Engineering Commons^™

Domain Limitations And Interface Requirements For Expert Developed Knowledge Based Systems, Bernard Lee Lewis

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The expanded use of graphical, case-based and object oriented techniques in expert systems creation has made it more practical for domain experts to develop their own applications. This thesis focuses on the elements necessary in an expert/developer interface and looks at various forms and techniques that exemplify such an approach. The spreadsheet metaphor is used for an interface or managed set of interfaces that a domain expert can use in building his own expert system or prototype. criteria are established for such interfaces and recent commercial offerings that make expert-created knowledge-bases more practical are reviewed for techniques that qualify. Approaches …

A Robust Approach To Human-Computer Interface Design Using The Taguchi Method, Billie Mitchell Reed

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The application of Dr. Genichi Taguchi's approach for design optimization, called Robust Design, to the design of human-computer interface software is investigated. The Taguchi Method is used to select a near optimum set of interface design alternatives to improve user acceptance of the resulting interface software product with minimum sensitivity to uncontrollable noise caused by human behavioral characteristics.

Design alternatives for interaction with personal micro-computers are identified. Several important and representative alternatives are chosen as design parameters for the Taguchi matrix experiment. A noise field with three human behavioral characteristics as noise factors were chosen as a representative noise array. …

Information Technology And Wealth: Cybernetics, History And Economics, Elin Whitney-Smith

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Capitalism developed where and when it did because there was high information access. There was high information access because of a major advance in information technology--the press. Where the technology was not controlled by the "powers that be" there was economic growth and a shift in the entire social structure. Where it was controlled there was no structural change and there was economic ruin. The development of capitalism is a major step change in economic growth. It is also a major change in the way people organize themselves into groups.

Major step changes in the growth and in the organization …

An Unsolicited Sociotechnical Intervention In A Public System: A Participatory Action Research Approach, Ely Alfred Dorsey Jr.

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research concerns itself with Participatory Action Research in a hostile setting. The thrust is a sociotechnical one, with the intent being to enhance the capacity of the Wallop Public School System, Wallop, USA, to address its problem of racial disparate treatment of Black children. The potential for Organizational Learning among the school system's senior staff is studied. Some new theory about such hostile interventions is proposed. Also discussed are questions about reliability and construct validity within the context of the multiple role playing that an interventionist has in this setting. The role of the press is reflected in the …