Elena Botoeva's Academic Page

About Me

I am a Lecturer at the School of Computing, University of Kent.

I previously worked at Imperial College London with Alessio Lomuscio and at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano with Diego Calvanese.

Office: Room 228, Kennedy Building, University of Kent, Canterbury, CT2 7FS

E-mail: e.[lastname]@kent.ac.uk

Research

My current research interests include:

verification of AI systems, including multi-agent closed-loop/reactive systems.
query languages for JSON document databases, nested data, MongoDB
data access and integration with Knowledge Graphs
machine learning for combinatorial optimisation
integration of neural and symbolic AI
explainable AI

Projects

My current funded projects:

BRanchIng Game HeurisTics for Verification of Neural Networks (BRIGHT), Funded by EPSRC. Postdoc: Max Peeperkorn

PhD Students

My current PhD students:

Zahra Dehghanipour, supervised jointly with Alexandros Koliousis.
Arooj Arif, supervised jointly with Alexandros Koliousis.
Mehrdad Rafiepour, supervised jointly with Alexandros Koliousis.

Teaching

The modules I teach/taught at Kent:

2022 - now Semantic technologies and Graph Analytics
2022 - now Fundamentals of Web Development (previously, An Introduction to Programming and Web Technologies)
2021 - 2024 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Community

I have served as:

PC member for KR (2025, 2023, 2022, 2020), AAAI (2024, 2020), AAMAS (2020), ECAI (2020), FoIKS (2026, 2024), ICDT (2019), IJCAI (2019, 2018, 2016), AMW (2017–2019), RR (2016), Description Logics Workshop (2025, 2023, 2015–2020)
Workshop and Tutorials Chair of KR 2024
Publicity Chair of KR 2022

Publications

For my most up to date publications, see my DBLP page.

. . , In , . pdf.. slides.. poster.. view online..

Articles

In Proceedings

Other

@inproceedings{DL-2025-rmlai,
   title = {Accessing Semi-structured Data with RML and LLMs},
   year = {2025},
   author = {Shikhat Karkee and Elena Botoeva and Sam Coombes and Anna Jordanous and Özgür Kafali and Davide Lanti},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 38th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2025)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/kbcjkl-DL-25.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{IJCAI-2024-verification-PANoS,
    author    = {Panagiotis Kouvaros and Elena Botoeva and Cosmo De
                  Bonis{-}Campbell},
    title     = {Formal Verification of Parameterised Neural-symbolic
                  Multi-agent Systems},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the Thirty-Third International Joint
                  Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2024)},
    pages     = {103--110},
    publisher = {ijcai.org},
    year      = {2024},
    url	      = {https://www.ijcai.org/proceedings/2024/12},
    webpdf    = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/kbd-IJCAI-24.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{KR-2023-counterfactuals-model-multiplicity,
    author    = {Francesco Leofante and Elena Botoeva and Vineet
                  Rajani},
    editor    = {Pierre Marquis and Tran Cao Son and Gabriele
                  Kern{-}Isberner},
    title     = {Counterfactual Explanations and Model Multiplicity: a
                  Relational Verification View},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on
                  Principles of Knowledge Representation and
                  Reasoning (KR 2023)},
    pages     = {763--768},
    year      = {2023},
    url	      = {https://doi.org/10.24963/kr.2023/78},
    doi	      = {10.24963/KR.2023/78},
    webpdf    = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/lbr-KR-23.pdf}
}

@article{JAAMAS-2022,
    author    = {Michael E. Akintunde and Elena Botoeva and Panagiotis
                  Kouvaros and Alessio Lomuscio},
    title     = {Formal verification of neural agents in
                  non-deterministic environments},
    journal   = {Auton. Agents Multi Agent Syst.},
    volume    = {36},
    number    = {1},
    pages     = {6},
    year      = {2022},
    url	      = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10458-021-09529-3},
    doi	      = {10.1007/s10458-021-09529-3},
}

