http:^^www.cs.utexas.edu^users^mfkb^

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<title>UT Knowledge-Based Systems Group</title>

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<!WA0><!WA0><!WA0><!WA0><!WA0><img src=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/images/rainbow.gif>
<h1>
<!WA1><!WA1><!WA1><!WA1><!WA1><img src=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/images/prism.gif>
Knowledge-Based Systems Group
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<!WA2><!WA2><!WA2><!WA2><!WA2><img src=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/images/rainbow.gif>

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<pre>      <!WA3><!WA3><!WA3><!WA3><!WA3><img src=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/images/bkb-group.gif>
              Bruce Porter    Rich Mallory    Peter Clark
     Art Souther        Fred Prado   Charles Callaway

    and (not shown above): Carl Andersen, Steve Correl.</pre>
<h1>Overview</h1>

Our group is part of the 
<!WA4><!WA4><!WA4><!WA4><!WA4><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/>Department of Computer Sciences at
Univ. Texas at Austin</a>.
The long-term goal of our research is to develop technology for
constructing and using large, multifunctional knowledge bases on
computers.  These knowledge bases would significantly improve current
expert systems and tutoring systems because they contain the broad
knowledge of a domain required to perform multiple tasks and to
explain domain knowledge from multiple viewpoints.
<p>
During the past eight years, we have built a large knowledge base in
one area of biology, and developed methods for automatically answering
a variety of questions using the knowledge base.  Containing about
180,000 facts concerning 30,000 concepts, our knowledge base is one of
the largest of its kind (i.e. its content is structured and formally
represented).  In addition to expanding this knowledge base, we are
also beginning to construct similar knowledge bases in other domains,
most notably, the domain of Distributed Computing.
<p>
We are especially encouraged by the results from using our knowledge
base for a variety of AI tasks.  Most recently, James Lester used the
biology knowledge base to test his system for explanation generation.
The system generated about 60 explanations, expressed in English,
concerning biological objects and events.  In a controlled experiment,
domain experts found little difference between these explanations and
those written by their colleagues.  
<p>
Currently, we are extending the types of questions that can be
answered using automated reasoning with a large knowledge base.  Jeff
Rickel developed a method for "compositional modeling", the task
of constructing a model appropriate for answering a prediction
("what-if") question.  Performing this task well requires building the
simplest model that can adequately answer the question - a daunting
requirement since knowledge bases like ours implicitly contain MANY
models at numerous levels of detail.  The Qualitative Process Compiler
and QSIM are used to simulate the models built by Jeff's program.
<p>
Finally, we are testing the generality of our research results by
building a knowledge base in another domain - distributed computing
environments (focussing on OSF's DCE) - to construct a help-desk
assistant for automatically answering a proportion of customer's
questions which would otherwise be phoned in to a normal help-desk.

<h1>Research Projects</h1>

Our completed and ongoing research projects include:
<ul>
<li> <!WA5><!WA5><!WA5><!WA5><!WA5><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/km.html>KM/KQL</a> 
	- our knowledge representation language,
<li> <!WA6><!WA6><!WA6><!WA6><!WA6><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/km.html>KnEd</a> 
	- the knowledge base editor,
<li> <!WA7><!WA7><!WA7><!WA7><!WA7><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/bkb.html>BKB</a> 
	- the biology knowledge base,
<li> <!WA8><!WA8><!WA8><!WA8><!WA8><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/km.html>KASTL</a> 
	- the viewpoint retriever,
<li> <!WA9><!WA9><!WA9><!WA9><!WA9><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/knight.html>KNIGHT</a> 
	- explanation and text planning,
<li> <!WA10><!WA10><!WA10><!WA10><!WA10><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/fare.html>FARE</a>
        - natural language generation of text plans,
<li> <!WA11><!WA11><!WA11><!WA11><!WA11><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/lexed.html>LexEd</a>
        - computer-aided maintenance for KB lexicons,
<li> <!WA12><!WA12><!WA12><!WA12><!WA12><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/tripel.html>TRIPEL</a> 
	- compositional modeling for answering prediction questions,
<li> <!WA13><!WA13><!WA13><!WA13><!WA13><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/dce.html>Help-Desk Assistant</a> 
	- the DCE Help-Desk Assistant project.
</ul>

<h1>Researchers</h1>

<ul>
<li> <!WA14><!WA14><!WA14><!WA14><!WA14><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/porter>Bruce Porter</a>
	([e-mail])
<li> <!WA15><!WA15><!WA15><!WA15><!WA15><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mallory>Rich Mallory</a>
	([e-mail])
<li> <!WA16><!WA16><!WA16><!WA16><!WA16><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/souther>Art Souther</a>
	([e-mail])
<li> <!WA17><!WA17><!WA17><!WA17><!WA17><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/theorist>Charles Callaway</a>
	([e-mail])
<li> Fred Prado ([e-mail])
<li> Carl Andersen ([e-mail])
<li> Steve Correl ([e-mail])
</ul>

<b>Recent alumni and alumnae:</b>
<ul>
<li> Liane Acker ([e-mail])
<li> <!WA18><!WA18><!WA18><!WA18><!WA18><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/eilerts>Erik Eilerts</a>
	 ([e-mail])
<li><!WA19><!WA19><!WA19><!WA19><!WA19><a href=http://www.ils.nwu.edu/~e_for_e/people/bareiss.html>
 	Ray Bareiss</a>     ([e-mail])
<li> Brad Blumenthal
<li> <!WA20><!WA20><!WA20><!WA20><!WA20><a href=http://meru.uwyo.edu/~karl/index.html>Karl Branting</a>
	   ([e-mail])
<li> <!WA21><!WA21><!WA21><!WA21><!WA21><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/pclark>Peter Clark</a>
	([e-mail])
<li> <!WA22><!WA22><!WA22><!WA22><!WA22><a href=http://www.csc.ncsu.edu/departmental/faculty/J_Lester.html>
	James Lester</a> ([e-mail])
<li> Ken Murray ([e-mail])
<li> <!WA23><!WA23><!WA23><!WA23><!WA23><a href=http://www.isi.edu/isd/rickel/>Jeff Rickel</a> ([e-mail])
</ul>

<h1>Publications</h1>

Click <!WA24><!WA24><!WA24><!WA24><!WA24><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/papers>
here</a> to see some selected publications from our group.

<h1>Other Related KB Projects</h1>

Click <!WA25><!WA25><!WA25><!WA25><!WA25><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mfkb/related.html>here</a>
for an extensive collection of pointers to other KB projects around
the world.

<hr>
<address>
<!WA26><!WA26><!WA26><!WA26><!WA26><a href=http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/porter>[e-mail]</a>
</address>