Adaptive Semantic Assistants in Online Applications

Description

The rapid growth rate of available textual documents underlines a prominent need for novel approaches to overcome the information overload that knowledge workers are faced with. In such situations, new information filtering and analysis techniques are required to provide end users with information related to their context and task at hand.

In cooperation with the Semantic Software Lab at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada (http://www.semanticsoftware.infoExternal link), we have been developing a new generation of portals that automatically adapt to their users context using novel techniques from the Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Semantic Computing domains. The vision is to extend an existing open source portal such that it can adjust its content according to its users interests and seamlessly provide them with NLP capabilities within their working environment. These NLP capabilities are provided by the Semantic Assistants framework as assistants that collaboratively work with the portal users on analyzing textual content, while the personalization is realized through using the visualization component, developed at the Heinz-Nixdorf Stiftungslehrstuhl of the Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena (FSU). In addition, we intend to enable portal users to have full control over their user profile, meaning that they can view, modify, or delete their interests.

The funding for this project was generously provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).