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Introduction
Put Your Experience on The Web:
A Tool for Creating and Browsing in Case Libraries
VALERY A. PETRUSHIN, JANET L. KOLODNER
EduTech Institute,
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, USA
e-mail: {petr, jlk}@cc.gatech.edu
This paper describes a class of AI software called Case-Based Aiding Systems (CBAS) and a tool for creating
and using such systems in both off-line and on-line modes. CBAS is intended for improving human decision
making using Case-based Reasoning approach [Kolodner, 1993]. According to [Kolodner, 1991], a CBAS
would provide cases to human problem solvers at appropriate times to help them with such tasks as coming up
with solutions, adapting old solutions, and warning of potential problems. A CBAS looks like a smart
database. It retrieves cases based on user requests. But it is more than a database because it uses more
sophisticated searching methods for finding partially matching cases.
A specific class of CBAS called Case-Based Design Aid (CBDA) has been developed over the past 6
years at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A CBDA is “a tool to help a designer produce designs more
successfully and more quickly” [Domeshek, 1994]. The CBDA serves as common memory for designers. It
allows the designer to retrieve relevant cases and to index and store a new design creating a synergetic power
of human-computer interaction. It does not automate the process of design but serves as a source of inspiration
and creativity for designers. Owing to efforts of many researchers, a shell Design-MUSE for building CBDA
has been implemented [Domeshek, 1994]) and several CBDAs for different problem domains have been
created: buildings design - Archie and Archie-II [Domeshek & Kolodner, 1992], planning lessons - SciEd
[Kolodner, 1991a], aircraft subsystem design - MIDAS [Domeshek, Herndon, Bennett, & Kolodner, 1994],
sustainable technology - SUSIE. The above projects showed the feasibility and range of applicability of
CBDA’s and taught many lessons about how cases needed to be represented and what the user's interface
should look like.
The CBAS can be used to solve a wide range of problems in business and education. The salient
feature of a CBAS is its extendibility. A CBAS may serve as a log or dairy of your professional or social
growth from novice to expert. It is your extra mind. It can also serve as a common shared memory for a group
of experts or a corporation. In education a CBAS can serve as a source of knowledge when students browse it
and as a cognitive tool when students create their own CBASs.
ExtraMind: a Shell for building Case-Based Aiding Systems
ExtraMind inherits many features of the Design-MUSE’s case library structure and is designed to be more
generally-applicable and run on both platforms (Macintosh and IBM PC) and on the WWW. Like Design-
MUSE, it can be used to build CBASs. Such a system consists of a library of cases, retrieval engine, and user’s
interface. The case library contains of a set of cases. A case may represent an artifact or an event. Each case
may have parts (subcases) and/or views. A part can also have parts and views. There are no limits on the
number of parts or nesting level. A part may belong to several superparts or cases. Cases, parts and views form
a (partial) hierarchy of a CBA’s memory. Each case, part, or view can have links to stories and sources. A
story is an evaluated description of particular artifact or event which relates to the case(s) and illustrates
problems and responses to the problems (decisions). Each story (and especially negative ones) should teach a
lesson to the user. A story has links to the relevant cases (parts and/or views), problems and responses. A
problem presents the descriptions of some general difficulties which relate to the stories. A problem is tied to
the relevant responses, stories and cases (parts and/or views). A response presents a general strategy which has
been applied to solve a problem. It also has description and links which tie it to relevant problems, stories and
cases. A source is a reference to a source of information used in a case (part or view), story, problem or