Patrick Koopmann

I am an assistant professor in the Knowledge in AI group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. My research interests are in knowledge representation, automated reasoning annd theoretical computer science, more specifically on description logics and related logical formalisms. I investigate ontology languages, as well as reasoning problems for them, with applications in artificial intelligence in mind.

I studied computer science at the University of Hamburg and did my PhD at The University of Manchester. Afterwards, I worked as postdoctocal researcher at the University of Oxford as well as at the Technical University of Dresden.

Currently, one important research focus of mine is explainability: In particular, how to explain results produced by a description logic reasoner. Why was something derived? Why was something else not derived? How do I have to fix my ontology/my data so that I get the expected result? In order to approach these problems, I am investigating explanation techniques such as proofs, counterinterpretations and abduction, both from the perspective of theoretical computer science (decidability and complexity) and from a practical perspective (how to implement efficient and usable algorithms to produce these explanations). To bring the developed techniques to the user, and actually improve their ontology development experience, I am involved in the development of graphical frontends of these algorithms, which take the form of web applications and plugins for ontology editors.

Other research topics I am interested in are learning of concept descriptions, ontology modularization and forgetting, ontology-mediated query answering, probabilistic and temporal extensions of description logics and query answering, as well as integrations of ontologies into other formalisms such as automated planning or probabilistic model checking.

If you are a master student at the VU Amsterdam and want to write a Bachelor or Master thesis with me, you can find a list of current topics on this page. Don’t be afraid to contact me by email.