Jens G. Pohl

Preconference Proceedings of the Focus Symposium on Intelligent Information Management Systems

Jens G. Pohl — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 17:02:22 PDT

An Intelligent Supply Chain Planning and Execution Environment

Jens Pohl — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:44:36 PDT

Logistic planning and execution processes in a supply-chain are subject to a high level of complexity because of the number of parties and issues involved, the number of relationships that exist among them, and the dynamic nature of the execution environment. The large volume of data flowing through a sizable computer-based logistic planning and execution management environment that is based on rote data-processing principles tends to overwhelm the human users. As a result many opportunities for improving the efficiency of supply-chain processes and thereby reducing costs are overlooked by the human users, who are forced into a reactive mode. Similar data deluge symptoms are being experienced in other domains such as Internet searches where the number of website hits returned for a single query can easily exceed several million. The data deluge problem could be overcome if the context of the query could be defined by the user and executed by the search engine in a context-based manner. This would require the representation of a virtual model of real world context in the search software. The same need for the representation of context in software exists also in the cyber security domain where data encryption must be supplemented by the profiling of users and the continuous monitoring and automated interpretation of network behavior. This paper discusses the design concepts and implementation principles, and describes the end-state capabilities of a computer-based intelligent logistic planning and execution environment that includes a virtual model of real world supply-chain context and multiple agent groups that are able to interact with each other and the human users. Implemented in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) based infrastructure, the virtual context model provided by a multi-layer ontology and the collaborative agents are able to continuously monitor the state of the supply-chain by interpreting the flow of data in the appropriate context. This allows the agents to rapidly re-plan in case of supply-chain interruptions, discover and act on opportunities for improvements, and identify patterns and trends based on the continuous analysis of historical data. As a result the human users are relieved from lower level data interpretation tasks and provided with actionable information for reactive and proactive planning and execution management functions. The author suggests that order of magnitude improvements in efficiency and reduction in cost are achievable with context-based information-centric software systems.

The Role of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Intuition

Jens Pohl — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:44:34 PDT

In recognizing the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation as the principal drivers of economic growth, this paper focuses on the human attributes that govern the behavior of the entrepreneur and the societal perceptions that influence the human environment in which the entrepreneur operates. Foremost among these human attributes is the experience-based nature of the human cognitive system that prepares us well for dealing with events that are closely related to our past experience, but forces us to learn by failure as we apply past methods to new situations. In particular, the paper discusses the difficulties that the human dependence on experience poses to the entrepreneur in terms of the innate human aversion to change, the interpretation and assessment of new situations, and the formulation of appropriate plans and strategies within the practice of entrepreneurship. The value and pitfalls of intuition are discussed in some detail, with particular reference to the precautions that the entrepreneur should exercise so as not to be misled by the various experience-based and emotional influences that govern intuitional processes. In addition, statistical data shows that the success rate of entrepreneurial ventures in terms of actually becoming operational and the amount of personal wealth created is far below common public perception. While entrepreneurship is a leading generator of economic growth, the financial benefit to the individual entrepreneur is likely to be little more than that provided by normal employment. This suggests that the entrepreneurial urge that manifests itself in a small minority of persons, who are willing to abandon the comforts of status quo, is driven more by a combination of personality traits such as adventurism, competitiveness, non-conformance, and passion than deliberate planning based on sound market analysis. The author concludes that the critical factor of whether an entrepreneurial venture will eventually become even moderately successful depends on the willingness of the entrepreneur to learn from early mistakes and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills that appear to be a prerequisite for business success.

Preconference Proceedings on Advances in Adaptive Planning Capabilities

Jens G. Pohl — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 12:44:18 PDT

On the Road to Intelligent Web Applications

Hisham Assal et al. — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:36:56 PDT

Increasing access to data sources on the Internet offers expanding opportunities for equipping intelligent applications with the content they require whether broad in scope or rich in detail. Although typically originating within the web in a semi-structured form, with the use of inference-based translation and analysis mechanisms such content can be transformed into useful information and ultimately into actionable knowledge. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) offers a platform for accessing the web as invocable resources and effectively incorporating multiple sources of data and capabilities on the Internet into enterprise applications. Adding inference capabilities to SOA-based applications not only aids in the translation of data into information thus increasing visibility into the sea of content that is the web, but also provides a powerful mechanism for performing the domain-centric decision making that is the heart of intelligent applications. The Web Ontology Language (OWL) offers the medium and the tools necessary to represent models of business activities as well as support native inference across related semantic concepts. In this paper the authors present an architecture for combining OWL with a SOA-based paradigm to enhance traditional web applications with powerful inference capabilities. Commensurate with a service-oriented theme, specific techniques are presented for representing the translation activity itself as a service. The paper concludes with a discussion of two distinct types of inference: one internal to the OWL model and the other externalized into intelligent agents that operate across OWL-based concepts.

