Mihai Boicu                          

Research Software

Software Systems Developed

I am  the main software architect of several systems. They are based on an evolving platform, named Disciple Learning Agent Shell. Dedicated software systems were built as application in specific areas. The systems were developed in close collaboration with Dr. Gheorghe Tecuci and with the contribution of the members of the Learning Agents Center. The most recent systems are presented below.

The Shell consists from a suite of software tools for the development of specialized Disciple knowledge-based intelligent agents or tools, such as TIACRITIS, Disciple-COG, and Disciple-FS (see below). It is a multi-agent system based on a mixed-initiative platform allowing the participating software agents and the human user(s) to naturally collaborate in a new paradigm that synergistically integrate each ones strength to alleviate the other weakness. It has the following main modules and functions: mixed-initiative interaction offering the communication control between the agents; knowledge management offering the storage and internal representation of the agent’s knowledge; problem solving offering various reasoning capabilities (inductive, deductive, hierarchical planning) at various levels of confidence; multi-strategy learning offering the capability to acquire problem solving expertise from the end user; and an advanced graphical user interface. The following versions were recently released: v2009.12 and v2010.03

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This is a new type of tool that incorporates a significant amount of knowledge from the Science of Evidence. It can rapidly acquire expertise in intelligence analysis, can train new intelligence analysts, and can help analysts find solutions to complex problems, through mixed-initiative reasoning, allowing a synergistic integration of a human's experience and creativity with an agent's knowledge and speed. Successive versions of this system have been used in several courses at the US Army War College and at George Mason University, as well as in several experiments with intelligence analysts. Successive releases were developed and deployed: v2005, v2006, v2007, v2008.05, v.2009.05, v2009.08.

The system is a learning and decision-support agent for military center of gravity determination. Successive versions of this software system have been used by high ranking military officers in courses at the US Army War College since 2001. They have also been used at the Air War College and at George Mason University. Successive releases: v2001, v2002, v2003, v2004, v2005, v2006, v2007, v2008.05, v2009.02. The last version is available on CD as part of the book Tecuci G., Boicu M., and Comello J., Agent-Assisted Center of Gravity Analysis, GMU Press, ISBN 978-0-615-23812-8, 2008.

The system was developed as a suite of tools for building, utilizing, and maintaining regulatory knowledge bases for modern, dynamic business organizations, especially financial services firms. Every modern enterprise must deal not only with local and global competitors, but also with local and global regulations. These regulations put tremendous burden on business operations causing workers and information systems to comply with many policies stored in a large number of ever changing documents. The current knowledge management technologies and software tools allow organization and retrieval of documents, but they cannot offer efficient customized procedures to deal with specific cases. It is a suite of tools for building, utilizing, and maintaining regulatory knowledge bases for modern, dynamic business organizations, especially financial services firms. It is developed as part of an NSF-funded STTR phase 1 and phase 2 project and has been licenses to Exprentis Inc. Successive version developed 2008.09, 2008.11, 2009.02, 2009.04, 2009.05, 2009.09, 2009.12.

The system was developed for training and assisting the personnel in emergency response planning.

The system was developed to evaluate military Courses of Action (COA) that were developed as hasty candidate plans for ground combat operations, by identifying the strengths and the weaknesses of a course of action with respect to the principles of war and the tenets of army operations.

The system was developed to assess how rapidly and by what method a military unit can reconstitute or bypass damage to an infrastructure, such as a damaged bridge or a cratered road. The system builds a workaround plan using an innovative adaptation of hierarchical planning.