Articles

An expert system used in the control room of this blast furnace controls fluctuations in furnace temperature, thereby saving significant amounts of energy and costs. Representatives of universities and businesses were chosen by the Japan Technology Evaluation Center to investigate the state of the technology in Japan relative to the United States. The panel's report focused on applications, tools, and research and development in universities and industry and on major national projects. JTEC formed a panel of individuals from the academic and business communities to conduct this study. The primary objectives of the JTEC panel were to investigate Japanese knowledge-based systems development from both technological and business perspectives and compare progress and trends with similar developments in the United States. The panel focused on (1) applications in the business sector, (2) infrastructure and tools, (3) advanced knowledge systems development in industry, (4) advanced knowledge systems research in universities, and (5) national projects. The JTEC panel visited 19 sites during its 1-week visit to Japan in March 1992 and conferred with Japanese computer scientists and business executives both before and after the official visits. The panel visited four major computer manufacturers; eight companies that are applying expert systems to their operations; three universities; three national projects; and Nikkei AI, a publication that conducts an annual survey of expert system applications in Japan. This article summarizes the findings of the panel in each of the five areas listed. The panel members were Edward Feigenbaum, Stanford University (chair); Peter Friedland, National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Bruce B. Johnson, Andersen Consulting; H. Penny Nii, Stanford; Herbert Schorr, University of Southern California; and Howard Shrobe, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Symbolics, Inc.). Robert Engelmore served as an ex officio member of the panel with the responsibility of producing the final report. Also present on the site visits were Y. T. Chien, National Science Foundation, and R. D. Shelton, JTEC. The sponsors of the JTEC study defined the dimensions of the study to include the following areas: (1) business-sector applications of expert systems; (2) advanced knowledgebased systems in industry; (3) advanced knowledge-based systems research in universities; (4) work at government laboratories, especially the laboratory of the Japanese Fifth-Generation Computer Project; and (5) the electronic dictionary research knowledge base building effort. The panel was also asked to observe the fuzzy system work being done in Japan, any neural network applications that affect expert system development, and the new national project known as Real-World Computing.