NeOn: Lifecycle Support for Networked Ontologies
Funder: European Commission, IST Framework 6
Grant: €10.2M (total); €2.3M (OU share)
Role: Bid Co-Author, Co-Investigator, WP Leader, Project Manager

NeOn is co-ordinated by Prof. Motta (OU) and involves 14 European partners. I am the Scientific Leader of NeOn research on human-ontology interaction, ontology visualization and customization. In my role of the Project Manager I am preparing and managing project budgets and technical aspects of the project in general.

2004-2008: KnowledgeWeb, Network of Excellence
Funder: European Commission, IST Framework 6
Grant: €6.7M (total); €375k (OU share)
Role: WP Leader, Team Leader, Software Architect

KnowledgeWeb has been a Network of Excellence, in which I led research and development of WP on semantic architecture and platform supporting learning and research activities; led by Prof. Schreiber (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

2000-2006: AKT: Advanced Knowledge Technologies
Funder: EPSRC, Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration
Grant: £7.5M (total); £1.3M (OU share)
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher, Team Leader, Software Architect

I have been involved in AKT between 2003 and 2006, and the primary output of this effort has been focusing on the Magpie platform of semantically enriched web navigation and browsing; led by Prof. Shadbolt (University of Southampton)

2002-2004: climateprediction.net
Funder: NERC and Dept. of Trade and Industry e-Science Prog.
Grant: £400k (total); £72k (OU share)
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher, Software Architect

Climateprediction.net has been the first UK’s massively distributed project engaging more than 100k members of general public using their PCs to run the state of the art climate model developed in collaboration with Oxford University, UK MetOffice and OU Earth Sciences; led by Dr Allen (Oxford University)

2004-2008: Co-Supervisor of Mr Tom Heath (full time PhD student), The Open University, UK

Thesis: Information Seeking on the Web with Trusted Social Networks;
Thesis Submitted: 01/2008; Thesis Defended: 06/2008

2006-2007: External Supervisor of Ms Mu Su (full time PhD student, Chinese Normal University), The Open University, UK

Thesis: Semantic Web Technologies in Organizational Knowledge Management, Case of Chinese Educational Institutions;
Degree Awarded: 05/2007

2006-2008: Principal Supervisor of Mr Laurian Gridinoc (full time PhD student), The Open University, UK

Thesis: User navigation in semantically rich information spaces;

2007-present: External Supervisor of Mr Jozef Vrana (full time PhD student), University of Technology in Kosice, Slovakia

Thesis: Contextual Visualization of Ontological Models;

2008-present: Principal Supervisor of Mr Claudio Baldassarre (part time PhD student), The Open University, UK

Thesis: Supporting Domain Experts in Ontology Creation and Maintenance;

2000-present: Member of the Association for the Computing Machinery (ACM);

2008-present: Member of the Review Panel, Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, 'Vidi' Cross-divisional Programme);

2007-present: Member of the Review Panel, Joint Information Sciences Committee (JISC, Capital Programme on e-Infrastructures);

2007-present: Member of the Review Panel, Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV, base research, centres of excellence and infrastructure programmes);

2004-present: Member of the Intl. J. of Knowledge and Learning (IJKL);

2006: Chair of the Semantic Web and e-learning (SWeL) workshop at ACM Hypertext 2006;

2005: Chair and Editor of the "User aspects of Semantic Web" (UserSWeb) workshop, at ESWC 2005;

2003-present: Member of the Programme Committee of the Intl. Semantic Web Conferences (ISWC);

2004-present: Member of the Programme Committee of the European Conferences on Knowledge Mgt. (EKAW);

2005-present: Member of the Programme Committee of the European Semantic Web Conferences (ESWC);

2006: Member of the Programme Committee of the Conference on Artificial Intelligence: Methods, Systems and Applications (AIMSA);

2007-present: Member of the Programme Committee of the Asian Semantic Web Conferences (ASWC);

Jan 2008: Keynote to the 34th SofSem, Intl. Conf. on Current Trends in Computer Science:
Best of Both: Using Semantic Web Technologies to Enrich User Interaction with the Web, Slovakia;

Jan 2006: Keynote to the Znalosti 2006, Czech and Slovak Conf. on Knowledge:
Evolution of the idea of the Semantic Web and its implications on practice, Czech Rep.;

Oct 2004: Keynote to the Workshop on Semantic Web technology for mobile and ubiquitous applications (at ISWC 2004):
Semantics & Ubiquity: From semantic and presence applications to an infrastructure for ubiquity, Japan;

Sep 2003: Invited lecture at the Annual Conference of the Society of Archivists:
Semantic Web: To be browsed or what?, United Kingdom;