@inproceedings{KR-2020-multi-agent,
  author =     {Michael Akintunde and Elena Botoeva and Panagiotis
                  Kouvaros and Alessio Lomuscio},
  booktitle =  {Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on
                  Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
                  (KR 2020)},
  publisher =     {IJCAI Press},
  title =         {Verifying Strategic Abilities of Neural-symbolic
                  Multi-agent Systems},
  year =          {2020},
  pages =         {22--32},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abkl-KR-20.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{AAMAS-2020-nondet,
  author =    {Michael Akintunde and Elena Botoeva and Panagiotis
               Kouvaros and Alessio Lomuscio},
  title     = {Formal Verification of Neural Agents in
               Non-deterministic Environments},
  year      = {2020},
  publisher = {IFAAMAS},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on
               Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (AAMAS 2020)},
  pages     = {25--33},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abkl-AAMAS-20.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{AAAI-2020-dependency-analysis,
  author    = {Elena Botoeva and
               Panagiotis Kouvaros and
               Jan Kronqvist and
               Alessio Lomuscio and
               Ruth Misener},
  title     = {Efficient Verification of ReLU-Based Neural Networks
                  via Dependency Analysis},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the 34th {AAAI} Conference on Artificial
                  Intelligence ({AAAI} 2020)},
  pages     = {3291--3299},
  publisher = {{AAAI} Press},
  year      = {2020},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bkklm-AAAI-20.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{ISWC-2020-ontop,
  author    = {Guohui Xiao and
               Davide Lanti and
               Roman Kontchakov and
               Sarah Komla{-}Ebri and
               Elem G{\"{u}}zel Kalayci and
               Linfang Ding and
               Julien Corman and
               Benjamin Cogrel and
               Diego Calvanese and
               Elena Botoeva},
  title     = {The Virtual Knowledge Graph System Ontop},
  booktitle = {Proc.\ of the 19th International Semantic Web Conference ({ISWC} 2020)},
  series    = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
  volume    = {12507},
  pages     = {259--277},
  publisher = {Springer},
  year      = {2020},
}

@article{AIJ-2019-alc-inseparability,
  author    = {Elena Botoeva and
               Carsten Lutz and
               Vladislav Ryzhikov and
               Frank Wolter and
               Michael Zakharyaschev},
  title     = {Query inseparability for {ALC} ontologies},
  journal   = {Artif. Intell.},
  volume    = {272},
  pages     = {1--51},
  year      = {2019},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/blrwz-AIJ-19.pdf},
}

@article{IA-2019-MongoDB,
  author    = {Elena Botoeva and
               Diego Calvanese and
               Benjamin Cogrel and
               Julien Corman and
               Guohui Xiao},
  title     = {Ontology-based data access - Beyond relational sources},
  journal   = {Intelligenza Artificiale},
  volume    = {13},
  number    = {1},
  pages     = {21--36},
  year      = {2019},
}

@inproceedings{ISWC-2018-optional,
  author    = {Guohui Xiao and
               Roman Kontchakov and
               Benjamin Cogrel and
               Diego Calvanese and
               Elena Botoeva},
  title     = {Efficient Handling of {SPARQL} {OPTIONAL} for {OBDA}},
  booktitle = {Proc. of the 17th International Semantic Web Conference ({ISWC} 2018)},
  series    = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science},
  volume    = {11136},
  pages     = {354--373},
  publisher = {Springer},
  year      = {2018},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/xkccb-ISWC-18.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{ICDT-2018-MongoDB,
  author    = {Elena Botoeva and
               Diego Calvanese and
               Benjamin Cogrel and
               Guohui Xiao},
  title     = {Expressivity and Complexity of MongoDB Queries},
  booktitle = {Proc. of the 21st Int. Conf. on Database Theory, (ICDT 2018)},
  pages     = {9:1--9:23},
  year      = {2018},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bccx-ICDT-18.pdf},
  prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/bccx-ICDT-18-presentation.pdf},
  posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/bccx-ICDT-18-poster.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{AMW-2017-certain-answers,
  author    = {Marcelo Arenas and
               Elena Botoeva and
               Egor V. Kostylev and
               Vladislav Ryzhikov},
  title     = {A Note on Computing Certain Answers to Queries over Incomplete Databases},
  booktitle = {Proc. of the 11th Alberto Mendelzon Int. Workshop on
               Foundations of Data Management and the Web (AMW 2017).},
  year      = {2017},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abkr-AMW-17.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{AMW-2017-MongoDB,
  author    = {Elena Botoeva and
               Diego Calvanese and
               Benjamin Cogrel and
               Guohui Xiao},
  title     = {Formalizing MongoDB Queries},
  booktitle = {Proc. of the 11th Alberto Mendelzon Int. Workshop on
               Foundations of Data Management and the Web (AMW 2017).},
  year      = {2017},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bccx-AMW-17.pdf},
}

