BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH — TUCKER, Robert B.

PUBLICATIONS (continued)

Levinthal, E., Green, W., Jones, K., Tucker, R. "Processing the Viking
Lander Camera Data." Journal of Geophysical Research, vol 82,

no. 28, Sept. 1977.

Tucker, Robert B. "More on the Viking Mission." Keyboard, 1977/2
pp 1-4, 1977 (Hewlett-Packard).

Tucker, Robert B. "Viking Lander Imaging Investigation Picture Catalog

of Primary Mission Experiment Data Record." NASA Reference
Publication 1007, 568 pp, 1978.

E. A, Feigenbaum 126 Privileged Communication
 

SECTION Il — PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

{Give the following information for all professional personnel listed on page 3, beginning with the Principal Investigator.
Use continuation pages and follow the same general format for each person, }

 

 

 

 

 

 

NAME TITLE BIRTHDATE (Ma, Day, Yr.)
. R&D Engineer
VEIZADES, Nicholas Instrumentation Research Labs.| August 25, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH (City, State, Country) PRESENT NATIONALITY (If non-U.S citizen, SEX
indicate kind of visa and expiration date}
Larissa, Greece U.S. Citizen Cd Mate C) Female
EDUCATION (Segin with baccalaureate training end include postdoctoral)
YEAR SCIENTIFIC
INSTITUTION AND LOCATION DEGREE CONFERRED FIELD

 

City College of San Francisco, California

 

 

 

 

 

(1954-55)

University of California, Berkeley B.S. 1958 Electrical Engineering
Stanford University M.S. 1961 Engineering Science
HONORS

MAJOR RESEARCH INTEREST ROLE IN PROPOSED PROJECT

Electronic circuit design Electronics Engineer

 

RESEARCH SUPPORT (See instructions}

 

 

Funding
Current Project 4 of Grant
Grant No. Title of Project Year Period Effort Agency
RR-00612 Resource Related $221,255 $641,419 5 NIH
Research - (5/80-4/81) (5/80~4/83)

Computers and
Chemistry (DENDRAL)

 

RESEARCH AND/OR PROFESSIONAL E XPERIENCE (Starting with present position, fist training and experience relevant to area of project List all
or most representative publications, De not exceed 2 pages for each individual.)

1962 - present Electronics Engineer, Department of Genetics,
Stanford University School of Medicine:

1978 - present SUMEX Computer Project
1962 -— 1978 Instrumentation Research Laboratories

1961 -— 1962 Project Engineer, Fairchild Semiconductor (Instrumentation),
Division of Fairchild Instrument and Camera Company,
Palo Alto, California

1958 -— 1961 Senior Engineer, Link Division, General Precision, Inc.,

Palo Alto, California

PUBLICATIONS (none)

 

W1H 398 (FORMERLY PHS 398)
Rev. 1/73

E. A. Feigenbaum

#& US. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1977-—241.161:3024

127 Privileged Communication
 

SECTION II — PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

(Give the following information for all professional personnel listed on page 3, beginning with the Principal Investigetor.

Use continuation pages and follow the same general format for each person.}

 

 

NAME TITLE BIRTHDATE (Ma., Day, Yr.)
YEAGER, William J. System Programmer June 16, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH (City, State, Country) PRESENT NATIONALITY (/f non-U,S. citizen, SEX

indicate kind of visa and expiration date)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

San Francisco, California, U.S.A. U.S. Citizen Mate (Female
EDUCATION (Begin with baccalaureate training and include postdoctoral)
YEAR SCIENTIFIC

INSTITUTION AND LOCATION DEGREE CONFERRED FIELD
University of Califormia, Berkeley B.A. 1964 Mathematics
California State University, San Jose M.A. 1967 Mathematics
University of Washington, Seattle None -- Mathematics

Doctoral studies (1969-70)

HONORS
MAJOR RESEARCH INTEREST ROLE IN PROPOSED PROJECT
Network communications System Programmer

 

 

RESEARCH SUPPORT [See instructions)

 

AESEARCH AND/OR PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE (Starting with present position, list training and experience relevant to area of project List all
or most representative publications, Do not exceed 3 pages for each individual.)

