Representing a computer science research organization on the ACM computing classification system
Boris Mirkin, Susana Nascimento, Luı́s Moniz Pereira · BIROn (Birkbeck, University of London) · 2008
We propose a method, Cluster-Lift, for parsimoniously mapping clusters of ontology classes of lower levels onto a subset of high level classes in such a way that the latter can be considered as a generalized description of the former. Specifically, we consider the problem of visualization of activities of a Computer Science Research organization on the ACM Computing Subjects Classification (ACMC), which is a three level taxonomy. It is possible to specify the set of ACMC subjects that are investigated by the organization’s teams and individual members and map them to the ACMC hierarchy. This visualization, however, usually appears overly detailed, confusing, and difficult to interpret. This is why we propose a two-stage Cluster-Lift procedure. On the first stage, the subjects are clustered according to their similarity defined in such a way that the greater the number of researchers working on a pair of subjects, the greater the similarity between the pair. On the second stage, each subject cluster is mapped onto ACMC and lifted within the taxonomy. The lifting involves a formalization of the concept of “head subject”, as well as its “gaps” and “offshoots” and is to be done in a parsimonious way by minimizing a weighted sum of the numbers of head subjects, gaps and offshoots. The Cluster-Lift results are easy to see and interpret. A real-world example of the working of our approach is provided.