Abstract
This paper presents an ontology-based semantic search system called Smartch. This system allows users to search concepts and association relationships based on domain ontology. Compared to current search methods, Smartch provides a kind of user-defined graphical queries and a function of searching the association relationships that exist between two concepts or instances. It makes use of a novel ranking method that implements searching for concepts and association relationships. In this paper, we introduce the methods of ranking designed for Smartch. A case study in the academic domain is given in this paper to illustrate the functionalities of Smartch. This system has been developed and tested on the academic websites using an ontology that models the academic domain. The system can be extended to other domains. All of these capabilities allow the system to provide more intelligent functions than traditional search engines. The performance enables the use of the system in real environment.