Schema-based Semantic Matching: Algorithms, a System and a Testing Methodology

Schema/ontology/classification matching is a critical problem in many application domains, such as, schema/ontology/classification integration, data warehouses, e-commerce, web services coordination, Semantic Web, semantic query processing, etc. We think of Match as an operator which takes two graph-like structures and produces a mapping between semantically related nodes. Semantic matching is a novel approach where semantic correspondences are discovered by computing and returning as a result, the semantic information implicitly or explicitly codified in the labels of nodes and arcs. At present, the semantic matching approach is limited to the case of tree-like structures e.g., classifications, taxonomies, etc. The main focus of this PhD thesis, supervised by Prof. Fausto Giunchiglia is the development of the schema-based algorithm for semantic matching of tree-like structures; the development of the semantic matching system implementing the algorithm; and the development of the testing methodology allowing for a comprehensive evaluation of the semantic matching systems.