Course on Knowledge Based Systems - CS4244

This course taught about rule based systems. We used the CLIPS language to implement rules,. CLIPS automatically combines rules to perform a complex task. The course content topics included knowledge representation, knowledge acquisition, representing uncertainty including DS-theory, Classification and Construction Problem Solving, and basics of other kinds of knowledge based systems like Blackboard Systems, Case Based Reasoning, Machine Learning (ID3, Candidate Elimination) and Truth Maintenance Systems.

We encountered the following systems: STRIPS (planner), MYCIN (medical diagnosis rule based system), EMYCIN (empty mycin), R1/XCON (configuration of computer systems), CENTAUR (explanation system), MOLGEN (genetic experiment planner).

Book we followed: Engrossing book by Peter Jackson: "Introduction to Expert Systems"

We did a project on "Weekend Itinerary Planning". Here is the report. The planner had the following major components: itinerary generation, event selection, travel selection and user interface.

From this course, I generated two ideas for "good things to have":

1. An Itinerary Planner for Weekend Travel (not just a toy project but on WWW);
2. A Rule Based Library in C++/Java based on CLIPS engine - with one use in Computer Gaming.

See also:

1. Peter Jackson's Expert Systems reading list
2. Another course in a related field