Towards agent-augmented ontologies for educational VDC applications

Existing Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) applications still lack an overall integration scheme for addressing the challenges inherent in knowledge management. Resolving these challenges would greatly increase the benefits accruing from educational initiatives using such applications. This paper discusses the potential for addressing these challenges using Semantic Web technologies. More specifically, it focuses on the feasibility of implementing agent-augmented ontologies. Despite the significant amount of effort that has been invested in building domain ontologies for virtual design and construction applications, leading researchers in this area have acknowledged that much more research and development work is needed. A primary area of need is "the development of appropriate mechanisms and tools for information extraction and document annotation." Such a mechanism would reduce the complexities inherent in developing domainontologies. The main aim of this paper is to discuss how this desired mechanism can be realized through leveraging on the agent paradigm.