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In September, ONTOFORCE hosted two editions of our Customer Advisory Board (CAB) & User Group Meeting (UGM). One event in Philadelphia, PA for our US customer base and the other for our EMEA customer base at our headquarters in Ghent, Belgium. Both events were full of informative and interactive sessions covering a range of topics.
It was a pleasure to hear directly from many of our customers as they presented on how DISQOVER, ONTOFORCE’s knowledge discovery platform, is making an impact at their organizations.
Their insights showcased the value of DISQOVER in driving innovation and operational efficiency, particularly in the fast-evolving landscape of life sciences research and pharmaceutical development.
During both events, ONTOFORCE Head of Product, Martin Robbins, presented on the future of DISQOVER, sharing the product roadmap and strategy. Martin also highlighted the various themes that our product teams have been focusing on in order to continue to enhance DISQOVER. Some of these focus areas include: empowering a more diverse user base, leveraging generative AI, and supporting off-platform AI/ML applications.
Usage of DISQOVER outputs for AI/ML applications was a hot topic at both events. In addition to serving as an invaluable knowledge discovery platform for our customers, DISQOVER is also often used to support the use of AI/ML, visual analytics, and other applications through data export, APIs, and a Python Library. For example, DISQOVER can supply clean RDF/TTL data to support graph analytics and machine learning applications. Through off-platform usage, users can make new discoveries and insights, and even integrate these back into DISQOVER’s graph.
ONTOFORCE is always pleased to provide an insightful keynote presentation from an industry or domain expert. We had the pleasure of hearing from two different speakers this year.
Tom Plasterer was our keynote speaker at the US CAB. His current role as Managing Director of Life Science Innovation at XponentL coupled with his previous experience in the pharmaceutical industry make him an expert on all things FAIR data and knowledge graphs for life sciences. In his presentation “Science and technology are not enough: the journey of a data advocate,” he shared his insights on the evolution of knowledge graphs for life sciences. Of particular interest was his vision for a layered approach to knowledge graph development: starting with the foundation of FAIR data, followed by a data marketplace, and culminating in a knowledge graph for advanced analytics. Tom also discussed the convergence of knowledge graphs and large language models (LLMs), highlighting the powerful potential of LLMs to enhance knowledge graph construction and ontology development.
Michel Dumontier was our keynote speaker at the EMEA CAB. Michel is a distinguished professor at Maastricht University and is also one of the co-founders of the FAIR data principles. His presentation explored the crucial connection between AI and FAIR data, focusing on the role of FAIR data in improving AI's accuracy and reliability, especially in drug discovery and personalized medicine. Michel shared more about the concept of "compelling justifications," which leverage LLMs and retrieval augmented generation to provide evidence for AI-generated predictions. He argued that AI models should not merely provide answers but also offer reasoned explanations backed by solid evidence.
Networking and knowledge sharing are foundational elements for ONTOFORCE's CAB events. This years’ meetings were no different. It was great to offer our customers a collaborative environment where professionals from across the life sciences industry and field could come together to exchange insights and best practices. Attendees had the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about how they are utilizing DISQOVER to overcome challenges and leverage data to drive innovation and push the envelope.
During breakout sessions, attendees provided valuable input on the potential future of the new AI-powered DISQOVER Assistant, along with enhancing collaboration within the DISQOVER platform. These interactive discussions allowed participants to share their experiences with collaboration and suggest ideas for the platform’s AI-powered assistant, focusing on how it can better support users in navigating complex data landscapes. The input gathered from these sessions can play a critical role in guiding future development, to help ensure that DISQOVER continues to evolve in ways that maximize value for our user base.
We sincerely thank our customers for their attendance and enthusiasm across both events! We look forward to future events together.
