| Author: | Mok, Wai-king Louise |
| Title: | An expert system for awarding punishment for serious discipline cases in the Hong Kong Civil Service |
| Degree: | M.Sc. |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Subject: | Expert systems (Computer science) Punishment Civil service -- China -- Hong Kong Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Computing |
| Pages: | 1 v. (various pagings) : ill. ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | People tend to improve their abilities to reason about situations by amassing experience in reasoning. The more situations a person knows about, the more he can account for feature differences between new data and old knowledge. Resorting to previous instances of similar situations for guidance is known as case-based reasoning (Bain, 1986). A computer program that can improve its ability to reason must also have access to situations which it has previously reasoned about. Previous experiences thus require some mechanism for orderly storage and retrieval. The inability to save and modify reasoning chains for future use represents a serious shortcoming of most, if not all, rule-based expert systems. This research has involved modeling by computer the behavior of an Executive Officer who is responsible for processing discipline cases and to award punishment. The research aims at exploring the feasibility of using expert system technology to build a Punishment Awarding System (PAS) so that precedent cases can be speedily retrieved and the most relevant case (the best match) is identified so that judgement on the form of punishment to be awarded to the accused officer can be easily formulated. To make this possible, we need to go through the processes of knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation and to design the inference mechanism. The capabilities inherent in KAPPA-PC, an object-oriented Expert System development shell have been fully exploited as a development tool. These important features include hierarchical representation, attribute description, behavioural properties and reasoning services help to build up the case structure. The inheritance quality, behavioural properties and reasoning services all enable fast matching and retrieval of cases. After the prototype has been successfully developed, it is being evaluated by the potential users and most of their comments on the prototype will be incorporated in the future full-scale PAS project. Thus, in building the PAS prototype, we have gone through the five research process promulgated by Nunamaker (1991) i.e. "Construct a conceptual framework", "Develop a system architecture", " Analyze and design the system", "Build the prototype system" and finally "Observe and evaluate the system". As regards the contribution, the developer considers it lies more on the practical front than on the theoretical platform. The prototype system demonstrated the applicability of using expert system or specifically case-based reasoning in the government setting. Also, the design and development of the prototype system have benefited the developer as she has learnt such kind of prototype development techniques during the process. This experience becomes a good nurture ground for her future assignments in this area that may arise in her work situation. Case-base reasoning is learning from experience and learning to do case-based reasoning is indeed a valuable experience. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b12056868.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 6.19 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Copyright Undertaking
As a bona fide Library user, I declare that:
- I will abide by the rules and legal ordinances governing copyright regarding the use of the Database.
- I will use the Database for the purpose of my research or private study only and not for circulation or further reproduction or any other purpose.
- I agree to indemnify and hold the University harmless from and against any loss, damage, cost, liability or expenses arising from copyright infringement or unauthorized usage.
By downloading any item(s) listed above, you acknowledge that you have read and understood the copyright undertaking as stated above, and agree to be bound by all of its terms.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://theses.lib.polyu.edu.hk/handle/200/4245