Agenda

SteveRay delivered a presentation entitled: NIST's Semantic Approach to Standards and Interoperability during this conference call.

SteveRay talked about the application of formalized ontologies in the development of data standards. Ultimately, by using this approach, official normative standards would be defined formally, such as with first-order logic, with natural language descriptions handled as informative annexes.

About the speaker: Dr. Steve R. Ray is Chief, Manufacturing Systems Integration Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He is responsible for the management of a division of roughly 60 staff and visiting researchers dedicated to the solution of national problems related to measurements and standards supporting systems interoperation in the manufacturing sector. He had previously led a group that addressed integration issues related to manufacturing process planning, exchange and communication standards, integration architectures, and collaborative engineering technologies. He established a new program (TIMA - Technologies for the Integration of Manufacturing Applications) on detail assignment to the NIST Advanced Technology Program, and served for one year as Chairman of the IGES/PDES Organization that coordinated the U.S. participation in the creation of the STEP product data standard (STEP - Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data, ISO 10303). Dr. Ray has twice been awarded the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 1981 from Princeton University, and his Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Bristol, England.

Steve's presentation can be access by pointing your web browsers to: slides

A few additional useful links from his talk include:

• The Process Specification Language (PSL) project page
• The study, Concepts for Automating Systems Integration

Attendees

• Attended:
  • SteveRay
  • PeterYim
  • ZacharyAlexander
  • KurtConrad
  • AdamPease
  • PatCassidy
  • BillMcCarthy
  • BobSmith
  • AdrianWalker

Proceedings

Steve: how do you see a community of practice, such as [ontolog], work with a government agency like NIST, to the benefit of the industry at large? (--PeterYim)

Peter, generally we at NIST work with others on a purely collaborative model, i.e. everyone supports themselves, but we work together. Occasionally we will help subsidize people to work with us (mostly students), but in the current budget climate that is rare for us. So, in this context, we can take on roles such as working the standards committees, or perform tests, develop test suites, in conjuction with partners who may be developing software, or who may be industrial users (manufacturers). Unlike most other government agencies, the NIST laboratories basically are appropriated (almost) enough funds to do work, but not funds to give out as grants, unlike places like NSF. One exception is the NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP), which is a grant-awarding operation. --SteveRay

Audio Recording

Session Recording of the SteveRay Talk

(Thanks to KurtConrad and PeterYim for their help with getting the session recorded. -ppy)