1. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20051 Web Based Expert System for Class Schedule Planning using JESS Ken Ho Hewlett Packard Company Meiliu Lu Department of Computer Science California State University, Sacramento 15 August, 2005

2. IEEE IRI 20052 Agenda Motivation Related Works Paper Contributions System Architecture & Design Short Demo Conclusion Future Works Questions

3. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20053 Motivations Class schedule planning mistake often causes graduation delay Demands for a convenient, intelligent system to give expert advises on class schedule planning decisions Current solutions have one or more deficiencies: –Not web-enabled –Few user-defined inputs –Require rewriting the tool on requirement changes

4. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20054 Related Works OASIS advising assistance system from UC Davis –A command-line tool that reports discrepancies about a academic plan Degree Audit Tool from Chico State University. –A web-based tool that shows a countdown of gradation requirement Proposed Expert Systems on academic planning [1, 2, 3, 4]

5. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20055 Class Schedule Planner (CSP) Contributions Considers various user-defined parameters Concentration (ex. A.I., Computer Architecture…) Part time or full time student Courses they already completed Preferred times and days to attend classes Courses that they like to take Courses that they want to avoid Allows dynamic management of knowledge in real time using web interfaces

6. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20056 CSP Overview CSP –Provides a set of web forms to collect inputs from students –Uses encapsulated expert knowledge to provide scheduling advises –Collects current class data from school web sites in real time –Provides web forms for system administrators to change requirements System Users –Students Request suitable schedules by answering a set of questions –Administrators Update degree requirement and class prerequisites Update the information URL (current semester class schedule)

7. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20057 CSP Overall Architecture Class Schedule Planner (CSP) data file (xml) static rules Jess XML translator dynamic facts CSP Controller Admin web browser User web browser Jess output Internet default degree requirement & course prerequisites User parameters class schedule(s) (up to 4 terms) update degree requirement and course prerequisites previous user data

8. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20058 What is JESS? An Open-source Expert System Shell for the Java Platform –Similar to the language defined by CLIPS expert system shell Supports the development of rule-based expert system Provides Java interfaces to store and map expert system rules and facts Good for web-based expert system with changing rules and facts

9. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 20059 Class Schedule Planner (CSP) data file (xml) XML translator CSP Controller Internet User web browser static rules Jess Student Interaction Jess output User parametersclass schedule(s) requirement data dynamic facts dynamic rules class schedule(s)User parameters

10. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200510 Goal Driven Approach with JESS Stage 1 –Provides 1 st set of recommended classes based on the student inputs Stage 2 –Provides 2 nd set of recommended classes based on the prerequisites of the 1st set of recommended classes Stage 3 –Provides 3 rd set of recommended classes based on the random selection of remaining classes

11. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200511 Class Schedule Planner (CSP) data file (xml) XML translator CSP Controller Internet Admin web browser Administrator Interaction Update degree requirement & Course prerequisites update degree requirement & course prerequisites update degree requirement and course prerequisites update degree requirement and course prerequisites

12. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200512 Dynamic Change of Rules The following is an example of the Core requirement rule: (defrule satisfy_core (course_taken (name "CSC 201")) (course_taken (name "CSC 204")) (course_taken (name "CSC 205")) (course_taken (name "CSC 206")) (course_taken (name "CSC 209")) (not (core_passed yes)) => (assert (core_passed yes))) (defrule satisfy_core (course_taken (name "CSC 201")) (course_taken (name "CSC 204")) (course_taken (name "CSC 205")) (course_taken (name "CSC 206")) (course_taken (name "CSC 209")) (not (core_passed yes)) => (assert (core_passed yes))) (defrule satisfy_core (course_taken (name "CSC 201")) (course_taken (name "CSC 204")) (course_taken (name "CSC 205")) (course_taken (name "CSC 206")) (course_taken (name "CSC 207")) (course_taken (name "CSC 209")) (not (core_passed yes)) => (assert (core_passed yes)))

13. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200513 Demo: Make Schedules

14. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200514 Conclusion We integrate three key elements in this paper –Understanding problem areas in class schedule planning domain –Integrating JESS, Java, XML and popular web technologies for easy web- based deployment –Providing methodologies for dynamic knowledge management

15. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200515 Future works Making the degree requirement specification more scaleable Data warehousing CSP users data for empirical evaluation and suggestions for new student users Connect to the student information database directly so that part of student user input like courses taken can be automated Port CSP server to Linux/Unix platforms –We are currently porting CSP to the CSUS CS department’s Linux server

16. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200516 Reference [1] Tsutsui, S. et al, “Class scheduling by neurocomputing: a comparison with the expert system approach”, Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 1990. Conference Proceedings, IEEE International Conference on, Vol., Iss., 4-7 Nov 1990, Pages:227-232 [2] Yoshikawa, M et al, “A constraint-based high school scheduling system”, Expert, IEEE [see also IEEE Intelligent Systems], Vol.11, Iss.1, Feb 1996, Pages: 63-72 [3] McDonald, G et al, “An expert system solution to a constraint satisfaction problem in academic administration”, Applied Computing, 1990., Proceedings of the 1990 Symposium on, Vol., Iss., 5-6, Apr 1990 Pages:161-163 [4 ] Frank, J.L et al, “Mentor-I: an expert database system for student guidance”, Expert, IEEE [see also IEEE Intelligent Systems], Vol.3, Iss.2, Summer 1988, Pages: 40-46

17. 15 August, 2005IEEE IRI 200517 Questions

18. Thank You!