Profile

Research engineer with doctorate in Information Technology, affiliate faculty at George Mason University's Center of Excellence in C4I, Invited Professor at the Brazilian Air Force's Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica (ITA), Brazilian Air Force Officer, and former fighter pilot. Background in C3I, electronic warfare, multi-sensor data fusion, probabilistic reasoning, knowledge engineering, and Semantic Web languages. Experienced in managing projects from conception to completion.

Education

Doctor of Philosophy
George Mason University - 2005
Dissertation topic: Bayesian Semantics for the Semantic Web.

Master of Science
George Mason University - 1999
Thesis topic: The Fighter Aircraft’s Autodefense Management Problem: A Dynamic Decision Network Approach

Bachelor of Science
Brazilian Air Force Academy (Engineering Degree) - 1986

Major Courses and Certificates

Curso de Comando e Estado-Maior (Command and General Staff Course)
Universidade da Força Aérea – ECEMAR– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - 2003

Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence Certificate
George Mason University – Fairfax, VA, USA. 1999

Eficácia do Armamento Aéreo (Weapons Allocation Course)
Universidade da Força Aérea – CIEAr– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - 1995

Curso de Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais (Officer Training School)
Universidade da Força Aérea – EAOAr– Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - 1995

Electronic Warfare Specialist Course
Dundridge College – Totnes, Devon, UK. 1994

Curso Básico de Guerra Eletrônica (Electronic Warfare Officer - Basic)
1o/7o G.Av. – Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. 1994

Curso de Segurança de Vôo (Flight Safety Officer Course)
CENIPA - Brasília, DF, Brazil. 1989

Short Bio

Paulo Cesar G. da Costa was born in Rio de Janeiro and is a Brazilian citizen. He graduated with honors in the Brazilian Air Force Academy in 1986 and started his career as a fighter pilot, having flown nearly 1.800 hours in fighter aircraft such as the Brazilian-Italian made AM-X. During this period, he pursued specialization in the Electronic Warfare field, attending courses in both Brazil and England, acting as Electronic Warfare Officer in the Brazilian Air Force's first AM-X Squadron, and then as an invited lecturer in most of the courses from the BAF's Electronic Warfare Center (CGEGAR).

In 1995, he graduated first place out of 115 students, all in the rank of Captain, in the BAF's EAOAr, a major career course. In 1997, he moved to the USA and started his Master of Science degree in Systems Engineering at George Mason University, where he graduated in 1999 and received the GMU's Academic Excellence Award. He also received the C3I Certificate from GMU in 1999.

Back to Brazil in 2000, he served in the Air Force Chiefs of Staff, where he participated in many projects in the IT field. In 2003, he graduated with honors from the BAF's ECEMAR, another major career course, and returned to the USA, where he earned his PhD degree in Information Technology at George Mason University.

Dr. Paulo Costa currently holds the positions of Assistant Professor to the George Mason University's C4I Center, Invited Professor at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, and Commissioned Officer at the Brazilian Air Force Chiefs of Staff.

Academic Special Recognitions

Curso de Formação de Oficiais (Baccalaureate Degree) – 3rd Place Award
Academia da Força Aérea – Pirassununga, SP, Brazil. 1986

Curso de Aperfeiçoamento de Oficiais (Officer Training Course) – 1st Place Award
Universidade da Força Aérea – EAOAr – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 1995

Academic Excellence in Systems Engineering
George Mason University – Fairfax, VA, USA. 1999

Curso de Comando e Estado-Maior (Command and General Staff) – 3rd Place Award
Universidade da Força Aérea – ECEMAR – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. 2003

Best Student Paper – Modeling and Simulation Track
10th International Command and Control Research Symposium, McLean, VA, USA. 2005.

Research Interests

The major area of my research is on the use of Bayesian probabilistic reasoning as a means to achieve better information technology systems, with a special focus on decision support and multi-source data fusion. As a result, I am interested on the diverse areas of knowledge that contribute to this broad challenge (e.g. Data Mining, Utility theory, Markov processes, Game theory, etc), while also flirting with the different domains in which I believe Bayesian reasoning can make a difference (e.g. BioGenetics, C3I systems, Web applications, etc). At present time, I am working on:

- Representing and reasoning under uncertainty in the Semantic Web.

- Use of probabilistic ontologies on SW problems, such as semantic mapping, principled plausible reasoning to enhance domain knowledge, etc.

- Employing Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks in multi-sensor data fusion architectures for behavioral assessment, command and control systems, and similar applications.

- Application of AI techniques in strategic planning processes.

Major Projects in which I have some degree of participation

PR-OWL

One of the major limitations within the development efforts of the Semantic Web is the lack of a comprehensive, principled formalism for representing and reasoning under uncertainty. That is, current SW research is focused on classical logic and some of its variants, failing to provide a means to deal with the many forms in which knowledge cannot be discharged or ignored (e.g. incomplete, ambiguous, or dissonant evidence).

