Large Language Models for the Creation and Use of Semantic Ontologies in Buildings: Requirements and Challenges

Mulayim, Ozan Baris; Paul, Lazlo; Pritoni, Marco; Prakash, Anand Krishnan; Sudarshan, Malavikha; Fierro, Gabe

doi:10.1145/3671127.3698792

Large Language Models for the Creation and Use of Semantic Ontologies in Buildings: Requirements and Challenges

Conference · Tue Oct 29 04:00:00 EDT 2024 · Proceedings of the 11th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3671127.3698792· OSTI ID:2552949

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[5]

Carnegie Mellon University / Lawrence Berkeley National, Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Lawrence Berkeley National, Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, United States
Lawrence Berkeley National, Laboratory / Carnegie Mellon University, Berkeley, CA, United States
Lawrence Berkeley National, Laboratory / University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States

Semantic ontologies offer a formalized, machine-readable framework for representing knowledge, enabling the structured description of complex systems. In the building domain, the adoption of ontologies like the Brick schema has transformed how buildings and their systems are modeled by providing a standardized, interoperable language. However, the complexity and the steep learning curve involved in developing and querying semantic models present substantial challenges, often requiring a workforce with specialized expertise. This paper builds on our experience in investigating how Large Language Models (LLMs) can help address these challenges, focusing on their role in constructing and querying of semantic models, particularly using the Brick Schema. Our study outlines the requirements and metrics for evaluating the scalability and effectiveness of LLM-based tools, while also discussing the current challenges and limitations in developing such tools. Ultimately, this paper aims to orient research efforts as various groups experiment with diverse techniques, while enabling more effective comparison of emerging solutions and fostering collaboration across the field.

View Conference

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Energy Efficiency Office. Building Technologies Office (EE-5B)

DOE Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 2552949

Conference Information:: Journal Name: Proceedings of the 11th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (20)

A survey of RDF stores & SPARQL engines for querying knowledge graphs Ali, Waqas; Saleem, Muhammad; Yao, Bin The VLDB Journal, Vol. 31, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00778-021-00711-3	journal	November 2021
Advancing smart building readiness: Automated metadata extraction using neural language processing methods Waterworth, David; Sethuvenkatraman, Subbu; Sheng, Quan Z. Advances in Applied Energy, Vol. 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adapen.2021.100041	journal	August 2021
Unified architecture for data-driven metadata tagging of building automation systems Mishra, Sakshi; Glaws, Andrew; Cutler, Dylan Automation in Construction, Vol. 120 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103411	journal	December 2020
A novel data-driven relationship inference approach for automatic data tagging in building heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems Wan, Shanshan; Zhao, Mengnan; Chen, Yimin Building and Environment, Vol. 246 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2023.110968	journal	December 2023
SGPT: A Generative Approach for SPARQL Query Generation From Natural Language Questions Rony, Md Rashad Al Hasan; Kumar, Uttam; Teucher, Roman IEEE Access, Vol. 10 https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3188714	journal	January 2022
SP^2Bench: A SPARQL Performance Benchmark Schmidt, Michael; Hornung, Thomas; Lausen, Georg 2009 IEEE 25th International Conference on Data Engineering https://doi.org/10.1109/ICDE.2009.28	conference	March 2009
Experiments with text-to-SPARQL based on ChatGPT Avila, Caio Viktor S.; Vidal, Vânia M. P.; Franco, Wellington 2024 IEEE 18th International Conference on Semantic Computing (ICSC) https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSC59802.2024.00050	conference	February 2024
An evaluation of approaches to federated query processing over linked data Haase, Peter; Mathäß, Tobias; Ziller, Michael Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Semantic Systems https://doi.org/10.1145/1839707.1839713	conference	September 2010
The Building Adapter: Towards Quickly Applying Building Analytics at Scale Hong, Dezhi; Wang, Hongning; Ortiz, Jorge Proceedings of the 2nd ACM International Conference on Embedded Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments - BuildSys '15 https://doi.org/10.1145/2821650.2821657	conference	January 2015
Automated Metadata Construction to Support Portable Building Applications Bhattacharya, Arka A.; Hong, Dezhi; Culler, David Proceedings of the 2nd ACM International Conference on Embedded Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments - BuildSys '15 https://doi.org/10.1145/2821650.2821667	conference	January 2015
Short Paper Pritoni, Marco; Bhattacharya, Arka A.; Culler, David Proceedings of the 2nd ACM International Conference on Embedded Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments https://doi.org/10.1145/2821650.2821677	conference	November 2015
Brick: Towards a Unified Metadata Schema For Buildings Balaji, Bharathan; Agarwal, Yuvraj; Berges, Mario Proceedings of the 3rd ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments - BuildSys '16 https://doi.org/10.1145/2993422.2993577	conference	January 2016
Scrabble: converting unstructured metadata into brick for many buildings Koh, Jason; Sengupta, Dhiman; McAuley, Julian BuildSys '17: The 4th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments, Proceedings of the 4th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Built Environments https://doi.org/10.1145/3137133.3141448	conference	November 2017
Plaster: an integration, benchmark, and development framework for metadata normalization methods Koh, Jason; Hong, Dezhi; Gupta, Rajesh BuildSys '18: The 5th ACM International Conference on Systems for Built Environments, Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Systems for Built Environments https://doi.org/10.1145/3276774.3276794	conference	November 2018
Mortar Fierro, Gabe; Pritoni, Marco; Abdelbaky, Moustafa ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks, Vol. 16, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1145/3366375	journal	February 2020
Query relaxation for portable brick-based applications Bennani, Imane Lahmam; Prakash, Anand Krishnan; Zafiris, Marina Proceedings of the 8th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation https://doi.org/10.1145/3486611.3486671	conference	November 2021
Application-driven creation of building metadata models with semantic sufficiency Fierro, Gabe; Saha, Avijit; Shapinsky, Tobias Proceedings of the 9th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation https://doi.org/10.1145/3563357.3564083	conference	November 2022
What's The Point: AutoEncoding Building Point Names Almashor, Mahathir; Rana, Mashud; McCulloch, John Proceedings of the 10th ACM International Conference on Systems for Energy-Efficient Buildings, Cities, and Transportation https://doi.org/10.1145/3600100.3623748	conference	November 2023
Metadata Schemas and Ontologies for Building Energy Applications: A Critical Review and Use Case Analysis Pritoni, Marco; Paine, Drew; Fierro, Gabriel Energies, Vol. 14, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.3390/en14072024	journal	April 2021
LLMs4OL 2024 Datasets: Toward Ontology Learning with Large Language Models Babaei Giglou, Hamed; D’Souza, Jennifer; Sadruddin, Sameer Open Conference Proceedings, Vol. 4 https://doi.org/10.52825/ocp.v4i.2480	journal	October 2024

Similar Records

Extraction and Analysis of Time Series Data from Building Automation Systems Using Large Language Models

Conference · Sat May 31 20:00:00 EDT 2025 · OSTI ID:2572118

VizBrick: A GUI-based Interactive Tool for Authoring Semantic Metadata for Building Datasets

Conference · Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · OSTI ID:1997805

Visual Brick model authoring tool for building metadata standardization

Journal Article · Fri Oct 20 20:00:00 EDT 2023 · Automation in Construction · OSTI ID:2378109

Large Language Models for the Creation and Use of Semantic Ontologies in Buildings: Requirements and Challenges

Citation Formats

References (20)

Similar Records

Related Subjects