@article{AIJ-2016-kb-exchange,
  author = {Marcelo Arenas and Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Vladislav Ryzhikov},
  title = {Knowledge Base Exchange: The Case of OWL 2 QL},
  journal = {Artificial Intelligence},
  volume = {238},
  number = {},
  pages = {11-62},
  year = {2016},
  note = {},
  issn = {004-3702},
  doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2016.05.002},
  url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0004370216300522},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abcr-AIJ-16.pdf},
}

@article{AIJ-2016-games-inseparability,
  author = {Elena Botoeva and Roman Kontchakov and Vladislav Ryzhikov and Frank Wolter and Michael Zakharyaschev},
  title = {Games for Query Inseparability of Description Logic Knowledge Bases},
  journal = {Artificial Intelligence},
  volume = {234},
  number = {},
  pages = {78 - 119},
  year = {2016},
  note = {},
  issn = {0004-3702},
  doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.artint.2016.01.010},
  url = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0004370216300017},
  webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bkrwz-AIJ-16.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{IJCAI-2016-alc-insep,
   title = {Query-Based Entailment and Inseparability for ALC Ontologies},
   year = {2016},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Carsten Lutz and Vladislav Ryzhikov and
	      Frank Wolter and Michael Zakharyaschev},
   publisher = {AAAI Press},
   pages = {1001-1007},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 25th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2016)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/blrwz-IJCAI-16.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/blrwz-IJCAI-16-presentation.pdf},
   posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/blrwz-IJCAI-16-poster.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{DL-2016-alc-insep,
   title = {When is Query Inseparability for ALC Ontologies Decidable?},
   year = {2016},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Carsten Lutz and Vladislav Ryzhikov and
	      Frank Wolter and Michael Zakharyaschev},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 29th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2016)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/blrwz-DL-16.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{DL-2016-mongodb,
   title = {OBDA Beyond Relational DBs: A Study for MongoDB},
   year = {2016},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Benjamin Cogrel and
	      Martin Rezk and Guohui Xiao},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 29th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2016)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bccrx-DL-16.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{DL-2016-obda-beyond-ql,
   title    = {Virtual OBDA over Expressive Ontologies: Rewritings and Approximations},
   year     = {2016},
   author   = {Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Valerio Santarelli and Domenico Fabio Savo and Alessandro Solimando and Guohui Xiao},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 29th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2016)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bcsssx-DL-16.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{AAAI-2016-obda-beyond-ql,
   title    = {Beyond OWL 2 QL in OBDA: Rewritings and Approximations},
   year     = {2016},
   author   = {Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Valerio Santarelli and Domenico Fabio Savo and Alessandro Solimando and Guohui Xiao},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 30th AAAI Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2016)},
   publisher = {AAAI Press},
   pages     = {921-928},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bcsssx-AAAI-16.pdf},
   posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/bcsssx-AAAI-16-poster.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{IJCAI-2015-query-insep,
   title    = {When Are Description Logic Knowledge Bases Indistinguishable?},
   year     = {2015},
   author   = {Elena Botoeva and Roman Kontchakov and Vladislav Ryzhikov and
	      Frank Wolter and Michael Zakharyaschev},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 24th Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2015)},
   publisher = {AAAI Press},
   pages     = {4240-4246},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bkrwz-IJCAI-15.pdf},
   posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/bkrwz-IJCAI-15-poster.pdf}
}

@phdthesis{phdthesis-2014,
   title    = {Description Logic Knowledge Base Exchange},
   school     = {Free University of Bozen-Bolzano},
   year     = 2014,
   month     = {April},
   author   = {Elena Botoeva},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/botoeva-phdthesis.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/botoeva-phd-defense.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{DL-2014-query-insep,
   title = {Query Inseparability By Games},
   year = {2014},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Roman Kontchakov and Vladislav Ryzhikov and
	      Frank Wolter and Michael Zakharyaschev},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 27th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2014)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bkrwz-DL-14.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{KR-2014-query-insep,
   title    = {Query Inseparability for Description Logic Knowledge Bases},
   year     = {2014},
   author   = {Elena Botoeva and Roman Kontchakov and Vladislav Ryzhikov and
	      Frank Wolter and Michael Zakharyaschev},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 14th Int. Conf. on Knowledge Representation and
		  Reasoning (KR 2014)},
   publisher = {AAAI Press},
   pages     = {238-247},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/bkrwz-KR-14.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/bkrwz-KR-14-presentation.pdf},
}

