ONTOBRAS 2019 – Report from Porto Alegre

Ontobras was held this year in Porto Alegre, from September 2 to 5 and it was a great success. The seminar had 70 participants:  16 from industry, 28 students and 26 academic researchers (lecturers, mainly). Given its highly specialized nature, this can be considered a very good result.

33 papers were received, of which 11 full papers were accepted, plus 6 short papers to be presented as a poster. The Workshop onThesis and Dissertations has received 6 submissions from Ph.D. students and 2 from master students who are developing their thesis with main focus on ontology. Moreover, organizing the seminar has raised the attention of many other Brazilian organizations and researchers that have never participated to Ontobras in the past, thanks to the publicity on Linkedin and social media.  During and after the seminar, several new contacts of interest in the subject have been received. Therefore, the main aims of the seminar were fully achieved:  that of bringing together the community, offering a forum for PostGraduate students and stimulating them to do research in the area, and attracting new players from industry.

The Ontobras organization deeply thanks IAOA for the financial support, which has helped to start the organization earlier than usual and helped to set the subscription fee for students to 200 reals, (44 euros), providing material and food for all of them.  This fee has guaranteed to several non-author students the participation in the conference.

The General Organization

Mara Abel

Joel Luis Carbonera