This is a short discussion article about the comprehensive review paper by Bedford et al o n expert elicitation for reliable systems. Our article highlights especially the benefits of using Bayesian networks and also raises a number of issues that follow on from the review paper. The paper " Expert elicitation for reliable system design " by Bedford, Quigley and Wallis is timely and significant...

We describe an expert system that has been applied to the task of application design. Users supply the system with problem specifications, such as the required output data, and the system produces a graphic representation of the completed application in the form of a flow diagram. The application design task has forced us to consider two important issues in expert system architecture: constrain...

First of all, we would like to thank the discussants for the care and thoughtfulness that they have taken in preparing their comments. Koehler presents a helpful discussion, putting forward a number of different ideas that generalize the approach taken. A taxonomy for technical system elicitation would provide useful guidance for practitioners and serve to codify applicable assumptions during t...

The paper by Bedford, Quigley and Walls has reviewed the role of expert judgements in reliability assessment within the engineering design process. It differs from many statistically based papers that focus mainly on statistical models, in that it addresses issues related to the process, the concept and principles. The paper itself is comprehensive in coverage and offers general guidance for re...

Nowadays the field of centralized control is linked to major production processes or industrial applications, where the flow of information allows optimizing the total production process. In the area of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) (Wang & Kai-Yi, 2009), however it is still underdeveloped (Liao, 2009). Perhaps the reason is not the lack of capacity for the design or the cost of the techno...

A targe number of problems encountered by structural designers are ill-structured and are either not amenable to an algorithmic solution or the algorithms are too cumbersome and restrictive. Knowledge-based expert systems (KBES) provide a means to assist in the solution of these illstructured problems that demand considerable expertise. KBES also provide a flexible methodology for developing en...

For building design, computational intelligence systems use a knowledge base formed by means of neural network and fuzzy logic (neuro-fuzzy) techniques, from a building design database. The application of such a system to a building design task was preliminarily demonstrated earlier. The present research describes a systematic neural fuzzy modelling of data that forms a knowledge base in a hier...

Graphic Design is the process of creating graphics to meet specific commercial needs based on knowledge of layout principles and esthetic concepts. This is usually an iterative trial and error process which requires a lot of time even for expert designers. This expert knowledge can be modelled, represented and used by a computer to perform design activities. This paper describes a novel approac...

This paper reviews the role of expert judgement to support reliability assessments within the systems engineering design process. Generic design processes are described to give the context and a discussion is given about the nature of the reliability assessments required in the different systems engineering phases. It is argued that, as far as meeting reliability requirements is concerned, the ...

Nira Krumholtz A view of technology processes in human endeavors has guided me and my colleagues to produce a model of these processes. In turn, the model combined with learning and instruction theory has influenced decisions on how students should be taught science and technology subject matter. This article discusses the model and its underlying rationale. Then a brief review of learning theo...