1978 - present
1975 - 1978
1971 ~ 1975
1970 - 1971
1968 - 1969
1967 - 1968
1966 - 1967
1966
PUBLICATIONS

System Programmer, SUMEX Computer Project,

Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
Scientific Programmer, Instrumentation Research Laboratories,

Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine
Programmer, Bendix Field Engineering, Moffett Field, California
Programmer, WELLSCO Data Corp., San Francisco, California
Mathematics Instructor, Gavilan Jr. College, Gilroy, California
Mathematics Instructor, Califomia Western Univ., San Diego
Mathematician/Programmer, Applied Physics Laboratory,

Seattle, Washington
Systems Representative, Burroughs Corp., San Jose, California

Smith, D.H., Achenbach, M., Yeager, W.J., Anderson, P.J., Fitch, W.L.,
Rindfleisch, T.: Quantitative Comparison of Combined Gas Chromato-
graphic/Mass Spectrometic Profiles of Complex Mixtures. Anal. Chen,,
49, 1623, 1977.

Smith, D.H., Rindfleisch, T.C. and Yeager, W.J.: Exchange of
Comments: Analysis .of Complex Volatile Mixtures by a Combined
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry System. Anal. Chem., 50, 1585,1978.

 

MIH 398 (FORMERLY PHS 398)
Rev. 1/73

E. A. Feigenbaum

# US. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1977—241.161:3024
128 Privileged Communication
 

 

Collaborative Projects.

9 Collaborative Project Reports

 

The following subsections report on the AIM community of projects and
"pilot" efforts including local and national users of the SUMEX-AIM
facility at Stanford and those using the Rutgers-AIM facility (these are
annotated with “[Rutgers-AIM]"). In addition to these detailed progress
reports, we have included briefer summary abstracts of the fully authorized
projects in Appendix A on page 331.

The collaborative project reports and comments are the result of a
solicitation for contributions sent to each of the project Principal
Investigators requesting the following information:

I. SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROGRAM

A. Project rationale

B. Medical relevance and collaboration

C Highlights of research progress
--Accomplishments this past year
~-Research in progress

D. List of relevant publications

E. Funding support (see details below)

II. INTERACTIONS WITH THE SUMEX-AIM RESOURCE

A Medical collaborations and program dissemination via SUMEX
B. Sharing and interactions with other SUMEX-AIM projects

(via computing facilities, workshops, personal contacts, etc.)
C. Critique of resource management

(community facilitation, computer services,
communications services, capacity, etc.)

TIT. RESEARCH PLANS (8/80-7/86)
A. Project goals and plans
-~-Near-term
--Long-range (8/81 forward)
B. Justification and requirements for continued SUMEX use
(This section will be of special importance to the
study section and council review of the SUMEX-AIM
renewal application)
C. Needs and plans for other computing resources, beyond SUMEX-AIM
D Recommendations for future community and resource development

We believe that the reports of the individual projects speak for themselves

as rationales for participation; in any case the reports are recorded as
submitted and are the responsibility of the indicated project leaders.

Privileged Communication 135 E. A. Feigenbaum
Stanford Projects Section 9.1

9.1 Stanford Projects

The following group of projects is formally approved for access to
the Stanford aliquot of the SUMEX~AIM resource. Their access is based on
review by the Stanford Advisory Group and approval by Professor Feigenbaum
as Principal Investigator.

E. A. Feigenbaum 136 Privileged Communication
Section 9.1.1 AGE - Attempt to Generalize

9.1.1 AGE - Attempt to Generalize

 

AGE - Attempt to Generalize

H. Penny Nii and Edward A. Feigenbaum
Computer Science Department
Stanford University

ABSTRACT: Isolate inference, control, and representation techniques
from previous knowledge-based programs; reprogram them for domain
independence; write an interface that will help a user understand what the
package offers and how to use the modules; and make the package available
to other members of the AIM community and tabs doing knowledge-based
programs development, and the general scientific community.

I. SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROGRAM

 

Project Rationale

The general goal of the AGE project is to demystify and make explicit
the art of knowledge engineering. It is an attempt to formulate the
knowledge that knowledge engineers use in constructing knowledge-based
programs and put it at the disposal of others in the form of a software
laboratory.

The design and implementation of the AGE program is based primarily
on the experience gained in building knowledge-based programs at the
Stanford Heuristic Programming Project in the last decade. The programs
that have been, or are being, built are: DENDRAL, meta-DENDRAL, MYCIN,
HASP, AM, MOLGEN, CRYSALIS [Feigenbaum 1977], and SACON [Bennett 1978].
Initially, the AGE program will embody artificial intelligence methods used
in these programs. However, the long-range aspiration is to integrate
methods and techniques developed at other AI laboratories. The final
product is to be a collection of building-block programs combined with an
"intelligent front-end" that will assist the user in constructing
knowledge-based programs. It is hoped that AGE will speed up the process
of building knowledge-based programs and facilitate the dissemination of AI
techniques by: (1) packaging common AI software tools so that they need not
be reprogrammed for every problem; and (2) helping people who are not
knowledge engineering specialists write knowledge-based programs.

Medical Relevance and Collaboration

AGE is relevant to the SUMEX-AIM Community in two ways: as a vehicle
for disseminating cumulated knowledge about the methodologies of knowledge
engineering and as a tool for reducing the amount of time needed to develop
knowledge-based programs.

(1). Dissemination of Knowledge: The primary strategy for conducting

Al research at the Stanford Heuristic Programming Project is to build
complex programs to solve carefully chosen problems and to allow the

Privileged Communication 137 EF. A. Feigenbaum
AGE - Attempt to Generalize . Section 9.1.1.

problems to condition the choice of scientific paths to be explored. The
historical context in which this methodology arose and summaries of the
programs that have been built over the last decade at HPP are discussed in
[Feigenbaum 1977]. While the programs serve as case studies in building a
field of “Knowledge engineering," they also contribute to a cumulation of
theory in representation and control paradigms and of methods in the
construction of knowledge-based programs.

The cumulation and concomitant dissemination of theory occur through
scientific papers. Over the past decade we have also cumulated and
disseminated methodological knowledge. In Computer Science, one effective
method of disseminating knowledge is in the form of software packages.
Statistical packages, though not related to AI, are one such example of
software packages containing cumulated knowledge. GE is an attempt to
make yesterday's "experimental technique" into tomorrow's "tool" in the
field of knowledge engineering.

(2). Speeding up the Process of Building Knowledge-based Programs:
Many of the programs built at HPP are intelligent agents to assist human
problem solving in tasks of significance to medicine and biology (see
separate sections for discussions of work and relevance). Without
exception the programs were handcrafted. This process often takes many
years, both for the AI scientists and for the experts in the field of
collaboration.

AGE will reduce this time by providing a set of preprogrammed
inference mechanisms and representational forms that can be used for a
variety of tasks. Close collaboration is still necessary to provide the
knowledge base, but the system design and programming time of the AI
scientists can be significantly reduced. Since knowledge engineering is an
empirical science, in which many programming experiments are conducted
before programs suitable for a task are produced, reducing the programming
and experimenting time would significantly reduce the time required to
build knowledge-based programs.

Highlights of Research Summary

in addition to the framework for building programs based on the
Blackboard model that was available last year, we have added the following
additional tools:

1. Framework for building programs that use backward-chained
production rules: Backward chaining of production rules is an
inference generating mechanism that is used in the MYCIN
program (and its offshoots). A simple framework has been
implemented in AGE that can be used by itself (i.e. to write
MYCIN-like programs) or as a part of a Blackboard based
program.

2. Interface to the Units Package: There are kinds of knowledge
for which the production rule representation is not suitable.
We have augmented the rule-based representation in AGE with
frame-like representation, as implemented in the Units package.

E. A. Feigenbaum 138 Privileged Communication
 

Section 9.1.1 AGE - Attempt to Generalize

The Units data base can be used from the left-hand-sides of

: rules or can be modified by the right-hand-sides of rules. This
! combination, in addition to providing another representational
| form for the frameworks in AGE, provides inference mechanism

| for Units in the form of rules and other control mechanisms
available in AGE.

