Knowledge Engineering

Knowledge engineering is about putting the knowledge of of an expert to a machine called an expert system. Unfortunately, it is easier said than done since the knowledge of an expert may take awhile to understand and it can be overwhelming to understand the knowledge in a short time. It is even more difficult to provide that knowledge to a computer system since our understanding has to be correct and out coding must also be correct. Time constraints limit the amount of expertise that can be placed on a system but it is possible to build a system with an amount of knowledge that can be compared to an expert. Our experience in building an expert system for mutual funds made us that knowledge engineering on finances also has to be quite qualitative since the personality, situation and interest of the investor has to be considered besides the financial calculations and time. Furthermore, the amount of variations in personality, circumstances and investment options can be really copious which we learned from gathering information. Another thing we learned is that books and other information from the internet which are not always accurate are not enough in knowledge engineering since an expert on the field for so long can provide more in depth and specific explanations that can be provided to the expert system as knowledge since an true expert's knowledge has been tested and proven already and they can also provide information on more specific case than any book or online reference which are mostly general. Our experience in knowledge engineering was quite educational and it did provide stress but it help us appreciate the vast amount of knowledge a person can contain.