Expert Systems: A Foundation for the IT Practitioner

Presentation by Richard Charette of Calico Commerce, Inc.

The IEEE Seattle Section's Computer Society will host a presentation titled: "Expert Systems: A Foundation for the IT Practitioner" by Richard Charette, Senior Software Architect in the Advanced Development Group at Calico Commerce, Inc.

Abstract

Expert systems (ES) have often been perceived as silver bullets, cryptic systems, exotic solutions or major disasters. But in reality, thousands of ES have been deployed successfully since the 70's and many of them are still operational and fully reliable. In fact, the use of ES when appropriate may provide a competitive advantage to an organization. The technology underlying ES has reached today a level of maturity that makes it an attractive solution when appropriate. This presentation demystifies ES to the computer science and IT professionals in the industry, and helps them understand how these can become part of their potential CS/IT toolset. The presentation will first introduce ES, their place within the broad field of computer science, and their relationship with artificial intelligence technologies.

A brief historical overview should permit the audience to appreciate the maturity of technology and the success it had over the last 30 years. The successful application of ES will be demonstrated through a few examples, and useful factors will be identified in order to help the practitioner decide if the choice of applying ES to solve specific industrial/commercial problems is relevant or not. When ES are appropriate, the use of a proper methodology can be useful. Although many exist, one will be described. The choice of using ES as solutions can generate organizational challenges. Those will be described and solutions will be presented to overcome them. Those challenges will also be put in the context of current software/system development practices. Finally, ES technologies, products, and tools will be presented to help the practitioner understand what is currently available.

This presentation should provide the audience with relevant information to understand expert systems, their applicability, their challenges, and with a good basis for further investigation.

About Richard Charette

Richard Charette received the BS degree in electrical/computer engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal (Université de Montréal), Québec, Canada. He is with the Advanced Development Group at Calico Commerce and is currently senior software architect for the advanced configuration product. Mr. Charette has previously worked in companies delivering AI-based products/services relying on rule-based/constraint-based technologies. He was also involved in system architecture for large-scale knowledge management solutions. His recent work is related to the design/development of a constraint-based configuration product and complex configuration over the Internet.

Mr. Charette is a member of IEEE, ACM and AAAI.