Publications

Nai, HH. Penny and Aielio, Nelleke, "AGE: a knowledge-based program for
building knowledge-based programs,” Proc. of IJCAI-6, pp. 645-655, vol.
2, 1979.

In addition, to acquaint a variety of users in the use of AGE, three
documents are being prepared. They will be available July 1, 1980.

1. "Introduction of Knowledge Engineering, Blackboard Model, and AGE.” A
high level introduction to knowledge engineering and to the formulation
of problems using the Blackboard model.

2. "The Joy of AGE-~ing: A User's Guide to AGE-1." An introduction to the
use of AGE-1 system,

3. "AGE Reference Manual." A detailed documentation.

 

II, INTERACTION WITH THE SUMEX-AIM RESOURCES
AGE availability

Currently AGE-1 is available to a limited number of groups on the
PDP-10 at the SUMEX-AIM Computing Facility and on the PDP-20/60 at the
SCORE Facility of the Computer Science Department. The current
implementation is described briefly in a later section.

Dissemination

|

| A three-day workshop was conducted on the week of March 4, 1980 for a

| limited number of people who had requested access to AGE. Without

| exception, the attendees represented organizations that wish to build

| knowledge-based programs, but could not do so because of lack of qualified

| staff. The aim of the workshop was to familiarize the user with AGE, -and

| for each participant to implement a running program (even if a simple one)

7 related to his own problem. The names of the organizations represented and
brief descriptions of the problems for possible implementation on AGE are
listed below:

Information Science Group, University of Missouri-Columbia

Interpretation of test results for determining the cause of
blood coagulation problems in patient with excessive bleeding.
If the interpretation problem can be successfully implemented,
they will go on to implement a program that recommend anti-
coagulation therapy.

Privileged Communication 139 E. A. Feigenbaum
AGE - Attempt to Generalize Section 9.1.1

Institute of Medical Electronics, University of Tokyo

Diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases using diverse data and
knowledge, and therapy recommendation with re-evaluation diagnosis.
In general, this group is interested in building programs that
serve as research tools rather than as applied clinical tools.

Department of Psychology, University of Colorado

This groups is using the Blackboard framework in AGE to build
a psychological model of prose comprehension. They have been using
AGE for about one year.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Interpretation of physical signals--non-medical application.
Schlumberger-Doll Research Center

Interpretation of physical signals--non-medical application.

In the process of building AGE, we have used it to write some
programs to serve as test programs. Three different versions of PUFF
[Feigenbaum 1977; Kunz 1978]--one using the Event-driven control macro, one
using the Expectation-driven control macro [Nii 1978], and another using
backward-chained productions rules [Shortliffe 1977] were implemented.
Since the domain-specific knowledge for PUFF already existed and was
implemented in EMYCIN, each AGE version took about a week to bring up--time
needed to reorganize the rules .into KSs and to rewrite them in the AGE rule
Syntax. We have also tested a variety of small programs, including
programs for cryptogram analysis, determining a bidding strateqy for the
game of hearts, and a graph traversal problem.

Profile of the Current AGE System

To correspond to the two general technical goals described earlier,
AGE is being developed along two separate fronts: the development of tools
and the development of "intelligent" user interface.

Currently Implemented Tools

The current AGE system provides the user with a set of preprogrammed
modules called "components" or “building blocks”. Using different
combinations of these components, the user can build a variety of programs
that display different problem-solving behavior. AGE also provides user
interface modules that help the user in constructing and specifying the
details of the components. A component is a collection of functions and
variables that support conceptual entities in program form. For example,
production rule, as a component, consists of: (1) a rule interpreter that
support tne syntactic and semantic description of production-rule
representation as defined in AGE, and (2) various strategies for rule
selection and execution.

