The course will present a series of face-to-face lectures on the following topics:

• Symbols, Symbol Structures
• Semantics Knowledge Representation & Reasoning
• Rule-based Systems & Chaining
• User Modelling
• Recommender Systems
• Reasoning on the Semantic Web

Students are also expected to perform individual studies of literature on relevant research topics.

To finalize the course you will be working on an assignment in groups of three. Each group will work on a different assignment prepared as a real-world use case from a relevant company or research institute.  The expected results from the assignment consist of a detailed report, implementation and a final presentation.

The course presents selected topics from the book "Introduction to Knowledge Systems", by Mark Stefik, 1995. However, it is advisable to follow the lectures as material in form of handouts and lecture slides will be presented, which is not included in the book. The course will also include several invited lectures by Dutch companies active in the field of knowledge-based systems.