PR-OWL (Probabilistic OWL) is one of the approaches aimed to solve the above limitation using Bayesian methods for representing and reasoning under uncertain knowledge. The framework of PR-OWL is Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks (MEBN), a First-Order Bayesian Logic that provides the mathematical basis for merging the expressiveness of Classical First-Order Logic with the power and flexibility of Bayesian Probability.

Information on both PR-OWL and MEBN can be found on the PR-OWL website.

UnBBayes-MEBN

UnBBayes is a probabilistic network framework written in Java. It's composed by a inference engine, a GUI editor, an API, and a learning environment. The algorithms used are based on strong junction tree method and measure and search (K2 & B).

Currently I am working with the UnBBayes folks at the University of Brasilia in the development of a GUI and a reasoner for opening, creating, saving, and reasoning with probabilistic ontologies in PR-OWL format. Files saved in UnBBayes-MEBN are backward compatible with "legacy" (non-probabilistic) ontologies so it can be opened in ontology editors such as Protègè or Swoop.

URSW

The focus of the Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web workshop (URSW) is to address the challenge of representing and reasoning with incomplete, uncertain information in the context of Semantic Web development. The workshop is held at the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC).

ISWC is a major international forum for presenting visionary research on all aspects of th Semantic Web. The Uncertainty Reasoning Workshop is an exciting opportunity fo collaboration and cross-fertilization between the uncertainty reasoning community and the Semantic Web community

The first workshop (URSW 2005) was held on the fourth ISWC, in Galway, Ireland. The second workshop (URSW 2006) was held at the fifth ISWC, in Athens, GA, USA. The third workshop (URSW2007) will be held at the sixth ISWC, in Busan, Korea.

URW3-XG Incubator Group

I am working as an invited expert in the W3C's Uncertainty Reasoning for the World Wide Web (URW3) Incubator Group, which is part of the Incubator Activity. The group's mission is to better define the challenge of reasoning with and representing uncertain information available through the World Wide Web and related WWW technologies. More information can be found in the URW3-XG Charter.

Participation in Committees

2005

First Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2005), at the Fourth International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2005):
- Program Committee
- Organizing Committee

2006

Twenty-First National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-06):
- Program Committee

Journal of Artificial Intelligence (JAIR):
- Reviewer

Second Operational Data Link Simposium (SEDOP 2 - Portuguese);
- Organizing Committee

Second Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2006), at the Fifth International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2006):
- Program Committee
- Organizing Committee

2007

Twenty-Second National Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-07):
- Program Committee

Third Operational Data Link Simposium (SEDOP 3 - Portuguese):
- Chair

Third Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2007), at the Sixth International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2007):
- Program Committee
- Organizing Committee

Teaching

CC-270 - Fundamentals of Command and Control (at ITA)

Current MS Students:
- Rommel Carvalho (Co-Advising with Marcelo Ladeira from UnB)
- Luiz Topan

 

Index (Chronological)

• UNBBayes-MEBN: Comments on Implementing a Probabilistic Ontology Tool (2008)
• A First-Order Bayesian Tool for Probabilistic Ontologies (2008)
• Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (eds. 2007)
• A Tool for Plausible Reasoning in the Semantic Web using MEBN (2007)
• Envisioning Uncertainty in Geospatial Information (2007)
• Probabilistic Ontology for Net-Centric Fusion (2007)
• Probabilistic Ontologies: the Next Step for Net-Centric Operations (2007)
• Bayesian Ontologies in Net-Centric Systems (2007)
• PR-OWL: A Framework for Probabilistic Ontologies (2006)
• Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (eds. 2006)
• Probabilistic Ontologies for Efficient Resource Sharing in Semantic Web Services (2006)
• A Proposal for a W3C XG on Uncertainty Reasoning for the WWW (2006)
• Estudo de Métricas para o Cálculo da Eficiência de Emprego para a Força Aérea Brasileira (2006 - Portuguese)
• Bayesian Ontologies in AI Systems (2006)
• Proceedings of the First Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (eds. 2005)
• PR-OWL: A Bayesian Framework for the Semantic Web (2005)
• Bayesian Semantics for the Semantic Web (2005)
• Of Klingons and Starships: Bayesian Logic for the 23rd Century (2005)
• Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks Without Multi-Tears (2005)
• MEBN logic: A Key Enabler for Network Centric Warfare (2005)
• DTB Project: A Behavioral Model for Detecting Insider Threats (2005)
• Metodologia Científica no Planejamento da Atividade Aérea: Uma Proposta (2003 - Portuguese)
• Institucionalizando a Excelência (2003 - Portuguese)
• Otimização na Distribuição de Recursos no COMAER a partir  da Utilização de Ferramentas Estatísticas (2003 - Portuguese)
• A Otimização do Planejamento da Atividade Aérea (2001 - Portuguese)