E. A. Feigenbaum 140 Privileged Communication
 

Section 9,1.1 . AGE - Attempt to Generalize

The components in AGE have been carefully selected and modularly
programmed to be useable in combinations. For those users not familiar
enough to experiment with combining the components, AGE currently provides
the user two predefined configuration of components--each configuration is
called a "framework", One framework, called the Blackboard framework, is
for building programs that are based on the Blackboard model [Lesser 77].
Blackboard model uses the concepts of a globally accessible data structure
called a "blackboard", and independent sources of knowledge which cooperate
to form hypotheses. The Blackboard model has been modified to allow
flexibility in representation, selection, and utilization of knowledge.
The other framework, called the Backchain framework, is for building
programs that use backward-chained production rules as its primary
mechanism of generating inferences.

The Front-End

To support the user in the selection, specification, and use of the
components, AGE is currently organized around four major subsystems that
interact in various ways. Around it is a system executive that allows the
user access to the subsystems through menu selection. Figure 1. shows the
general interrelationship among these subsystems.

The Browse and Design subsystems help to familiarize the user with
AGE and to. guide the user in the construction of user programs through the
use of predefined frameworks. The third subsystem is a collection of
interface modules that help the user specify the various components of the
framework. The last subsystem is designed for testing and refining the
user program. Each of the subsystem is described in more detail below:

BROWSE: The function of Browse subsystem is to guide the user in
browsing through its textual knowledge base, called the MANUAL. The MANUAL
contains (a) a general description of the building-block components on the
conceptual level; (b) a description of the implementation of these concepts
within AGE; (c) a description of how these components are used within the
object program; (d) how they can be constructed by the user; and (e)
various examples. The information in the MANUAL is organized to represent
the conceptual hierarchy of the components and to represent the functional
relationship among them.

DESIGN: The function of the DESIGN subsystem is to guide the user in
the design and construction of his program through the use of predefined
configuration of components, or framework. Each framework is defined in
DESIGN-SCHEMA, a data structure in the form of AND/OR tree, that, on one
hand, represents all the possible configuration of components within the
framework; and, on the other hand, represents the decisions the user must
make in order to design the details of the user program. Using this
schema, the DESIGN subsystem guides the user from one design decision point
to another. At each decision point, the user has access to the MANUAL and
also to advice regarding design decisions at that point. An appropriate
ACQUISITION module can be invoked from the DESIGN subsystem so that general
design and imptementation specifications can be accomplished
simultaneously.

Privileged Communication 141 £E. A. Feigenbaum
AGE - Attempt to Generalize Section 9,1.1

ACQUISITION: For each component that the user must specify, there is
a corresponding acquisition module and editor that asks the user for task-
specific information. The calling sequence of the acquisition module is
guided by DESIGN-SCHEMA when the user is using the DESIGN subsystem.
However, they can also be accessed directly from the system menu or
Interlisp.

INTERPRETER: This subsystem contains several modules that help the
user run and debug his program. The Check module checks for the
completeness and correctness of the specification for an entire framework.
The Interpreter executes the user program which can be executed with
various tracing modes. AGE currently provides no special debugging tools
beyond what is available in Interlisp,.

EXPLANATION: AGE has enough information to replay its execution
steps, and it has reasonable justifications for the actions within the
various framework. However, AGE is totally ignorant of the user's task
domain and has no means of conducting a dialogue about the task domain. A
detailed history of the execution steps is available to the user. The
HISTORYLIST can be used in a variety of ways, including the construction of
explanations.

SYSTEM KNOWLEDGE SUBSYSTEM RESULT
|
tram eee nH + pene en Venere +
| MANUAL J....>] BROWSE |
toe econo H- tee, toon n- pe nnnnn +
|
tore coe cnne to Henna V------ + poem crete +
[| DESIGN [....>}| DESIGN j....>|USER SYSTEM |
| SCHEMA | | | DESIGN |
prec reer an to, Been tone nne + hewn enn to---- +
rn |
Peco eeee eee Fo Hee e ee V------ + toe meee ese en- +
{COMPONENTS |....>] ACQUISITION|....>] USER |
| | | | { SYSTEM |
tooo noe nnne + Fone nono nn n-e + $onaen- +----- +
[Svea esses esse .es. |
tocnn-H V----- +
J INTERPRETER |..... > EXECUTION
toon ane [----- + HISTORY LIST

