Eighth Workshop on the Validation and Verification of Knowledge-Based Systems

The Workshop on the Validation and Verification of Knowledge-Based Systems gathers researchers from government, industry, and academia to present the most recent information about this important development aspect of knowledge-based systems (KBSs). The 1995 workshop focused on nontraditional KBSs that are developed using more than just the simple rule-based paradigm. This new focus showed how researchers are adjusting to the shift in KBS technology from stand-alone rulebased expert systems to embedded systems that use object-oriented technology, uncertainty, and nonmonotonic reasoning. In "Specification Refinement of Object-Oriented KBSs," A. Vermesan (Foundation for Research in Economics and Business Administration, Norway) looks at KBSs that perform reasoning in a framework of structured objects. Her approach is to verify that as details are added to the specification of a KBS, these additions are consistent with the initial abstract specification.