Solving the Data Deluge Problem

Jens G. Pohl — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:36:56 PDT

The paper postulates that the information technology revolution that is commonly referred to as the Information Age is currently in a transition stage between data-processing and knowledge management that should be more aptly referred to as the Data Age. Symptoms of this transition stage are a data deluge problem that is evidenced by the inability of human computer-users to effectively analyze and draw useful conclusions from the overwhelming volume of data that is being collected, the increasing complexity of networked systems, and the acknowledged vulnerability of virtually all existing digital systems to cyber security threats.

The author suggests that the core cause of the data deluge problem is that existing computer software systems are largely confined to the processing of atomic data elements rather than meaningful information. With the incorporation of a virtual model of the relevant real world knowledge domain it is possible for computer software to interpret the meaning of data within the context provided by the model. Such models can be constructed in the form of an ontology that is machine processable and accessible to inferencing modules referred to as agents. Context-based information-centric software provides a level of artificial intelligence that can be effectively used to mitigate the current data bottleneck, to shield the human user from the technical complexities of distributed systems, and to maintain an acceptable level of cyber security.

Intelligent Software for Ecological Building Design

Jens G. Pohl et al. — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:36:55 PDT

Building design is a complex process because of the number of elements and issues involved and the number of relationships that exist among them. Adding sustainability issues to the list increases the complexity of design by an order of magnitude. There is a need for computer assistance to manage the increased complexity of design and to provide intelligent collaboration in formulating acceptable design solutions. Software development technology today offers opportunities to design and build an intelligent software system environment that can serve as a reliable intelligent partner to the human designer.

In this paper the authors discuss the requirements for an intelligent software design environment, explain the major challenges in designing this environment, propose an architecture for an intelligent design support system for sustainable design and present the existing technologies that can be used to implement that architecture.

A Method to Implement Location Transparency in a Web Service Environment

Xiaoshan Pan et al. — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:36:55 PDT

Location transparency offers some significant benefits in the areas of middleware, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing. However, methods for achieving location transparency in a Web service environment are scarcely presented in the literature. This paper introduces such a method by describing a design and HTTP protocol-based implementation of location transparency. A number of benefits, including support for the creation of a virtual platform and increased mobility, availability and scalability of services, are elaborated. Two significant capabilities -performance-based load balancing and failover -are demonstrated as part of the experimental results.

Pre-Conference Proceedings of the Focus Symposium on Knowledge Management Systems

Jens G. Pohl — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:02:09 PDT

Conveyance Estimator Ontology: Conceptual Models and Object Models

Xiaoshan Pan et al. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:46:19 PDT

This paper proposes the construction of a Conceptual Model as a logical step prior to the preparation of the Object Model of an ontology to facilitate the design and development of software systems in which a high-level internal representation of context supports some intelligent capabilities. The intent of the Conceptual Model is to be expressive for human interpretation utilizing descriptions that are readily understood by laypersons, subject matter experts, and software developers who may be concerned with only a particular portion of the software system. The intent of the Object Model (as a subset of an ontology) is to be expressive for machine interpretation. The author argues that the existence of a Conceptual Model not only serves as an effective communication vehicle among the various stakeholders in a software development project, but also facilitates the development of the Object Model component of an ontology.

Using BPM as an Interoperability Platform

Dennis Taylor et al. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:46:17 PDT

Data mediation is an essential component in the Modeling and Simulation field (M&S). Managing multiple data sources and exchanging data among multiple systems requires sophisticated tools and a powerful process management system. Business Process Management (BPM) provides a framework for modeling and managing business activities, both manual and automated, in a consistent manner. Managing automated processes offers an opportunity to integrate external applications into the platform. By integrating automated data transformation tools into the business processes using graphical programming, we provide an approach to achieve operational interoperability among diverse applications without the need for any application to be aware of any other.