Figure 1. AGE System Organization
(... = data flow; --- = control flow)

£. A. Feigenbaum 142 Privileged Communication
Section 9.1.1 AGE ~- Attempt to Generalize

IIT. RESEARCH PLAN
Research Topics

The task of building a software laboratory for knowledge engineers is
divided into two main sub-tasks:

1. The isolation of techniques used in knowledge-based programs: It
has always been difficult to determine if a particular problem solving
method used in a knowledge-based program is “special” to a particular
domain or whether it generalizes easily to other domains. In existing
knowledge-based programs, the domain specific knowledge and the
manipulation of such knowledge using AI techniques are often so closely
coupled that it is difficult to make use of the programs for other domains.
One of cur goals is to isolate the AI techniques that are general and
determine precisely the conditions for their use.

2. Guiding the user in the initial application of these techniques:
Once the various techniques are isolated and programmed for use, an
intelligent agent is needed to guide the user in the application of these
techniques. In AGE-1, we assume that the user understands AI techniques,
knows what she wants to do, but does not understand how to use the AGE
system to accomplish his task. A longer range interest involves helping
the user determine what techniques are applicable to his task, i.e. it will
assume that the user does not understand the necessary techniques of
writing knowledge-based programs.

Research Plan

AGE~1 system is now complete, and will be released for general use on
July 1. The research and development plan for AGE-2 include the following:

1. Improving the Front-end

Although the current Design subsystem provides specification
functions that allow the user to interactively specify the knowledge of the
domain and control structure, it does not (aside from simple advice)
provide the user any hetp in the designing process. For example, AGE
should be able to provide some heuristics on what kind of inference
mechanisms and representation are appropriate for different kinds of
problems. We have begun collecting knowledge-engineering heuristics, but
much more work is needed in building a design aid that will be useful.

2. Adding More Tools

Our concept of a software laboratory is a facility by which the users
are provided with a variety of preprogrammed components that can be
combined into problem-solving frameworks--similar in spirit to designs of
prefabricated houses. The user can augment and modify a framework to
develop his own programs. We currently provide tools for developing
programs that use the Blackboard framework and framework for backward-
chained inference rules. We have also integrated the Units Package
(described elsewhere) to be used within the Blackboard framework. Given

Privileged Communication 143 E. A. Feigenbaum
AGE - Attempt to Generalize . Section 9.1.1.

the current set of components, other frameworks can, and need to be
defined; i.e. other combinations of components that would be useful in
solving a wide range of problems. Another inference mechanism, the
heuristic search paradigm also need to be added.

3. Performance Test

Although various users have attempted to use the AGE system, it has
not been tested for its power and flexibility. For the next three to five
years, we will add to our task the development of an application problem
complex enough to exercise the variety of components available in the
current system.

Computing Resources and Management

I believe the computing and communication resources provide by the
SUMEX Facility is one of the best in the country. The management is
responsive to the needs of the research community and provides superb
services. However, the system is getting to a point where no serious
research and development is possible, because of the lack of computing
cycles due to overcrowding. It is a compliment to the facility that there
are so many users. On the other hand, our productivity has gone down in
recent months, because of the heavy load on the system. It would appear
that the situation will not improve on its own, since many of the projects
that were small a few years ago are maturing into larger, more complex
systems. Which is the way it should be. The environment in which the work
is done also needs to grow. In short, without augmentation to the current
computing power and storage space (which had never been generous}, our
ability to make research progress at SUMEX will be drastically curtailed.

E. A. Feigenbaum 144 Privileged Communication
 

Section 9.1.2 AI Handbook Project
9.1.2 AI Handbook Project
Handbook of Artificial Intelligence
E. A, Feigenbaum and A. Barr

Stanford Computer Science Department

I. SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROGRAM

 

A. Technical Goals

The AI Handbook is a compendium of knowledge about the field of
Artificial Intelligence. It is being compiled by students and
investigators at several research facilities across the nation. The scope
of the work is broad: Two hundred articles cover all of the important
ideas, techniques, and systems developed during 20 years of research in AI.
Fach article, roughly four pages tong, is a description written for non-AlI
specialists and students of AI. Additional articles serve as Overviews,
which discuss the various approaches within a subfield, the issues, and the
problems.

