Conceptual modeling is the process of building models that abstract aspects of the real world with the purpose of promoting communication and a common understanding of a domain of interest. Frequently, conceptual modeling precedes the development of information systems designed to manage information about the domain of interest.
The International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER) series ofers to all members of the conceptual modeling community and its adjacent areas a forum for the advancement of the state-of-the-art in the field, bringing together researchers and practitioners alike. In its 42 nd edition, the conference series returns to Europe for its first in-person edition since 2019. ER 2023 was held at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, Portugal, between November 06-09, 2023.
The Companion Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Conceptual Modeling brings together the works presented in five of the tracks of the conference: ER Forum, the 7 th Symposium on Conceptual Modeling Education (SCME), Project Exhibitions, Posters and Demos, and Doctoral Consortium. Unlike the other proceedings volumes, the tracks here compiled are characterized by their shared goal of providing an open discussion forum on their specific interest areas, where their peer-reviewed submissions are subject to a higher acceptance rate, allowing for and promoting the presence of works in earlier development stages.
We would like to express our gratitude to all the people who made the organization of another successful edition of the ER conference series possible. First, we would like to thank the members of the ER Steering Committee, who entrusted this organization committee with the responsibility of organizing this edition of such a traditional conference. We thank the several members of the program committees of each track of ER 2023, especially those involved in the tracks here compiled. We thank all participants of ER 2023, including both the authors of the hundreds of submissions received, and the attendees who joined us in Lisbon. Finally, we thank all members of the organization committee and the local organization team at the Instituto Superior Técnico for all the work put into making this event possible.
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil University of Cape Town, South Africa KU Leuven, Belgium
ER Forum The ER Forum is a vibrant and interactive platform for presenting and discussing novel and diverse research reports and artifacts on the full range of conceptual modeling topics. It supplements the main ER track with papers and presentations that report on new and promising research results, novel applications, experience reports, proposed research endeavors still in early stages, and updates from earlier work. The focus is on innovation and exciting new ideas and emerging new research topics that have not yet reached full maturity. The main goal of the event is to facilitate the interaction, discussion, and exchange of ideas among presenters and participants.
The 2023 ofering of the ER Forum invited three types of submissions. The first were forum papers (long and short), which present novel and innovative research in conceptual modeling that is not necessarily mature or fully evaluated but includes interesting early results or carries promise for relevant future impact. Forum papers may also present novel applications of conceptual modeling in industrial contexts, or vision statements describing new and innovative research endeavors that are still in the conceptualization, design, or exploratory stage. Furthermore, vision papers have a particular focus on the future of conceptual modeling and/or discuss new challenges and opportunities. Finally, follow-up notes report new experiences about previously published papers in the ER conference or elsewhere.
A total of twenty-six (26) papers were submitted. Six (6) of these papers were initially submitted on the main track and were, taking into account review results, subsequently transferred to the ER Forum on the recommendation of the ER 2023 program committee. The remaining twenty (20) papers were submitted directly to the ER Forum and underwent review by a program committee composed of twenty-one members. All papers were found to be of suficient quality to be included in the ER Forum program in accordance to the ER Forum goals and principles; ifve (5) of them underwent a short shepherding period to ensure reviewer comments were suficiently addressed in an improved version. In total, eighteen (18) full Forum papers, four (4) short forum papers one (1) vision paper, and three (3) follow-up notes were presented. The topics of the submitted work ranged widely from tool and analysis techniques to contributions on specific kinds of models and purposes. The presentations were hence thematically organized into seven (7) sections titled: tools and technology, towards... a challenge, models for purpose, models in business, modeling with goals, on the meta plateau, and analyzing models.
The ER Forum 2023 Chairs would like to extend their sincere gratitude to the authors, reviewers, participants, and ER 2023 Chairs for their invaluable contributions to the success of the event. We hope that it was a rewarding and constructive experience for everyone involved.
Anna Bernasconi Dominik Bork Drazen Brdjanin Karen Davis Hans-Georg Fill Mohamad Gharib Simon Hacks Martin Henkel Ja¯nis Kampars Evangelia Kavakli Elena Kornyshova Raimundas Matulevicius Ben Roelens Mattia Salnitri Markus Stumptner Arnon Sturm Eric-Oluf Svee Yves Wautelet Hans Weigand Manuel Wimmer
Politecnico di Milano, Italy TU Wien, Austria University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina Miami University, USA University of Fribourg, Switzerland University of Tartu, Estonia University of Southern Denmark, Denmark Stockholm University, Sweden Riga Technical University, Latvia University of the Aegean, Greece CNAM, France University of Tartu, Estonia Open Universiteit, Ghent University, Belgium Politecnico di Milano, Italy University of South Australia, Australia Ben-Gurion University, Israel Stockholm University, Sweden Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria The Symposium on Conceptual Modeling Education (SCME) provides a forum for the ER community to discuss the education and teaching of aspects related to conceptual modeling. This includes, among others, methods and tools for developing and communicating conceptual modeling techniques, for transforming conceptual models into efective implementations, as well as case studies of interesting projects on conceptual modeling education. In this 7th edition of the Symposium, we stimulated specific attention to experiences with the pivot to online and hybrid teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which practices of those experiences, if any, were kept afterward.
