23 February - 12 June 2015, M.Sc. distance learning course on "Modal Logics and Description Logics", Manchester, U.K.

For many applications, specific domain knowledge is required. Instead of coding such knowledge into a specific system in a way that it can never be changed (hidden in the overall implementation), different logic-based formalisms for representing different kinds of knowledge have been developed in the last 50 years. In this module, we discuss some of these approaches, namely modal logics and description logics.

Description logics are mainly designed to represent and reason about the terminology of an application domain and form the logical underpinning of the Semantic Web ontology language OWL. Modal logics can be used to represent and reason about the behaviour of systems, for example agent based systems. For both logics, automated reasoning tools have been developed to answer queries about the knowledge representation explicitly. This module provides an introduction to various modal and description logics, how to formalise knowledge and questions about this knowledge in these logics, different approaches to automated reasoning for these logics, and the relationship between these logics and first-order logic.

The module is entirely web-based, so a reliable internet connection is essential. Required Time per Week: 8-10 hours. A detailed module outline, learning outcomes, assessment information is available from the module website at http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/study/professional-development/study-options/. Registration deadline: 20 February 2015.