computer science

Ora Lassila

Ora Lassila is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ora Lassila rather than just read about it. In short: Ora Lassila is a Finnish computer scientist who lives in the U.S. and works as an Associate Director of Data Engineering and Governance at Accenture. He has been conducting research into the Semantic Web since 1996, and was co-author, with Tim Berners-Lee and James Hendler, of the article "The Semantic Web" which appeared in Scientific American in 2001, now the most cited paper in the Semantic Web area.

Key takeaways

Ora Lassila belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ora Lassila to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ora Lassila from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ora Lassila is a Finnish computer scientist who lives in the U.S. and works as an Associate Director of Data Engineering and Governance at Accenture. He has been conducting research into the Semantic Web since 1996, and was co-author, with Tim Berners-Lee and James Hendler, of the article "The Semantic Web" which appeared in Scientific American in 2001, now the most cited paper in the Semantic Web area. His early work in this area included proposing the original RDF Specification with Ralph R. Swick and he was an elected member of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Advisory Board from 1998 to 2013. He was also a member of the steering committee of the Semantic Web Science Association. In 1996–1997, he was a visiting scientist at MIT Laboratory for Computer Science, working with W3C, and has also held positions at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, as a Research Scientist at the CS Laboratory of Helsinki University of Technology, and a research fellow at the Nokia Research Center in Cambridge, MA, and as a Principal Technologist at Amazon Web Services. His work includes a frame-based Knowledge Representation system (dubbed "SCAM") that he developed (first at HUT and later at CMU) and which flew on board the NASA Deep Space 1 probe that passed the asteroid belt in 1999. The system served as the KR substrate for an on-board planner used in an experiment to have the probe perform its functions autonomously. In 1989, Lassila won the Best of Show at the International Obfuscated C Code Contest.

Bibliography Programming Semantic Web Applications: A Synthesis of Knowledge Representation and Semi-Structured Data, doctoral dissertation, 2007

References

External links The original Resource Description Framework specifications, RDF Model and Syntax (1999 Recommendation) The W3C Advisory Board The Semantic Web Steering Committee Nokia Research Center Archived 2007-03-25 at the Wayback Machine Antics with Semantics: The Innovation Interview with Semantics Pioneer, Ora Lassila

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ora Lassila

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ora Lassila claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ora Lassila before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ora Lassila ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ora Lassila

In research: Ora Lassila appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ora Lassila in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ora Lassila is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Artificial intelligence researchers, European computer specialist stubs, Finnish computer programmers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ora Lassila outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Ora Lassila” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ora Lassila in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ora Lassila means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ora Lassila out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ora Lassila in simple terms?

Why does Ora Lassila matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ora Lassila?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ora Lassila.