Showing papers by "Joachim Baumeister published in 2011"

KnowWE: a Semantic Wiki for knowledge engineering

Abstract: Recently, Semantic Wikis showed reasonable success as collaboration platforms in the context of social semantic applications. In this paper, we present a novel approach, that interprets the concept of Semantic Wikis as a knowledge engineering environment, that effectively help to build decision-support systems. We introduce the Semantic Wiki KnowWE, that provides the possibility to define and maintain ontologies together with strong problem-solving knowledge. Thus, the wiki can be used to collaboratively build decision-support systems. These enhancements require extensions of the standard Semantic Wiki architecture by a task ontology for problem-solving and an adapted reasoning process. We discuss these extensions in detail, and we describe a case study in the field of medical emergency systems.

Engineering intelligent systems on the knowledge formalization continuum

Abstract: In spite of their industrial success, the development of intelligent systems is still a complex and risky task. When building intelligent systems, we see that domain knowledge is often present at different levels of formalization-ranging from text documents to explicit rules. In this paper, we describe the knowledge formalization continuum as a metaphor to help domain specialists during the knowledge acquisition phase. To make use of the knowledge formalization continuum, the agile use of knowledge representations within a knowledge engineering project is proposed, as well as transitions between the different representations, when required. We show that a semantic wiki is a flexible tool for engineering knowledge on the knowledge formalization continuum. Case studies are taken from one industrial and one academic project, and they illustrate the applicability and benefits of semantic wikis in combination with the knowledge formalization continuum.

Knowledge visualization for evaluation tasks

Abstract: Although various methods for the evaluation of intelligent systems have been proposed in the past, almost no techniques are present that support the manual inspection of knowledge bases by the domain specialist. Manual knowledge base inspection is an important and frequently applied method in knowledge engineering. Since it can hardly be performed in an automated manner, it is a time-consuming and costly task. In this paper, we discuss a collection of appropriate visualization techniques that help developers to interactively browse and analyze the knowledge base in order to find deficiencies and semantic errors in their implementation. We describe standard visualization methods adapted to specifically support the analysis of the static knowledge base structure, but also of the usage of knowledge base objects such as questions or solutions. Additionally, we introduce a novel visualization technique that supports the validation of the derivation and interview behavior of a knowledge system in a semi-automatic manner. The application of the presented methods was motivated by the daily practice of knowledge base development.

Advanced empirical testing

Abstract: In today's industrial applications, we see that knowledge systems are successfully implemented. However, critical domains require the elaborate and thoughtful validation of the knowledge bases before the deployment. Empirical testing, also known as regression testing, denotes the most popular validation technique, where predefined test cases are used to simulate and review the correct behavior of the system. In this paper, we motivate that the classic notions of a test case and the corresponding measures are not sufficient in many application scenarios. We present enhanced notions generalizing the standard test case, and we show appropriate extensions of the measures precision and recall, that work on these test case notions. Furthermore, the effective inspection of test runs is important whenever test cases fail. We introduce a novel visualization technique that allows for the effective and intuitive analysis of test cases and test run outcomes. The new visualization is useful for debugging a knowledge base and test case, respectively, but it also provides an intuitive overview of the status of the entire test suite. A case study reports on the (repeated) validation of a medical decision-support system and demonstrates the practical relevance of the presented work.

Developing knowledge systems with continuous integration

Abstract: With the industrial success of knowledge-based systems new requirements with respect to Knowledge Engineering processes arise. Besides advanced knowledge acquisition tools, novel techniques for the quality assurance need to be established in order to maintain a safe development process. In Software Engineering, the application of continuous integration as a collection of practices has proved to be suitable for this task. In this paper, we transfer the general ideas of continuous integration from Software Engineering to Knowledge Engineering, and we demonstrate the implementation of a continuous integration tool into a state-of-the-art Knowledge Engineering workbench.

Diaflux: a graphical language for computer-interpretable guidelines

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce the formal representation language DiaFlux, that is simple and easy to use on the one hand. On the other hand it allows for the definition of Computer-Interpretable Guidelines (CIGs), that can solve valuable tasks being executed in the clinical context. Further, we describe a wiki-driven development process using the stepwise formalization and allowing for almost self-acquisition by the domain specialists. The applicability of the approach is demonstrated by a protocol for sepsis monitoring and treatment developed by a collaboration of clinicians.

Developing Knowledge Systems with Continuous Integration.

Abstract: With the industrial success of knowledge-based systems new requirements with respect to Knowledge Engineering processes arise. Besides advanced knowledge acquisition tools, novel techniques for the quality assurance need to be established in order to maintain a safe development process. In Software Engineering, the application of continuous integration as a collection of practices has proved to be suitable for this task. In this paper, we transfer the general ideas of continuous integration from Software Engineering to Knowledge Engineering, and we demonstrate the implementation of a continuous integration tool into a state-of-the-art Knowledge Engineering workbench.

Proceedings of 7th Workshop on Knowledge Engineering and Software Engineering (KESE7)

Abstract: Technical Report TR-2011/1, Department of Languages and Computation. University of Almeria November 2011. Joaquin Canadas, Grzegorz J. Nalepa, Joachim Baumeister (Editors)