What The Course Is About
Managing one dataset for one application is comparatively easy. The hard problems start when data has to move between applications, organisations, legal contexts, and technical stacks. Knowledge Graphs studies the Web technologies and architectural choices that make that data findable, interoperable, reusable, and queryable.
The course connects semantic Web foundations with current data-space practice: students work with RDF and Linked Data, learn how to validate and query graphs, and reason about trust, context, and automation in real data-sharing ecosystems.
Editions
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2023-2024
Completed
The first listed edition started on 15 February 2024.
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2024-2025
Completed
The second edition started on 14 February 2025.
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2025-2026
On-going
The current edition started on 13 February 2026 and runs during semester 2.
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2026-2027
Planned
The next micro-credential edition is planned for February-June 2027. Enroll through the Ghent University registration page and select "microcredential" when subscribing.
Course Facts
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3 credits
Workload
90 hours of study time, with 30 hours of lectures and 15 hours of practical sessions.
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English
Teaching Language
The course is taught in English in semester 2 at Ghent University.
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Micro-credential
Open To A Wider Audience
The course is also listed as the Knowledge Graphs micro-credential.
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Lecturers
Course Team
Pieter Colpaert teaches the course with Ben De Meester and Ruben Verborgh as co-lecturers.
Topics
- Open data, shared data, FAIR principles, and the European Interoperability Framework
- RDF, Linked Data serializations, RDFS, OWL, SKOS, and N3 logic
- Linked Data architecture, Linked Data Fragments, event streams, and RDF Stream Processing
- DCAT discovery, SHACL validation, application profiles, and data quality
- SPARQL, federated querying, link traversal, and Web query evaluation algorithms
- Trust on the Web, Solid, data spaces, context, and interoperable data architectures
What Students Learn
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Model And Publish
Model data as RDF graphs, build vocabularies and application profiles, and publish knowledge graphs on the Web.
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Validate And Query
Validate RDF data, write graph queries, and understand how different Web interfaces affect query execution.
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Design Architectures
Assess trade-offs in data architectures for automated adoption, cross-organisation reuse, and trustworthy exchange.
Format And Assessment
Teaching combines lectures, practical sessions, and peer teaching. Assessment combines continuous work with an end-of-term open-book, open-Web exam. Practical work and peer teaching are evaluated during the semester.
The expected starting point is comfort with HTTP messages, command-line or browser-based HTTP requests, CSV, JSON, relational data, and small JavaScript or TypeScript programs.
Official Information
Use the official Ghent University ECTS file for formal programme, assessment, and registration details.
For the edition starting in February 2027, use the micro-credential enrollment page.