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Ladjel Bellatreche, National Engineering School for Mechanics and Aerotechnics, France
Reflections on the Impact of Generative AI (GenAI) on Web Information Systems Research and Education
Luís Ferreira Pires, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Twente, Netherlands
Evaluating Semantic Resources in the Age of Generative AI
Marta Sabou, Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), Austria
Short Bio
Ladjel Bellatreche is an Exceptional Class Full Professor at the National Engineering School for Mechanics and Aerotechnics (ISAE-ENSMA) in Poitiers, France, since 2010. He previously served as an Assistant and Associate Professor at Poitiers University and is currently a Part-time Professor at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), China. He has held various visiting positions at international institutions in Australia, Canada, the USA, and China.
Professor Bellatreche’s research covers data science, artificial intelligence, knowledge graphs, query-answering systems, recommender systems, and large language models, with a strong emphasis on query performance and energy efficiency. He has authored over 360 publications in leading international conferences and journals. He has led research teams and played major roles in international conferences such as ADBIS, CoopIS, ER, DaWaK, and IEEE Big Data. He serves as Associate Editor for Data and Knowledge Engineering (Elsevier) and Knowledge and Information Systems Journal (Springer), and is a member of the steering committees of several international conferences, including ER, ADBIS, DOLAP, MEDES, and BDA. He is also active on editorial boards and program committees, and has (co)-supervised 37 PhD students. His work spans multiple application domains, including aeronautics, urban computing, medicine, the film industry, and sustainable development
Short Bio
Luís Ferreira Pires was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1961. He obtained his B.Sc. degree in Electronics from the 'Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica' (São José dos Campos, Brazil) in 1983 and his M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the 'Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo' (São Paulo, Brazil), in the Computer Networks specialisation, in 1989. He obtained his PhD degree from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands, in September 1994. Since 1988, he has been working at the University of Twente (Enschede, the Netherlands), initially as a research fellow of the Faculty of Computer Science, from 1992 to 1994 as Assistant Professor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, and since 1994 as Associate Professor of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science. He is a member of the Semantics, Cybersecurity and Services (SCS) group, and currently acts as Director of the Business & IT Engineering Doctorate (EngD) Programme of the University of Twente. He has co-authored more than 200 publications in international venues, on topics related to design methodologies for distributed systems, architecture of distributed systems, modelling and specification techniques, middleware platforms and web-based applications, and he has been co-chair of the MODELSWARD conference since its conception in 2013. He is responsible for the 'Service-Oriented Architecture with Web services' and 'Model-Driven Engineering’ Master courses.
Abstract
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming the ways in which knowledge is created, communicated, and applied, with strong implications for research and education. Especially in the research area of Web Information Systems, which is covered by the WEBIST conference, we have noticed an increasing interest in GenAI and its application. Therefore, in this keynote, I will reflect on the impact of GenAI on Web Information Systems research and education. I will first introduce the Web Information Systems research area and discuss its historical development in order to properly define the context in which GenAI is being introduced. This research area has basically grown from Computer Networks and the TCP/IP Protocol Stack on the one hand, and the business applications of Information Systems on the other hand, and has been influenced by ‘disrupting’ technologies, like, e.g., cloud computing (virtualisation), IoT, and microservices, since its conception. I will then introduce GenAI and reflect on how it is already changing the way research is being performed in this area, mainly caused by generative coding assistants (co-pilots), and Agentic AI, powered by Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Since most researchers also have teaching duties, I will also reflect on how GenAI is affecting our education activities, based on my personal experience and observations. As a disclaimer, this keynote does not aim to give definitive answers in terms of concrete ‘do’s and don’ts’, but rather stir a lively discussion on this topic.
Short Bio
Prof. Dr. Marta Sabou is a professor for Information Systems and Business Engineering at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU) and the Head of Institute for Data, Process and Knowledge Management (DPKM). She holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, for which she won the IEEE Intelligent System’s Ten to Watch Award in 2006. During her career, she performed Artificial Intelligence (AI) research at the Open University UK, MODUL University Vienna, Siemens and the Vienna University of Technology. Prof. Sabou leads the Semantic Systems research group, which performs foundational and applied research on topics ranging from knowledge engineering (knowledge graphs and their evaluation, data integration) to the development of novel intelligent systems that combine both symbolic and sub-symbolic AI techniques, i.e., neuro-symbolic systems. Increasingly, the group addresses topics in the area of Digital Humanism such as the auditing of AI systems and the involvement of human stakeholders in the design of intelligent systems. As an active member of the Austrian AI community, she fulfills several high visibility roles such as being a board member of the Austrian Society for AI, a board member of WU’s competence center of Applied AI and Scientific Computing and a Key Researcher in the BILAI project, which is Austria’s largest basic science AI research project. Furthermore, she currently co-leads the Doctoral College for Digital Humanism and is an advisory board member of the Association for Digital Humanism.
Abstract
Ensuring the quality of semantic resources such as ontologies and knowledge graphs remains a central challenge in knowledge engineering, particularly as knowledge-driven systems are increasingly deployed in high-stakes domains. Errors, inconsistencies, and embedded biases in these resources can propagate through downstream applications, leading to significant technical, social, and ethical consequences. Historically, the field has navigated a challenging trade-off between automatic evaluation approaches, which offer high scalability, and human-centric methods, which are necessary for capturing errors that require deep contextual understanding. This keynote explores how the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) provides a transformative solution to this dilemma by supporting and scaling human-centric evaluations. We will exam the evolving landscape of GenAI supported evaluation methods, with a specific emphasis on the complexity of knowledge these systems are capable of assessing. Furthermore, we will present frameworks for the optimal combination of GenAI and human contributors, highlighting how this synergy can enhance the scalability of semantic quality assurance in next-generation knowledge-driven systems.