COMP 4200 - Expert Systems
Group Project Report
The report should represent a mixture between a research report and a project delivery document. Write the title of the project, your group number, and your group member names on the first page of the report. An optional abstract can be added. A project report normally has around 4-8 pages but due to the nature and timing of your projects, 2-3 pages are sufficient.
Not everything mentioned here and in the class notes might be suitable for your XPS development and report. You may adapt this outline towards your specific XPS but do this thoughtful and stay with the basic structure and outline.
1 Introduction
Describe the general background and problem which gave rise for the development of this Expert System. This section should catch the interest of a client or potential buyer of the system. Don’t be too colloquial or casual in style and don’t go overboard trying to “sell” your system. Be neutral and have in mind, who your prospective clients are.
2 Task and Purpose of the Expert System
This section can be seen as a continuation or extension of the introduction but now describes the XPS more accurately, concrete, and realistic, in terms of what the purpose of the XPS is, its functionality, and the environment in which it can be used. Write in an objective, scientific style here – similar to a description in a textbook.
3 Knowledge Sources & Knowledge Acquisition
Describe here books, internet sources, personal communication, encounters with experts (observation, interviews etc.) - everything you used to acquire domain knowledge for your Expert System. Comment also on these knowledge sources, i.e. which have been relevant sources, which have been marginal, and whether there were any problems with any of these sources.
Cite and reference any written documents, web-pages, experts etc. properly!!!
4 Knowledge Design & Engineering
Describe the conceptual domain knowledge, i.e. describe the central concepts of the domain, and explain if necessary. Outline the architecture of the system and how the reasoning process works. You do not need to go too much into programming details here but use a more abstract, conceptual model.
For the development of your XPS: When using written material, go through the text to find central concepts used in the domain; when talking to an expert try to find out the terminology s/he is using. Try to distinguish irrelevant from relevant concepts and provide descriptions of domain concepts with an outlook towards the problem to be solved and the reasoning processes to be designed.
When you are clear about the concepts and terminology used in the domain and central to the problem, start to model the required expertise. This is closely related to the purpose of the XPS: if you design a control system, model the control conditions and rules; if you design a diagnostic system, be clear about the possible diagnoses, available factual knowledge and become clear about intermediate concepts and rules providing connections from facts to intermediate hypotheses and final diagnoses. Organize the concepts into a classification hierarchy or other suitable representation, like a causal model or control flow model etc. This organization of the domain knowledge is your conceptual model. Describe this conceptual model in your report.
5 User Interface
Address the following questions: What is the interaction between the user and the XPS? What information has to be entered into the system at the beginning of and during a session? What will the user get as result of the system operation?
If necessary, provide a written documentation (online, as part of the system) or a “User Manual” which helps the user to understand the system’s concepts and interface and how to use it.
6 Implementation
Mention which programming languages and tools you have used for the development and which are necessary to run the system. Describe in the essence in which way your conceptual model is implemented in CLIPS. Mention any “specialties” you used in implementing the system, like integration of visual structures, database connection, other add-on, or language constructs which have not been introduced in class.
Cite books etc. for this part also in the list of references.
7 Test, Evaluation & Recommendations
Does the system fulfill the requirements (as described in section 2)?
Technical check: What kinds of tests have been undertaken? Which cases of system behavior have been checked?
Expert check: Is the Expert satisfied? Does the system yield same or similar results as an expert for new cases (which have not been part of the knowledge engineering phase)?
User check: What was the users’ feedback? Do they want / request any changes?
Are any changes/modifications required? Describe modifications, improvements which could be part of further versions of the XPS (based on the evaluations by users and experts) but are not necessarily required.
8 Project Development Process
In this section you can mention any issue related to the procedure of designing and implementing the system, e.g. whether you went through iterative evaluation and re-design phases based on expert and/or user feedback. You also should mention system design changes (compared to the requirements description from the proposal) and why they were undertaken.
If not already mentioned in section 3, you can comment here on constraints or drawbacks e.g. in the knowledge acquisition phase, like the unavailability of an Expert in your geographical region and/or a lack or unavailability of documentation (if you want to develop an Expert System for German beers you might have a hard time here), or drawbacks in the implementation phase which influenced your project development, if necessary.
9 Group Members’ Tasks
Each member of the group will describe his/her tasks and participation in the project.
References
Any kind of documents used for the development of the XPS, including CLIPS manuals, web pages etc. For the proper form of referencing look at a bibliography or list of references in any CS textbook or Journal article.
Attach an Honesty Declaration for each group member.
DONE!