Department of Computer Science
CS 681 Designing Expert Systems
Meeting
time: Thursday 4:30 pm – 7:10 pm
Meeting location: Innovation Hall 326
Instructor: Dr. Gheorghe Tecuci,
Professor of Computer Science
Office
hours: Thursday 7:15 pm – 8:05 pm
Office: The Engineering Building, Learning Agents Center, Room 4613
Phone: 703 993 1722
E-mail: tecuci
at gmu dot edu
Course Description
Prerequisite: CS 580 or permission of instructor
This course presents the theory and
practice of designing and developing systems that rely on expert knowledge and
reasoning to solve complex problems in a specific (scientific, engineering,
medical, military, etc.) domain. Such an expert system or knowledge-based agent
may assist a human expert in complex problem solving and decision-making, may
be used by a non-expert user, or may teach problem solving and decision-making
to a student. Capturing, using, preserving, transferring, and sharing knowledge
is of critical importance to any organization as society evolves from an
information society to a knowledge society. Therefore, the ability to design
and develop such expert agents for a wide variety of domains is a highly
valuable expertise. The course covers both the basics of expert agents and
knowledge engineering as well as advanced research topics, and involves the
students in expert agent research. Basic topics include modeling expert
reasoning, ontology design and development, logic and probabilistic reasoning,
knowledge acquisition and learning, knowledge base verification, validation and
integration. Advanced topics include mixed-initiative reasoning, agent teaching
and multistrategy learning, and collaborative problem
solving.
The students will learn about all
the phases of building an expert agent and will experience them first-hand by
using the Disciple development environment. Disciple has been developed in the Learning Agents Center (http://lac.gmu.edu)
of George Mason University and has been successfully used to build expert
agents for a variety of domains, including: intelligence analysis, military
center of gravity determination, medical diagnosis, website
evaluation, course of action critiquing, emergency response planning, teaching
critical thinking, and PhD advisor selection.
The classes will consist of three
parts: theory, tools and project. In the theoretical part, the instructor will
present and discuss the various phases and methods of building an expert agent.
In the second part the students will experience the use of advanced artificial
intelligence tools for building expert agents. In the project part the students
will design and develop an expert agent in a domain of their choice.
Students will have accounts on
Blackboard and can download the lecture notes by going to courses.gmu.edu and
logging in using their Mason ID and passwords.
Grading Policy
Exam – 50%
Project assignments and class participation (expert system development) – 50%
Readings
Tecuci G., Lecture Notes on Designing Expert Systems, Fall
2011 (required).
Tecuci G., Building Intelligent Agents: An Apprenticeship Multistrategy
Learning Theory, Methodology, Tool and Case Studies, Academic Press, 1998
(recommended).
Additional papers required or
recommended by the instructor.
Lecture Notes on Designing Expert
Systems
Introduction
Methodologies and Tools for the Design and Development of Expert Systems
Modeling Expert Reasoning
Ontology Design and Development
Learning-Oriented Knowledge Representation
Problem Reduction and Solution Synthesis
Mixed-initiative Evidence-based Reasoning
Agent Teaching and Multistrategy Learning
Design Principles for Expert Systems
Frontier Research Problems
Email
Communication
1. Please include CS681 in the subject of any
message you are emailing to Dr. Tecuci.
2. Please try to limit the size of the files you are
emailing.
GMU
Email Accounts
Students must activate their GMU email accounts to
receive important University information, including messages related to this
class.
Office
of Disability Services
If you are a student with a disability and you need
academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability
Services (ODS) at 993-2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged
through the ODS. http://ods.gmu.edu.
Other
Useful Campus Resources
Writing Center: A114 Robinson Hall; (703) 993-1200; http://writingcenter.gmu.edu
University Libraries “Ask a Librarian” http://library.gmu.edu/mudge/IM/IMRef.html
Counseling And Psychological Services (CAPS): (703)
993-2380; http://caps.gmu.edu
University
Policies
The University Catalog, http://catalog.gmu.edu, is the central resource for university policies affecting student,
faculty, and staff conduct in university affairs.
Honor
Code
You
are expected to abide by the GMU honor code. Information on the university
honor code can be found at http://academicintegrity.gmu.edu/honorcode/.
Additional departmental CS information: http://cs.gmu.edu/wiki/pmwiki.php/HonorCode/CSHonorCodePolicies