Schema Visualization
PBS Knowledge uses TerminusDB as its knowledge graph database with a rich ontology modeling the academic domain. This page provides visual representations of the data model.
Type Hierarchy
The following diagram shows the inheritance relationships between entity types. Abstract base classes are at the top, with concrete implementations below.
Key Observations
- Person Hierarchy: All people (Faculty, Students, Staff, Postdocs) inherit from the base
Personclass which provides common fields like name, email, and profile image. - Student Types: Undergraduate and Graduate students share common academic fields but have different requirements and workflows.
- Resource Types: Software, Tutorials, and Datasets all inherit from a common
Resourcebase class.
Entity Relationship Diagram
The ERD below shows how entities relate to each other in the knowledge graph. Lines indicate relationships, with cardinality markers showing one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many relationships.
Domain Categories
The schema is organized into the following conceptual domains:
| Category | Entity Types | Description |
|---|---|---|
| People | Person, Faculty, Students, Staff, Postdoc | All individuals in the PBS department |
| Academics | Degree, RequirementGroup, RequirementRule | Degree programs and their requirements |
| Courses | Course, Section, CourseEnrollment | Course catalog and enrollments |
| Research | Lab, Project, Resource | Research labs, projects, and shared resources |
| Publications | Publication, Author, AuthorMapping | Scholarly publications and author attribution |
| Milestones | MilestoneTemplate, MilestoneInstance | Academic progress tracking |
| Thesis | ThesisRequest, ThesisApproval | Honors thesis workflow |
Interactive Visualization
For an interactive visualization of the schema, administrators can access the Schema Viz tool in the admin dashboard:
- Navigate to Admin Dashboard
- Go to System tab
- Select Schema Viz
The interactive tool allows:
- Filtering by category
- Zooming and panning
- Clicking nodes for detailed property information
- Different layout options (force-directed, hierarchical, circular)
Full Ontology Graph
The following diagram shows all entity types and their relationships in a graph layout similar to the interactive Cytoscape visualization available in the admin dashboard.
Graph Legend
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
--> | Inheritance (subclass) |
-.-> | Relationship (property reference) |
(( )) | Entity type (node) |
| Subgraph | Domain category grouping |
Entity Counts
The PBS Knowledge graph currently contains:
| Category | Types | Description |
|---|---|---|
| People | 6 | Person and subtypes (Faculty, Students, Staff, Postdoc) |
| Research | 6 | Labs, Research Centers, Projects, Publications |
| Academics | 6 | Degrees, Requirements, Courses, Sections, Enrollments |
| Resources | 4 | Base Resource and subtypes (Software, Tutorial, Dataset) |
| Planning | 2 | Academic Plans and Planned Courses |
| Milestones | 5 | Milestone tracking and approvals |
| Thesis | 7 | Honors thesis and independent research workflows |
| Admin | 4 | Groups, API Keys, Tasks, Update Jobs |
| Total | 40 | Entity types in the ontology |
Schema Documentation
For detailed documentation of each entity type and its properties, see the Schemas page.