David Ratcliffe

Contact

CSIRO ICT Centre
CS & IT Building 108, North Road
Australian National University
GPO Box 664,
Canberra ACT 2601, Australia

Email

PhD Research

David commenced a full-time PhD with the Australian National University (ANU) in April 2011 to pursue semantic machine learning / data mining methods for knowledge discovery using description logics (such as those underpinning W3C OWL2). Through a cross-divisional partnership with the CSIRO CMSE Collaborative Crystallisation Centre (C3), outcomes of this research are being applied to the problem of protein crystallisation, a critical step in the X-ray crystallography method of protein structure determination.

For more information on this research, please visit David's PhD research page.

Themes

• Integrated Water Information Systems (IWIS)

Biography

David joined the e-Services Integration (eSI) group at CSIRO in 2004 to develop data and web service composition planning technologies for the Wedgetail (DFDMSA) and Boeing EDKMS projects. David has since focussed on applying semantic technologies to workflow validation, ontology-driven data exchange and ontology engineering, most recently in the area of water data management as part of research undertaken for the Water Information Research and Development Alliance (WIRADA).

David is also the ontology editor for the Crystallisation Data Exchange (XDX) Ontology Consortium, an international multidisciplinary incentive aimed towards facilitating experimental crystallisation data exchange.

Professional Interests

• Machine Learning
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
• Ontology-Driven Data Integration and Exchange
• Ontology-Driven Workflow Composition
• Ontology Engineering
• Information Visualisation

Technical Skills

• Semantic Web Technologies (RDF, RDFS, OWL, SKOS, SPARQL, GRDDL)
• Discrete mathematics (linear algebra, logics and graph theory)
• XML Technologies (XQuery, XSLT, XML Schema)
• Database Systems (Logic, Relational, XML, RDF)
• Logic, Functional and Constraint Programming (PROLOG, Haskell)
• Scientific Programming (Python)
• Web Service Technologies (WSDL, SOAP, OWL-S)
• Web Application Technologies (Axis2, GWT, Grails)
• Object Oriented Programming (Java) and Design (UML)
• Imperative (C) and Scripted Programming Languages

Academic Qualifications

2004	Bachelor of Computer Science (Honours) (1st Class), University of Melbourne

Achievements & Awards

2011-2013	Australian Postgraduate Award (APA)
2010	ICT Centre Director's Challenge for the project: Protein Crystallisation Semantics
2009	ICT Centre Inventors Award
2007	Partnership Excellence Award, CSIRO ICT Centre Conference
2006	Partnership Excellence Award, CSIRO ICT Centre Conference

Summary of Science & Technical Output

Student Supervision

2011-2012	Thomas Everingham, Summer Vacation Scholar. Topic: Web-based query, navigation and visualisation of protein crystallisation experimental data. CSIRO ICT Centre.
2006-2007	David Kent, Summer Vacation Scholar. Topic: Ontology Modularization and Extraction. CSIRO ICT Centre.

Recent Publications

Publication details
D. Ratcliffe, K. Taylor, J. Newman, "Ontology-based machine learning for protein crystallisation", In Proc. Australasian Ontology Workshop 2011 (AOW 2011), Perth, Australia. CRPIT, 132. (to appear)
Y. Shu, M. Compton, G. Squire, D. Ratcliffe, G. Walker, "A Knowledge Model for Bridging Semantic Gaps between Multiple Water Information Sources", MODSIM 2011 International Congress on Modelling and Simulation, Perth, Australia, 2011.
D. Ratcliffe, X. Wu, C. Friedrich, K. Taylor, "A Study of Triple Store Performance for E-Research Data Services", e-Research Australasia, Gold Coast, Australia, 2010.
D. Ratcliffe, G. Squire, M. Kearney, "Semantic validation and correction of scientific workflows", In Proc. International Environmental Modelling and Software Society (iEMSs), 2010.
Y. Shu, D. Ratcliffe, G. Squire, M. Compton, "Making Sense of Spreadsheet Data: A Case of Semantic Water Data Translation", In Proc. Australasian Ontology Workshop 2010 (AOW 2010), Melbourne, Australia. CRPIT (to appear, volume number pending)
Y. Shu, D. Ratcliffe, K. Taylor, J. Wu, R. Ackland, A. Terhorst, "Semantic Water Data Translation: A Knowledge-driven Approach", The 14th International Database Engineering & Applications Symposium (IDEAS 2010), Montreal, QC, Canada, 16-18 August, 2010.
Yu, J., Cox, S., Ratcliffe, D., "Use of standard vocabulary services in validation of water resources data", European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly, Vienna, Austria, 2-7 May 2010.
X. Wu, D. Ratcliffe, M. Cameron, "XML Schema Representation and Reasoning: A Description Logic Method". Proceedings of IEEE Services, 2008.
M. A. Cameron, X. Wu, K. Taylor, D. Ratcliffe, G. Squire, J. Colton, "SIOOS: Semantically-driven Integration of Ocean Observing Systems" in Proc. 8th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2009) Chantilly, VA, USA, Springer LNCS 5823, October 2009.
M. A. Cameron, X. Wu, K. Taylor, D. Ratcliffe, G. Squire, J. Colton, "Semantic Solutions for Integration of Ocean Observations", Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Semantic Sensor Networks (SSN09), Chantilly, VA, USA, CEUR-WS Vol-522, October 2009.
L. Lefort, K. Taylor, D. Ratcliffe, "An Empirical Comparison of Scalable Part-Whole Ontology Engineering Patterns", Expert Systems: The Journal of Knowledge Engineering, Special Issue on Advances in Ontologies. Blackwells, Volume 25, Issue 3, Pages 295-313, 2008
L. Lefort, K. Taylor, D. Ratcliffe, "Towards Scalable Ontology Engineering Patterns: Lessons Learned from an Experiment based on W3C’s Part-Whole Guidelines", Australasian Ontology Workshop (AOW 2006), the 19th Australian Joint Conference on Artificial
I. Naumann, E. Lumb, K. Taylor, R. Power, D. Ratcliffe, M. Kearney, "The Australian Plant Pest Database: A national resource for an expert community", - The Twelfth Australasian World Wide Web Conference (AUSWEB'06)

Number of citations

Links

• CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Collaborative Crystallisation Centre (C³)
• CSIRO ICT Centre, Information Engineering Laboratory, Web Services and Data Integration