• A Contribution to Fighter Pilot Decision Modeling (2000)
• Dynamic Decision Making: a Comparison of Approaches (2000)
• The Fighter Aircraft's Autodefense Management Problem: A Dynamic Decision Network Approach (1999)
• A Graph Theoretic Architecture for Dual Control: Decision Making in Multisensor Systems (1999)
• Mensagem Programada de Vôo: Uma Nova Sistemática (1995 - Portuguese)

PhD Dissertation

Costa, Paulo C.G. (2005) Bayesian Semantics for the Semantic Web. Doctoral Dissertation. Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research, George Mason University: Fairfax, VA, USA. p. 312.

MS Thesis

Costa, Paulo C.G. (1999) The Fighter Aircraft's Autodefense Management Problem: A Dynamic Decision Network Approach. Master Thesis. Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research, George Mason University: Fairfax, VA, USA. p. 215.

Edited Work

Bobillo, Fernando; Costa, Paulo C. G.; d'Amato, Claudia; Fanizzi, Nicola; Fung, Francis; Lukasiewicz, Thomas; Martin, Trevor; Nickles, Matthias; Peng, Yun; Pool, Michael; Smrž, Pavel; and Vojtáš, Peter (editors). Proceedings of the Third ISWC Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2007). Busan, Korea. November 12, 2007. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. CEUR-WS.org, in press.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Fung, Francis; Laskey, Kathryn B.; Laskey, Kenneth J.; and Pool, Michael (editors). Proceedings of the Second ISWC Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2006). Athens, GA, USA. November 5, 2006. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. CEUR-WS.org, Vol. 218.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; Laskey, Kenneth J.; and Pool, Michael (editors). Proceedings of the ISWC Workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2005). Galway, Ireland. November 7, 2005. CEUR Workshop Proceedings. CEUR-WS.org, Vol. 173.

Refeered Journals

Costa, Paulo C. G. and Buede, Dennis M. (2000). Dynamic Decision Making: a Comparison of Approaches. Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, vol. 9, no 6, pp. 243-262.

Refeered Conference Papers

Carvalho, Rommel N.; Ladeira, Marcelo; Santos, Laécio L.; Matsumoto, Shou; and Costa, Paulo C. G. (2008) UNBBayes-MEBN: Comments on Implementing a Probabilistic Ontology Tool. Accepted to the IADIS International Conference - Applied Computing 2008, April 10-13, 2008, Algarve, Portugal.

Costa, Paulo C.G.; Ladeira, Marcelo; Carvalho, Rommel N.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; Santos, Laécio L.; and Matsumoto, Shou (2008) A First-Order Bayesian Tool for Probabilistic Ontologies. Accepted to the 21st International Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society Conference (FLAIRS-21). May 15-17, 2008, Coconut Grove, Florida, USA.

Carvalho, Rommel N.; Santos, Laecio L.; Ladeira, Marcelo; and Costa, Paulo C. G. (2007) A Tool for Plausible Reasoning in the Semantic Web using MEBN. Accepted to the Seventh International Conference on Intelligent Systems Design and Applications (ISDA 2007). October 22-24, 2007, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Laskey, Kathryn B.; Wright, Edward J.; and Costa, Paulo C. G. (2007) Envisioning Uncertainty in Geospatial Information. In Proceedings of the Fifth Bayesian Modelling Applications Workshop: Bayesian Models meet Cognition, held at the Twenty Third Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2007). July 19, 2007, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Laskey, Kathryn B.; Costa, Paulo C. G.; Wright, Edward J.; and Laskey, Kenneth J. (2007) Probabilistic Ontology for Net-Centric Fusion. In Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference of the Society of Information Fusion (FUSION 2007). July 9 - 12, 2007, Québec, Canada.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.;Laskey, Kenneth J.; and Wright, Edward J. (2007). Probabilistic Ontologies: the Next Step for Net-Centric Operations. Accepted to the 12th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (12th ICCRTS). June 19-21, 2007, Newport, RI, USA: CCRP publications.

Laskey, Kathryn B.; Costa, Paulo C. G.; and Wright, Edward J. (2007). Bayesian Ontologies in Net-Centric Systems. Presented at the Second annual Quantitative Methods in Defense and National Security Conference (QMDNS 2007). February 7-8, 2007, Fairfax, VA, USA.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; and Laskey, Kathryn B. (2006) PR-OWL: A Framework for Probabilistic Ontologies (ABSTRACT). Proceedings of the International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS 2006). November 9-11, 2006, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; and Laskey, Kenneth J. (2006) Probabilistic Ontologies for Efficient Resource Sharing in Semantic Web Services. Proceedings of the second workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2006), held at the Fifth International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2006). November 5-9, 2006, Athens, GA, USA.

