Rigid and Variable Embodiment – Theory and Applications in Formal Ontology
The theory of Rigid and Variable Embodiments aims to account for how an entity has the parts it does at a time and over time. As such, it provides a powerful framework for understanding how an object persists and its identity across transformation. Over the past decade, several applications of the theory have emerged both in philosophy and applied ontology. However, no systematic introduction or comprehensive presentation of these applications has been provided.
This tutorial fills that gap by offering the first structured introduction to Rigid and Variable Embodiment for the FOIS community. Participants will gain a solid understanding of the theory, its formal foundations, and its relevance to applied ontology in general.
Specifically, by combining theoretical insights with practical applications, this tutorial is ideal for FOIS 2025 attendees seeking to deepen their understanding of the theory of rigid and variable embodiment and, more generally, of ontological modelling in a variety of domains — such as parthood, material constitution, persistence, the nature of groups and collective, and occurrences. Therefore, the tutorial will be broadly relevant to scholars in formal ontology, metaphysics and applied ontology.
Speakers:
- Stefano Borgo – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy)
- Salvatore Florio -University of Oslo
- Øystein Linnebo – University of Oslo
- Guendalina Righetti – University of Oslo (contact person)
- Riccardo Baratella – University of Genoa
Methodologies and Tools for Virtual Knowledge Graph Design
This tutorial addresses a significant challenge in complex data-intensive tasks: the coherent integration and access to heterogeneous legacy data sources through Virtual Knowledge Graphs (VKGs). FOIS participants will find the topic particularly attractive as VKGs provide, via declarative mappings and an ontology, a bridge between legacy data sources and real-world data analytics and machine learning applications. As such, they emphasize practical ontology usage beyond traditional semantic tasks. The tutorial is novel because it specifically targets the critical yet under-explored aspect of VKG mapping layer design, a bottleneck currently lacking established methodologies and tooling support.
Participants will explore a structured approach to VKG mapping design through a comprehensive catalog of mapping patterns reflecting best practices. Attendees will also gain hands-on experience with innovative tools, both open-source ones and developed by Ontopic, designed to automate and simplify the creation and refinement of VKG solutions. Key learning outcomes include an in-depth understanding of VKG fundamentals, practical skills in mapping pattern application, experience with state-of-the-art VKG tooling, and enhanced capabilities in addressing real-world data access challenges. This tutorial promises to equip participants with both theoretical insights and practical methodologies essential for advancing their
data-intensive ontology-driven projects.
Speakers:
- Diego Calvanese – Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and Ontopic s.r.l., Bolzano, Italy (contact person)
- Benjamin Cogrel – Ontopic s.r.l., Bolzano, Italy
- Davide Lanti – Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bolzano, Italy
Bridging Perception and Meaning: Ontological Foundations for Cognitive Robotics Systems
This tutorial presents a modular framework for transforming raw visual data into structured knowledge representations, integrating formal ontological principles with computer vision pipelines and large language models. Participants will explore how image schemas and embodied cognition patterns enhance autonomous agents’ reasoning, bridging the gap between statistical visual analysis and symbolic knowledge representation. The hands-on session will demonstrate knowledge graph construction, event segmentation, and participant identification, ensuring ontological consistency while leveraging large language models for commonsense knowledge enrichment. The tutorial is designed for researchers in applied ontology, knowledge extraction, and cognitive robotics, it requires no prerequisites, with computational resources provided as jupyter notebooks or Google Colab.
Speakers:
- Stefano De Giorgis – National Research Council, Italy (contact person)
- Mihai Pomarlan – University of Bremen, Germany
- Nikolaos Tsiogkas – KU Leuven, Belgium