@inproceedings{IJCAI-2013-kb-exchange,
   title = {Exchanging OWL 2 QL Knowledge Bases},
   year = {2013},
   author = {Marcelo Arenas and Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Vladislav
		  Ryzhikov},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 23rd Int. Joint Conf. on Artificial Intelligence
		  (IJCAI 2013)},
   pages     = {703-710},
   note = {Extended version available as CORR technical report at
http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.5810},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abcr-IJCAI-13.pdf},
   posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/abcr-IJCAI-13-poster.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{DL-2013-kb-exchange,
   title = {Computing Solutions in OWL 2 QL Knowledge Base Exchange},
   year = {2013},
   author = {Marcelo Arenas and Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Vladislav
		  Ryzhikov},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 26th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2013)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abcr-DL-13.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/abcr-DL-13-presentation.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{RR-2012-kb-exchange,
  author    = {Elena Botoeva},
  title     = {Description Logic Knowledge Base Exchange},
  booktitle = {Web Reasoning and Rule Systems - 6th International Conference,
	       RR 2012, Vienna, Austria, September 10-12, 2012. Proceedings},
  year      = {2012},
  pages     = {266-271},
  ee        = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-33203-6_30},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/boto-RR-12-presentation.pdf},
   posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/boto-RR-12-poster.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{BNC-2012-circum-dl-lite,
   title = {Circumscribing DL-Lite},
   year = {2012},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese},
   booktitle = {Belief change, Non-monotonic reasoning and Conflict resolution
		  (BNC@ECAI 2012)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/boca-BNC-12.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/boca-BNC-12-presentation.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{KR-2012-kb-exchange,
   title = {Exchanging Description Logic Knowledge Bases},
   year = {2012},
   author = {Marcelo Arenas and Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Vladislav
		  Ryzhikov and Evgeny Sherkhonov},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 13th Int. Conf. on the Principles of Knowledge
		  Representation and Reasoning (KR 2012)},
   pages     = {563-567},
   publisher = {AAAI Press},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abcrs-KR-12.pdf},
   posterpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/abcrs-KR-12-poster.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{DL-2012-kb-exchange,
   title = {Representability in DL-LiteR Knowledge Base Exchange},
   year = {2012},
   author = {Marcelo Arenas and Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Vladislav
		  Ryzhikov and Evgeny Sherkhonov},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 25th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2012)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/abcrs-DL-12.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/abcrs-DL-12-presentation.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{DL-2011-kb-exchange,
   title = {Knowledge Base Exchange},
   year = {2011},
   author = {Marcelo Arenas and Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 24th Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2011)},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/arbc-DL-11.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/arbc-DL-11-presentation.pdf}
}

@inproceedings{AIMSA-2010,
   title = {Expressive Approximations in DL-Lite  Ontologies},
   year = {2010},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Diego Calvanese and Mariano Rodriguez-Muro},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 14th Int. Conf. on Artificial Intelligence:
		  Methodology, Systems, Applications (AIMSA 2010)},
   pages = {21-31},
   volume = {6304},
   publisher = {Springer},
   series = {Lecture Notes in Computer Science}
}

@inproceedings{DL-2010-rewriting,
   title = {Query Rewriting in DL-LiteHNhorn},
   year = {2010},
   author = {Elena Botoeva and Alessandro Artale and Diego Calvanese},
   booktitle = {Proc. of the 23rd Int. Workshop on Description Logics (DL 2010)},
   pages = {267-278},
   volume = {573},
   series = {CEUR Electronic Workshop Proceedings, http://ceur-ws.org/},
   webpdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/papers/boac-DL-10.pdf},
   prespdf = {https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/eb475/presentations/boac-DL-10-presentation.pdf}
}