Laskey, Kenneth J.; Costa, Paulo C. G.; and Laskey, Kathryn B. (2006) A Proposal for a W3C XG on Uncertainty Reasoning for the WWW. Proceedings of the second workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2006), to be held at the Fifth International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2006). November 5-9, 2006, Athens, GA, USA.

De Marchi, Mônica M.; Costa, Paulo C. G.; Avellar, José V. G.; and Lessa, Nilton O. (2006) Estudo de Métricas para o Cálculo da Eficiência de Emprego para a Força Aérea Brasileira. Proceedings of the 9th Simpósio de Pesquisa Operacional e Logística da Marinha (SPOLM 2006). August 15-16, 2006, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; and Alghamdi, Ghazi (2006) Bayesian Ontologies in AI Systems. Proceedings of the Fourth Bayesian Modelling Applications Workshop: Bayesian Models meet Cognition, held at the Twenty Second Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI 2006). July 13, 2006, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; and Laskey, Kenneth J. (2005) PR-OWL: A Bayesian Framework for the Semantic Web. Proceedings of the first workshop on Uncertainty Reasoning for the Semantic Web (URSW 2005), held at the Fourth International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2005). November 6-10, 2005, Galway, Ireland.

Laskey, Kathryn B.; and Costa, Paulo .C.G. (2005) Of Klingons and Starships: Bayesian Logic for the 23rd Century, in Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence: Proceedings of the Twenty-first Conference (UAI 2005). AUAI Press: Edinburgh, Scotland.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; Takikawa, Masami; Pool, Michael; Fung, Francis; and Wright, Edward J. (2005). MEBN logic: A Key Enabler for Network Centric Warfare, 10th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (10th ICCRTS). June 13-16, 2005, McLean, Virginia, USA: CCRP publications.

Costa, Paulo C. G.; Laskey, Kathryn B.; Alghamdi, G.; Barbará, Daniel; Shackelford, Thomas; Mirza, Sepideh; and Revankar, Mehul (2005). DTB Project: A Behavioral Model for Detecting Insider Threats. 2005 International Conference on Intelligence Analysis (IA2005). May 2-6, McLean, Virginia, USA.

Costa, Paulo C. G. & Destro, João P.B. (2000). A Contribution to Fighter Pilot Decision Modeling. In Proceedings of the Workshop de Computação - WORKCOMP'2000. C. H. C. Ribeiro and M. T. S. Sakude, Eds.  Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica: October 2000. São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.

Costa, Paulo C. G. & Buede, Dennis M. (1999). A Graph Theoretic Architecture for Dual Control: Decision Making in Multisensor Systems. In Focusing Military Operations Research: from our Heritage to the Future. Proceedings of the 67th Military Operations Research Society Simposium (67th MORSS). US Military Academy, June 22/24, 1999. West Point, NY, USA.

Magazines

Costa, Paulo C. G. (2003). Metodologia Científica no Planejamento da Atividade Aérea: Uma Proposta (Scientific Methodology in Flight Activity Planning: A Proposal). UNIFA Magazine, no. 12, pp. 42-50. Universidade da Força Aérea: December 2003. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.

Costa, Paulo C. G. (2003). Institucionalizando a Excelência (Institutionalizing Excellence). Spectrum Magazine, no. 6, pp. 11-13. Comando-Geral do Ar: January  2003. Brasília, DF, Brazil.

Assumpção, Antônio C. C.; Lima, Tomás G.M.; and Costa, Paulo C. G. (2001). A Otimização do Planejamento da Atividade Aérea (The Optimization of Flight Activity Planning). Spectrum Magazine, no. 3, pp. 15-18. Comando-Geral do Ar: July 2001. Brasília, DF, Brazil.

Other Publications

Costa, Paulo C. G.; and Laskey, Kathryn B. (2005) Multi-Entity Bayesian Networks without Multi-Tears. Draft, Department of Systems Engineering and Operations Research, George Mason University: Fairfax, VA, USA

Polezzi, Alexandre O. D.; Milioni, Armando Z.; Corrêa, Francisco de A.; Avellar, José V. G.; and  Costa, Paulo C. G. (2003). Otimização na Distribuição de Recursos no COMAER a partir  da Utilização de Ferramentas Estatísticas (Optimization of Resource Allocation in COMAER using Statistical Tools). Technical Report 001/2003 – CTA/IEAv-NT, 26 pages. Instituto Tecnológico da Aeronáutica, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil.

Costa, Paulo C. G. (1995.) Mensagem Programada de Vôo: Uma Nova Sistemática (Pre-Flight Message: A New Methodology). Course Monograph – EAOAr, 20 pages. Universidade da Aeronáutica: July 1995. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.