Dean F. Hougen, Knowledge-Based Systems

Dean F. Hougen

Research in Knowledge-Based Systems

From 1990 to 1995 I worked as a research assistant in what is now the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate. (When I started there it was the Department of Soil Science.) In this position I gained a lot of experience in writing useful Knowledge-Based Systems -- including Expert Systems, Decision Support Systems, and Geographical Information Systems -- and Graphical User Interfaces for these systems. I also integrated various kinds of Knowledge-Based Systems into practical programs of great functionality.

This research was aimed at producing working systems rather than on developing theory in Knowledge-Based Systems; the theory being developed was in Soil Science. Nonetheless, we did cover some very interesting ground (if you'll pardon the pun) when it came to Knowledge-Based Systems theory. Unfortunately, because of the focus of the projects, I never had the opportunity to adequately publish on the theory of integrated Knowledge-Based Systems. In fact, there was only one publication (listed below) on the systems themselves. I plan to revisit the theoretical aspects of integrated Knowledge-Based Systems in the near future.

These systems were written for MS-DOS and MS-Windows, whereas most of my other work has been done on UNIX. Besides this experience, I also gained valuable experience working with customers of various kinds, from funders to end users.

The systems I developed are:

PLPLeach and PLPSurf: Pesticide Loss Potential Expert Systems.
WeedSoil: Herbicide Application Expert Decision Support System with Geographic Information System.
InterPro: Combined Expert Systems and Geographic Information System Package.
SOIL7: Soil Data Geographic Information System using EPPL7.
Nitro: Nitrogen Fertilization Application Expert Decision Support System.

SOIL7 is described in:

Pierre C. Robert and Dean Hougen. "SOIL7: Soil Information Module for the EPPL7 GIS," In Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium, 1994 Fourth Annual Conference and Workshops, 34, 1994.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Oklahoma.

Last update: 21 August 2001