Jitse's trip report for ESWC 2025

Hi everyone,

My name is Jitse De Smet and I was asked to write a trip report for my first ever conference: ESWC 2025. Since I only just started my PhD, this report will not contain many details on the quality of research presented, instead I will describe my general findings of the conference, covering a reflection on myself, our lab and the broader community.

Me first!

I attended ESWC with both the PhD symposium and a demo accepted. Naturally, I was very nervous even though my colleagues tried to calm my nerves It was to no relief. I thought the PhD symposium would expose me to the experts in the field and I saw them as these divine entities that would judge my work and idea. I could not have been more wrong. Both my mentors, Maribel Acosta and Christophe Debruyne, were very helpful in both guiding the internals of my work and giving me feedback on (academic) mistakes that I made. When presented with these corrections, though a textual feedback report, it felt harsh, but then meeting these people and talking with them, I started understanding that they really meant the best for me. I talked with Christophe quite a bit the day of the PhD symposium and he gave me many useful pointers, not in a judgmental form but in a respectful way with the aim to make me grow. The key takeaways of the PhD symposium day are

• in the words of the amazing PhD symposium chair Pieter Colpaert: "I am the best person to give this presentation."
• People, even professors form other labs really, are not that scary. They show genuine interest and want the best for you.

As for the demo session itself, I did not attract many people, but the people that did speak with me confirmed that the problems I am tackling are relevant (and cool). I think the networking session during and after the poster session was what it was really about.

Lab Second!

Since it was my first conference, I was trailing the various people in our lab. As a result, I think the bond between me and the colleagues that also attended the conference strengthened. We were able to talk about the various presentations and interchange ideas. Personally, this made me very happy because we spend much of our daily life together with colleagues, so talking, swimming, and sharing nice food together was something I definitely enjoyed a lot.

Praise to the community

Of course, while trailing people from the lab, I also talked with various other people. This opportunity to meet the broader community made me realize that a scientific community is very broad, with many people attending looking at knowledge graphs and their potential from various angles, proving their effectiveness to tackle many problems. Through these conversations, I learned how others use knowledge graphs, but was also able to talk and solidify my own research vision (special mention and apologies to Olaf Hartig to whom I ranted about my research for about an hour 😛).

A conference is, of course, not all work. During the week, I managed to make new friends and reconnect with old ones. Making memories for all involved, from urban climbing to karaoke and mid night swims with strangers and a swan 🦢. It is an experience to be repeated.

Wrapping up

New PhD students, fear not! The Semantic Web community is thriving and welcomes new talent with open arms. Semantic Web community, I am eagerly awaiting to see all of you again.

Sincerely, Jitse - Now on his way to attend ISWS - again, a little stressed but full of excitement.