Increasing the Expressiveness of OWL Through Procedural Attachments

Dennis Taylor et al. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:46:15 PDT

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the OWL Web ontology language, a survey focused on the current state of the art in OWL inferencing capabilities, and a historical perspective on procedural attachments. The perspective is aligned with current OWL research. Several limitations of the OWL language and proposed extensions to overcome these limitations are discussed. A framework that provides empirical testing support for evaluating the effects of procedural attachments to the OWL inferencing capabilities is outlined. The examples presented suggest that it is possible to provide rule-based extensibility support for OWL that does not limit the ability of an OWL reasoner to perform consistency checking. Specifically, the framework is used to demonstrate with an example experiment the ability to provide support for the compound sub-property axiom.

The Representation of Context in Computer Software

Hisham Assal et al. — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:04:52 PDT

Computers do not have the equivalent of a human cognitive system and therefore store data simply as the numbers and words that are entered into the computer. For a computer to interpret data it requires an information structure that provides at least some level of context. This can be accomplished utilizing an ontology of objects with characteristics, semantic behavior, and a rich set of relationships to create a virtual version of real world situations and provide the context within which intelligent logic (e.g., agents) can automatically operate.

This paper discusses the process of developing ontologies that serve to provide context for agents to interpret and reason about data changes in decision-support software tools, services and systems.

ICODES Global Services (GS): A Single Load-Planning Capability

Jens G. Pohl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:04:40 PDT

Over the past decade the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) and its commercial arm CDM Technologies, Inc. (CDM) have developed a suite of information-centric software tools in support of military deployment and distribution processes. All of these tools feature agents that are capable of reasoning about data in the context provided by an internal information model. Together they represent an evolving suite of adaptive Knowledge Management Enterprise Services (KMES) that can be readily configured into a net-centric, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) based planning and decision-support toolset for a particular application domain. As a set of KMES tools the Integrated Computerized Deployment System (ICODES) is configured to support the movement of supplies in the military deployment and sustainment operational domain. The application focus is conveyance load-planning, including the staging of cargo in marshalling yards, assembly areas, and rail heads.

ICODES is an example of a new generation of information-centric military decision-support software tools that feature expert agents with automatic reasoning and analysis capabilities. This is made possible by an internal virtual representation (i.e., ontology) of the load-planning environment, in terms of conveyance and cargo characteristics and the complex relationships that constitute the context within which load-planning operations are performed. ICODES agents monitor the principal determinants of cargo stowage, including: the placement and segregation requirements for hazardous cargo items; the trim and stability requirements of the conveyance; the accessibility of stow areas; the correct placement of cargo items in respect to restricted areas and inter-cargo spacing tolerances; and, the accuracy of cargo characteristics (e.g., dimensions, weight, type, and identification codes) relative to standard cargo libraries and associated reference tables.

A critical requirement for the ICODES suite of load-planning services is the ability to grow to meet increasing needs. With an initial narrow focus ICODES was designated as the migration system for ship load-planning in 1996. However, as the user-base of ICODES increased so did the number of requests to support specialized problems and application domains that were not considered in the original design of the ICODES toolset. In November 2007, after an extensive evaluation of alternatives, ICODES was designated by USTRANSCOM’s Distribution Steering Group (DSG) to become the Single Load Planning Capability (SLPC) for all types of conveyances. Consequently, by 2011 ICODES Global Services (GS) is expected to provide planning and execution support for cargo movement by ship, rail and trucks, airlift, warehousing, staging, and other domains that require space planning and in-transit visibility capabilities. Beyond this, within a wider scope of domains, ICODES GS must also be architecturally ready to integrate additional capabilities or services, such as viewers tailored to specific operational needs, critical data feeds from external sources, and newly available capabilities such as smart tags and other emerging technologies.

Intelligent Information Management Tools in a Service-Oriented Software Environment

Jens G. Pohl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 12:04:09 PDT

This paper draws attention to the increasing need for agile and adaptive software environments that are capable of supporting rapid re-planning during the execution of time-critical operations involving commercial end-to-end supply chain transaction sequences, as well as disaster response and military missions. It is argued that such environments are currently best served by information-centric software tools executing within a service-oriented paradigm. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) design concepts and principles are described, with a focus on the functions of the services management framework (SMF) and enterprise service bus (ESB) components. Differentiating between data-centric and information-centric services, it is suggested that only intelligent software services, particularly those that incorporate an internal representation of context in the form of an ontology and agents with reasoning capabilities, are able to effectively address the need for agile and adaptive planning, re-planning and decision-support tools.

