Course name Knowledge Based Systems
Course code
Lecturer/email address Peter Obiria / obpeters@[Link]
Course Description:
Knowledge representations and mappings, approaches and issues (e.g. predicate logic, fuzzy logic, week
and strong slot and filler structures), knowledge acquisition, the frame problem, symbolic reasoning under
uncertainty (no monotonic reasoning, augmenting a problem Solver), statistical reasoning (e.g. probability
and Bays Theorem, Bayesian networks, Dumpster-Shafer theory), building knowledge-based systems.
Course Objectives:
This course aims to:
Enable students design an expert system using appropriate knowledge-based Software tools.
Enable students to search for knowledge (acquisition) and to specify it clearly (validation).
Introduce the concepts of expert systems
Enable students to design a knowledge structure integrated with production planning, quality control
and other subsystems of an industrial organization.
Introduce the features of a feasible expert system.
Enable students use various knowledge representation methods and different expert system structures
from the industrial engineering point of view.
To allow students to present oral and written reports.
Apply AI techniques to the problem of acquisition and representation of expert knowledge for problem
solving in the expert’s domain.
Week Subject area Discussion topics
Week 1 Introduction Terminologies and key concepts
Week 2 Knowledge Representation Semantic Nets, Frames, Logic
Week 3 Knowledge Representation Semantic Nets, Frames, Logic
Week 4 Reasoning and Inference Predicate Logic, Inference Methods, Resolution
Week 5 CAT 1
Week 6 Reasoning with Uncertainty Probability, Bayesian Decision Making
Week 7 knowledge acquisition the frame problem,
Week 8 knowledge acquisition symbolic reasoning under uncertainty (no
monotonic reasoning, augmenting a problem
Solver
Week 9 CAT 2
Week 10 Project in kbs Project in kbs
Week 11 Automated Reasoning Inference & knowledge processing
Week 12 Assignment/ project completion and Assignment/ project completion and submission
submission
Week 13 Revision Revision
Week 14 examinations examinations
Week 15 examinations examinations
Methodology
Introductions
Course Materials
o textbooks (see below)
o lecture notes
o handouts
Term Project
Lab and Homework Assignments
Exams
Grading
Main Textbook
[Giarratano & Riley 2004] Joseph Giarratano and Gary Riley. Expert Systems - Principles and
Programming. 4th ed., PWS Publishing, Boston, MA, 2004
[Awad 1996] Elias Awad. Building Expert Systems - Principles, Procedures, and Applications. West
Publishing, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, 1996.
[Durkin 1994] John Durkin. Expert Systems - Design and Development. Prentice Hall, Englewood
Cliffs, NJ, 1994.
[Jackson, 1999] Peter Jackson. Introduction to Expert Systems. 3rd ed., Addison-Wesley, 1999.
[Russell & Norvig 2003] Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence - A Modern Approach. 2nd
ed., Prentice Hall, 2003.