SCME 2023 was organized in two sessions. The first session sets the stage with a very interesting keynote by Prof. Dr. Monique Snoeck, from the Research Center of Management Informatics at KU Leuven and Université de Namur, on "What does really matter? Lessons learned from +20 years of teaching conceptual modeling". Afterward, a regular session presents four research papers. Each submitted paper was peer-reviewed by at least two and mostly three members of the program committee.
We thank all authors of the submitted papers for their eforts in promoting education in conceptual modeling; all members of the program committee for their thoughtful and contributing reviews and discussions; and the ER 2023 chairs for their help in organizing the Symposium. We hope that SCME 2023 provides an environment for fruitful discussions on how to improve education on conceptual modeling.
Dominik Bork Fabiano Dalpiaz Jordi Cabot Marcela Ruiz Maria Luiza Campos Monique Snoeck Oscar Pastor Sonia Berman Janis Stirna Ernest Teniente Pedro Valderas Yves Wautelet
TU Wien, Austria Utrecht University, The Netherlands Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, Luxembourg Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil KU Leuven, Belgium Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain University of Cape Town, South Africa Stockholm University, Sweden Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain
KU Leuven, Belgium Project Exhibitions The ER 2023 Project Exhibition track provides the opportunity for presenters to disseminate the intermediate results of their projects, and to get feedback for ready-to-start or ongoing projects, or even before submitting a project proposal. Thus, to participants, it ofers a moment to get an updated view of innovative ongoing research and networking with potential research partners.
We have considered innovative projects that tackled relevant conceptual modeling challenges or used conceptual modeling techniques, and intended to address a challenge posed by an organization or a funding entity. We accepted five out of six project exhibitions’ submissions that covered a variety of topics (Quantum Computing, Crisis Management, Context-Aware Data Analytics, AI, and Conceptual Modeling for Data Intensive-Domains, and Process Factories), resulting in a rich program for this track.
We want to thank the the program committee members who provided valuable feedback to the authors, and also the authors for submitting their papers and making this track possible.
Posters and Demos As part of the 42nd International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, the ER 2023 Posters and Demos track is aimed at showcasing emerging research ideas and work-in-progress as well as demonstrating novel methods and tools in any area related to conceptual modeling.
We received 12 submissions. Each submission was reviewed by three members of the program committee. Based on the reviews received, seven papers were accepted for presentation at the conference. The papers cover a range of topics that are both timely and relevant to the field of conceptual modeling. Each paper addresses emerging problems or explores traditional themes in novel ways. The posters and demos accepted for this track help to understand the future research directions in conceptual modeling as well as discuss the practical applications of tools and prototypes.
Themes that emerge from the accepted papers include augmented reality, natural language interfaces, model-driven generation of patterns, ontology-driven conceptual modeling, goal modeling, and modeling resilience.
The Posters and Demos track required the significant eforts of many people. We would like to thank the authors of all submitted papers, program committee members, reviewers, the ER 2023 general chairs, program chairs, and the local organizing committee.
Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal Aston University, UK Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal Ghent University, Belgium University of Delaware, USA Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal University of Twente, The Netherlands Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain University of Twente, The Netherlands University of Cape Verde, Cape Verde KU Leuven, Belgium University of Westminster
Stardekk, Belgium The 42nd International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER’2023) was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 6-9 November 2023. The Ph.D. Symposium of ER’2023 was organized to provide a platform for Ph.D. research scholars in a fairly advanced stage of their Ph.D. program to present their thesis proposals for expert feedback. The call attracted five submissions from Brazil, Czechia, Spain, and Israel. All submissions were reviewed by the three doctoral consortium chairs from three countries. Four out of five proposals were accepted as a result of the review.
Within a workshop format on the first day, the four students discussed their works intensively with each other and their mentors. Based on the feedback, the students presented their work orally during the main conference, allowing a separate interaction with the conference experts for critical feedback and directions. Finally, the students got the opportunity to have a poster about their work present during the entire conference to allow further interaction with the participants.
We thank all students for preparing, submitting, and presenting their PhD projects at ER’2023. Moreover, we are very grateful to the mentors for being available for individual discussions and feedback to the PhD students. Finally, we thank the general chairs of ER’2023 for their great support.
Stockholm University, Sweden University of Skövde, Sweden INESC-ID, IST, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal INESC-ID, Instituto Superior Técnico, Portugal