The paper concludes with a description of the design components of a business process management (BPM) system operating within a SOA-based infrastructure, followed by a brief discussion of Cloud computing promises and potential user concerns.

Collaborative Decision Support Systems for Facility Management

Arthur J. Chapman et al. — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 08:47:04 PDT

Agent-based collaborative decision support is a methodology of utilizing domain specific intelligent systems, interacting in a common environment, to partner with one or more human decision makers to reach a consensus solution to a complex problem. An example is the recently developed Collaborative Infrastructure Assessment Tool (CIAT) that provides a collaborative planning facility management tool in support of military pier and port management. This methodology is applicable to many similar dynamic facility management problems where the complexity of issues and the number of decision makers result in the need for domain specific agents, a common view of the data, and the need to reach a consensus solution.

ICDM: Integrated Cooperative Decision Making - in Practice

Leonard Myers et al. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:13:50 PDT

Multi-agent systems provide an attractive architecture for the implementation of complex systems. Much of the research is focussed on complete automation of the decision making process as a means of duplicating human abilities for working with new problems and environments. There as also a need for systems that employ the human as an agent and rely on human abilities for common sense and deep thought. The CAD Research Center at Cal Poly and CDM Technologies have significant experience in building systems of the latter type that assist human users in solving complex problems in planning, design and economics. This experience has generated a set of guidelines and a software development framework that have collectively been identified as ICDM. This paper presents a brief history of major applications built with the ICDM framework, and proposes some basic precepts.

Ontological Approaches for Semantic Interoperability

Michael A. Zang et al. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:30:48 PDT

This paper provides a basic description of the concept of an ontology. It then describes how ontologies are structured and employed in the context of interfaces between software based information systems. This usage is discussed in the context of three successive levels of semantic interoperability between two example systems. The paper goes on to suggest that the interfaces between information systems should perhaps be viewed and implemented as systems themselves. The paper concludes by providing a brief summary of what was discussed.

ICODES: A Multi-Agent System in Practice

Jens G. Pohl — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:30:40 PDT

This paper describes the Integrated Computerized Deployment System (ICODES) from both an architectural and evolutionary vantage point.

First, ICODES is a logistic software application of ship load-planning tools that utilizes intelligent software agents in a human-computer collaborative mode. As an example of a new generation of intelligent military decision-support systems, ICODES includes expert agents with automatic reasoning and analysis capabilities. This is made possible by an internal virtual representation of the load-planning environment, in terms of conveyance and cargo characteristics and the complex relationships that constitute the context within which load-planning operations are performed. ICODES agents monitor the principal determinants of cargo stowage, including: the placement and segregation requirements for hazardous cargo items; the trim, list, stress, and bending moments of the conveyance structure; the accessibility of stow areas through ramps, cranes, elevators, hatches, and doors; the correct placement of cargo items in respect to fire lanes, no-stow areas, reserved stow areas, and inter-cargo spacing tolerances; and, the accuracy of cargo characteristics (e.g., dimensions, weight, type, and identification codes) relative to standard cargo libraries and associated reference tables.

Second, ICODES is a system that has evolved over the past 10 years and is continuing to evolve from a stand-alone application focused on the load-planning of ships to a distributed environment capable of addressing the assembly and planning for any kind of surface or air conveyance. This transition from single domain to multiple domains and from stand-alone to distributed has been made possible by a scalable service-oriented architecture that emphasizes a multi-layered, multi-tiered design approach.

ICDM: An Architecture and Toolkit in Support of Agent-Based, Decision-Support Applications

Kym J. Pohl et al. — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 10:30:30 PDT

Agent-based, decision-support systems provide human decision-makers with a means of solving complex problems through collaboration with heterogeneous collections of both human and computer-based expert agents. Over the past decade the Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center has developed several proof-of-concept and production-oriented agent-based, decision-support systems for both commercial and Department of Defense applications. These applications range in domain from engineering design to tactical command and control. While diverse in application, each of these systems is predicated on the same set of fundamental principles derived from years of experience in this area. Primary among these principles are the notions of high-level representation, human/computer collaborative partnership, and the development of tools as opposed to predefined solutions. The CAD Research Center has formalized this philosophy into an architectural framework together with a suite of development and execution tools. Collectively, these components are known as the ICDM (Integrated Cooperative Decision Model) framework.