EUJOINT · European Japanese Ontology Interaction

Uniting together four most prominent research centers acting at the intersection between engineering design, knowledge engineering, and philosophy of technology, EUJOINT will offer to Japanese and European researchers a unique opportunity for scientific exchange and focused cooperation on highly strategic, interdisciplinary projects. The four centres will exchange and integrate their knowledge with the goal of creating general engineering ontologies for technical products, accounting for functionality notions in a systematic, detailed, and cognitively transparent way. This goal is sought by focusing on four distinct yet interdependent objectives: (1) adoption of a common methodology for ontological analysis aiming at unifying core elements of the ontologies independently developed by members; (2) comparison and formalization of the various notions of role, action and agent exploited by members to capture product functionality; (3) clarification and formalization of the notions of artefact, device and product as employed in philosophy and in engineering design; (4) systematic study of the notion of engineering function (functionality), especially as used in engineering design, including the proper characterization of malfunctioning, and exchange of experiences on these and related notions in industry cases. EuJoint is unique since its members are internationally well known in their specialization areas and all embrace an interdisciplinary attitude that promotes interactions and synergies with groups in other disciplines. This shared attitude and the record of previous collaborations/meetings indicate the sincere commitment of each center to the programme and to an effective interaction. The centers are complementary concerning the knowledge needed and the objectives are of crucial importance for future generation product management systems, integrating CAD/CAM and life-cycle management with the early phases of engineering design.