Case Studies in Center of Gravity Determination
January - March 2001
Instructor: Dr. Jerry Comello, Professor in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations

Several classes of this course have been devoted to the presentation and use of the scenario elicitation tool and the domain modeling tool of Disciple. The students have used Disciple to specify the following strategic scenarios: Malaya 1941-42, Leyte 1944, Inchon 1950, Vietnam 1968-75, Grenada 1983, Okinawa 1945, Falklands 1982, Panama 1989, Somalia 1992-94, and Sicily 1943. They have also used the domain modeling module to express their reasoning in identifying center of gravity candidates for these scenarios. For each scenario, Disciple has generated a report in natural language describing the scenario, and an object ontology that constitutes a formal representation of the scenario. At the end of the course, the students have filled in a questionnaire for each module. An important conclusion from their answers is that, on a scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree, 8 out of 10 experts agreed that the scenario elicitation module is easy to learn and easy to use. An even more important preliminary result is that 6 out of 8 experts agreed that subject matter experts that are not computer scientists can learn to express their reasoning process using the task reduction paradigm, with a reasonable amount of effort.

Case Studies in Center of Gravity Determination
April - June 2001
Instructor: Dr. Jerry Comello, Professor in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning, and Operations

Improved versions of the Disciple scenario elicitation tool and domain modeling tool were used in this course by a team of three students that have studied the 1982 Falklands war scenario. They all agreed or strongly agreed that the Scenario Elicitation tool is easy to learn and easy to use. They also agreed or strongly agreed that subject matter experts who are not computer scientists can learn to express their reasoning process using the task reduction paradigm, with a reasonable effort.