Abstract

Achieving data interoperability across heterogeneous information systems is a critical challenge in many real-world scenarios. Knowledge graphs offer a powerful foundation for addressing this need, yet implementing such solutions is complex due to diverse data models, evolving requirements, and the prevalence of ad-hoc integrations. In this tutorial, we first examine the key challenges and typical requirements for enabling interoperability, illustrated through practical scenarios. We then introduce an approach based on any-to-one mappings to knowledge graphs, supported by a modular toolbox that enables scalable and low-code integration. Specifically, we present the Chimera framework, which provides reusable and configurable components for defining transformation pipelines. Participants will gain hands-on experience by applying this approach to a concrete scenario, configuring and executing Chimera pipelines to achieve interoperability in practice.

Tutorial Outline

This half-day tutorial will follow the indicative schedule outlined hereafter:

  1. Challenges of Data Interoperability (45 min)
  2. Enable Data Interoperability through Semantic Data Pipelines (45 min)
  3. Break
  4. Hands-on Session (1h 30min)

The hands-on session centres on building an interactive mobility dashboard that integrates heterogeneous datasets to generate insights for transportation and tourism stakeholders. Participants will be guided to develop several data pipelines to retrieve, harmonize, and exchange multiple data sources.

Through these data pipelines, participants will feed data into a dashboard application that displays the locations of train and bus stations and enriches them with contextual information such as nearby landmarks and current weather conditions. They will work directly with data sourced from GTFS (General Transit Feed Specification) files for static public transport data, Wikidata queries for points of interest, and a weather API for real-time meteorological information. Participants will follow an end-to-end workflow to retrieve and harmonize these diverse datasets using the Chimera framework. They will build data pipelines to access raw data, transform and harmonise it into RDF based on a conceptual model using declarative mapping languages, and ensure semantic consistency and interoperability across sources. Finally, participants will convert the RDF output into the data formats supported by the dashboard (GeoJSON, JSON) and visualise the results within the interactive dashboard.

Speakers

Marco Grassi

Knowledge Technologies Researcher, Cefriel
Marco Grassi focuses on semantic technologies and data interoperability. He is the lead developer of the Chimera framework and the main author of the Chimera tutorial available on GitHub.

Mario Scrocca

Senior Knowledge Technologies Researcher, Cefriel
Mario Scrocca’s research focuses on knowledge representation, data management, and interoperability, with applications in the mobility and industrial domains. He is one of the maintainers of the Chimera framework and has co-organized tutorials on Knowledge Graph Construction, including at ESWC 2022.

Alessio Carenini

Senior Researcher, Technical Leader, and Senior Software Architect, Cefriel
Alessio Carenini has over 18 years of experience in European research projects. His work focuses on applying Semantic Web technologies to knowledge management in data sharing ecosystems, with interests in metadata modeling, data spaces, and business process management.

Irene Celino

Research Line Manager, Cefriel
Irene Celino coordinates research activities at Cefriel and has over 20 years of experience in cooperative research projects. Her interests include Knowledge Graphs, semantic interoperability, human-in-the-loop and hybrid AI, and human-centric evaluation of AI.

References and Further Reading

Chimera repository: https://github.com/cefriel/chimera

Chimera tutorial repository: https://github.com/cefriel/chimera-tutorial

Grassi, M., Scrocca, M., Carenini, A., Comerio, M., Celino, I.
Composable semantic data transformation pipelines with Chimera.
In: Proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Knowledge Graph Construction
co-located with the 20th Extended Semantic Web Conference.
CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 3471. CEUR, Hersonissos, Greece (May 2023).
PDF
ISSN: 1613-0073

Scrocca, M., Carenini, A., Grassi, M., Comerio, M., Celino, I.
Not everybody speaks RDF: Knowledge conversion between different data representations.
In: Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Knowledge Graph Construction.
CEUR Workshop Proceedings, vol. 3718. CEUR, Hersonissos, Greece (May 2024).
PDF
ISSN: 1613-0073

Scrocca, M., Comerio, M., Carenini, A., Celino, I.
Turning transport data to comply with EU standards while enabling a multimodal transport knowledge graph.
In: Proceedings of the 19th International Semantic Web Conference.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 12507, pp. 411–429. Springer (2020).
DOI

Slides and Tutorial Materials

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