MASAAI MARA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTING & INFORMATION SYSTEMS

COM 4252-1: EXPERT SYSTEMS

B Y:
P R O F. S I LVA N C E O . A B E K A
[email protected]
Lecture Outline:
1) Definition and Characteristics of Expert Systems
2) History and Evolution of Expert Systems
3) Components of an Expert System
4) Applications of Expert Systems in Various Domains
5) Advantages and Limitations of Expert Systems
1. Definition and Characteristics of Expert Systems
Definition:
An expert system is a computer program that simulates the decision-making
ability of a human expert.
Key Characteristics:
• Knowledge-based: Contains domain-specific knowledge.
• Goal-driven: Solves problems within a specific area.
• Explains reasoning: Justifies conclusions or recommendations.
• Handles uncertainty: Manages incomplete or ambiguous information.
• High Performance: The expert system provides high performance for solving any type of complex
problem of a specific domain with high efficiency and accuracy.
• Understandable: It responds in a way that can be easily understandable by the user. It can take input in
human language and provides the output in the same way.
• Reliable: It is much reliable for generating an efficient and accurate output.
• Highly responsive: ES provides the result for any complex query within a very short period of time.
Examples of the Expert System:

DENDRAL: It was an artificial intelligence project that was made as a chemical analysis expert
system. It was used in organic chemistry to detect unknown organic molecules with the help of
their mass spectra and knowledge base of chemistry.
MYCIN: It was one of the earliest backward chaining expert systems that was designed to find
the bacteria causing infections like bacteraemia and meningitis. It was also used for the
recommendation of antibiotics and the diagnosis of blood clotting diseases.
PXDES: It is an expert system that is used to determine the type and level of lung cancer. To
determine the disease, it takes a picture from the upper body, which looks like the shadow. This
shadow identifies the type and degree of harm.
CaDeT: The CaDet expert system is a diagnostic support system that can detect cancer at early
stages.
How it works:-
2. History and Evolution of Expert Systems
Early Beginnings:
◦ Originated in the 1960s as a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
◦ The DENDRAL system (1965): Used for chemical analysis.
◦ MYCIN (1970s): Designed for medical diagnosis.

Growth Phase:
◦ 1980s: Rapid adoption in industries due to advancements in AI tools.
◦ Development of commercial shells (e.g., CLIPS).

Modern Era:
◦ Integration with machine learning, big data, and cloud computing.
3. Components of an Expert System
Knowledge Base:
◦ Contains facts and heuristics (rules of thumb) about a specific domain.

Inference Engine:
◦ Applies logical reasoning to the knowledge base to solve problems.
◦ Methods: Forward chaining, backward chaining.

User Interface:
◦ Provides interaction between the user and the system.
4. Capabilities of the Expert System
•Advising: It is capable of advising the human being for the query of any domain from the
particular ES.
•Provide decision-making capabilities: It provides the capability of decision making in any
domain, such as for making any financial decision, decisions in medical science, etc.
•Demonstrate a device: It is capable of demonstrating any new products such as its features,
specifications, how to use that product, etc.
•Problem-solving: It has problem-solving capabilities.
•Explaining a problem: It is also capable of providing a detailed description of an input problem.
•Interpreting the input: It is capable of interpreting the input given by the user.
•Predicting results: It can be used for the prediction of a result.
•Diagnosis: An ES designed for the medical field is capable of diagnosing a disease without using
multiple components as it already contains various inbuilt medical tools.
5. Applications of Expert Systems

Healthcare: Diagnosis and treatment recommendations (e.g., MYCIN, CAD systems).

Limitations:
◦ Cannot replicate human intuition or creativity.
◦ Requires extensive knowledge acquisition.
◦ Limited adaptability to dynamic changes.
Summary of the Lecture
Expert systems are knowledge-based AI programs that emulate the problem-solving capabilities
of human experts in specific domains. Originating in the 1960s, these systems have grown
significantly in sophistication and application across various fields. They consist of three core
components: a knowledge base, an inference engine, and a user interface. While expert systems
are powerful tools for decision-making and problem-solving, they also have limitations, such as
their inability to adapt to new, unforeseen problems.
Revision Questions
1) Define an expert system and explain its key characteristics.
2) Discuss the historical development of expert systems, mentioning at least two examples.
3) What are the three main components of an expert system, and what roles do they play?
4) Identify three real-world applications of expert systems and briefly describe their functions.
5) What are two key advantages and two limitations of expert systems?