AMSTERDAM, October 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, is pleased to announce the winners of the 2014 Semantic Web Challenge (SWC). Selected by a jury of leading experts in the computer science discipline from both academia and industry, winners were announced at the International Semantic Web Conference held in Riva del Garda, Italy, this month. Both the challenge and awards were sponsored by Elsevier.

The SWC contestants competed in either of two challenge categories: 'Open Track' and 'Big Data Track'. Open Track contestants were required to submit applications that utilize the semantics (meaning) of data and applications had to be designed to operate in an open web environment where information sources are under diverse ownership and control. Big Data Track entries needed to address the points of volume, variety, velocity and veracity of data.

The contest took place in two rounds. The first involved providing a demonstration of the application design to the jury. Of these fifteen first round entries, seven selected finalists then presented their work to conference delegates, in the second round.

Of the seven finalists, the following winners were selected:

Open Track:

• 1^st prize: Mining the Web of Linked Data with RapidMiner by Petar Ristoski, Christian Bizer and Heiko Paulheim from University of Mannheim - This application allows data analysts to exploit linked data without the need to be familiar with the details of semantic web technologies.
• 2^nd prize: Enabling Live Exploration on The Graph of Things by Danh Le Phuoc, Hoan Nguyen Mau Quoc, Hung Ngo Quoc, Tuan Tran Nhat and Manfred Hauswirth from the INSIGHT Centre for Data Analytics, National University of Ireland, Galway - This application pulls together real time data from the Internet of Things, visualizing the resulting knowledge graph in a dashboard.
• 3^rd prize: DIVE into the Event-Based Browsing of Linked Historical Media by Victor de Boer, Johan Oomen, Oana Inel, Lora Aroyo, Elco van Staveren, Werner Helmich and Dennis de Beurs from Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, VU University Amsterdam, the Dutch National Library and Frontwise - This entry unlocks radio and television archives, providing innovative access through a well designed and attractive user interface.

Big Data Track:

• Extending Tables with Data from over a Million Websites by Oliver Lehmberg, Dominique Ritze, Petar Ristoski, Kai Eckert, Heiko Paulheim and Christian Bizer from University of Mannheim - This application allows a user to search for and integrate data from a wide variety of tabular formats on an impressive scale.

"Competition throughout the challenge was strong this year. Due to the high quality of submissions, it was not easy to select the winners. We are happy that after more than a decade, the challenge continues to showcase such state of the art in computer science, a trend that is clearly marked by the increasing maturity of challenge submissions," explained SWC Co-Chair Sean Bechhofer, University of Manchester.

"Elsevier is proud to sponsor the annual Semantic Web Challenge, a widely recognized benchmark for applications in this field. Encouraging researchers to showcase diverse applications stimulates research and development in the area of data driven knowledge tools.I am impressed at how many various domains these exiting approaches are serving," said Sweitze Roffel, Senior Publisher Computer Science at Elsevier.

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About the Semantic Web Challenge 

The Semantic Web Challenge has been organized in cooperation with the Semantic Web Science Association since 2003 with the aim to offer participants the chance to submit their best Semantic Web Applications. The overall objective of the challenge is to apply Semantic Web and Linked Data techniques in building online end-user applications that integrate, combine and deduce information needed to assist users in performing tasks. As the potential of the Semantic Web is very broad, the open challenge intentionally does not define any specific task, data set, or application domain. To allow a broad range of applications to compete with each other, all teams are judged using a number of minimal criteria, as well as additional desired criteria. Based on these predefined criteria the winners are selected by an expert jury. The Semantic Web Challenge has attracted over 200 submissions since its inception.

Full details of the competition, judging, as well as all the competing teams, including their papers, demos and presentations can be found on http://challenge.semanticweb.org

About the International Semantic Web Conference series  

The International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) is the premier international forum for the Semantic Web and Linked Data Community. At the conference scientists, industry specialists, and practitioners meet to discuss the future of practical, scalable, user-friendly, and game changing solutions. ISWC is organized annually by the Semantic Web Science Association and typically rotates between America, Europe and Asia.

About Elsevier 

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of information solutions that enhance the performance of science, health, and technology professionals, empowering them to make better decisions, deliver better care, and sometimes make groundbreaking discoveries that advance the boundaries of knowledge and human progress. Elsevier provides web-based, digital solutions - among them ScienceDirect, Scopus, Elsevier Research Intelligence and ClinicalKey - and publishes nearly 2,200 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and over 25,000 book titles, including a number of iconic reference works.

The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media contact
James Palser
Elsevier
+44-1865-843237
J.Palser@elsevier.com

SOURCE Elsevier