This book combines coverage of expert systems theory with coverage of practical applications using CLIPS, an expert systems shell widely used in government, industry, and education. The first half of the book (Chapters 1-6) presents underlying theory, including knowledge representation, methods of inference, reasoning under uncertainty, and inexact reasoning (with fuzzy logic). The second half (Chapters 7-12) introduces readers to rule-based expert systems programming using the CLIPS programming language. Complete source code, reference manuals and example programs are provided on the bound-in CD-ROM, as well as papers from the virtual CLIPS conference run by the authors. The result is a self-contained book and CD-ROM package for computer science, engineering, and CIS/MIS students and professionals that provides the conceptual background and programming tools needed to understand and implement expert systems.

About the Authors

Dr. Joseph Giarratano is a member of the faculty in the Computer Science Department at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. He has many years of research experience with NASA and is responsible for developing the C Language Integrated Production System (CLIPS) user guides.

Now at PeopleSoft, Inc., Gary Riley was a NASA civil servant for over ten years. While at NASA, he was responsible for the design and development of the rule-based portion of CLIPS. Since leaving NASA he has continued to independently develop and maintain CLIPS.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.