There is no comparable resource for AI researchers and other
scientists who need access to descriptions of AI techniques like problem
solving or parsing. The research literature in AI is not generally
accessible to outsiders. And the elementary textbooks are not nearly broad
enough in scope to be useful to a scientist working primarily in another
discipline who wants to do something requiring knowledge of AI.
Furthermore, we feel that some of the Overview articles are the best
critical discussions available anywhere of activity in the field.

To indicate the scope of the Handbook, we have included an outline of
the articles as an appendix to this report (see Appendix G on page 392).

B. Medical Relevance and Collaboration

The AI Handbook Project was undertaken as a core activity by SUMEX in
the spirit of community building that is the fundamental concern of the
facility. We feel that the organization and propagation of this kind of
information to the AIM community, as well as to other fields where AI is
being applied, is a valuable service that we are uniquely qualified to
support.

C. Progress Summary

Because our objective is to develop a comprehensive and up-to-date
survey of the field, our article-writing procedure is suitably involved.
First drafts of Articles are reviewed by the staff and returned to the
author (either an AI scientist or a student in the area). His final draft
is then incorporated into a Chapter, which when completed is sent out for
review to one or two experts in that particular area, to check for mistakes
and omissions. After corrections and comments from our reviewers are

Privileged Communication 145 —E. A. Feigenbaum
AI Handbook Project Section 9.1.2

incorporated by the staff, the manuscript is edited, and a final computer-
‘prepared, photo-ready copy of the Chapter is generated.

We expect the Handbook to reach a size of approximately 1000 pages.
Roughly two-thirds of this material will constitute Volume I of the
Handbook, which will be going through the final stages of manuscript
preparation in the Spring and Summer of 1980. The material in Volume I
will cover AI research in Heuristic Search, Representation of Knowledge, AI
Programming Languages, Natural Language Understanding, Speech
Understanding, Automatic Programming, and Applications-oriented AI Research
in Science, Mathematics, Medicine, and Education. Researchers at Stanford
University, Rutgers University, SRI International, Xerox PARC, RAND
Corporation, MIT, USC-ISI, Yale, and Carnegie-Mellon University have
contributed material to the project.

D. List of Relevant Publications

Most of the chapters in Volume I of the AI Handbook have already
appeared in preliminary form as Stanford Computer Science Technical
Reports, authored by the respective chapter-editors:

HPP-79-12 (STAN-CS~-79-726)
Ann Gardner. Search.

HPP-79-17 (STAN-CS-79-749)
William Clancey, James Bennett, and Paul Cohen.
Applications-oriented AI Research: Education.

HPP-79-21 (STAN-CS-79-754)
Anne Gardner, James Davidson, and Terry Winograd.
Natural Language Understanding.

HPP-79-22 (STAN-CS-79-756)
James S. Bennett, Bruce G. Buchanan, and Paul R. Cohen.
Applications-oriented AI Research: Science and Mathematics.

HPP-79-23 (STAN-CS-79-757)
Victor Ciesielski, James S. Bennett, and Paul R. Cohen.
Applications-oriented AI Research: Medicine.

HPP-79-24 (STAN-CS-79-758)
Robert Elschlager and Jorge Phillips. Automatic Programming.

HPP~80-3 (STAN-CS-80-793)
Avron Barr and James Davidson. Representation of Knowledge.

£. Funding Support Status

The Handbook Project is partially supported under the Heuristic
Programming Project contract with the Advance Research Projects Agency of
the DOD, contract number MDA 903-77-C-0322, E. A. Feigenbaum, Principle
Investigator and under the core research activities of the SUMEX-AIM
resource,

E. A. Feigenbaum 146 Privileged Communication
Section 9.1.2 AI Handbook Project.

IT. INTERACTIONS WITH SUMEX-AIM RESOURCE

 

A. Collaborations and medical use of programs via SUMEX

We have had a modest level of collaboration with a group of students
and staff at the Rutgers resource, as well as occasional collaboration with
individuals at other ARPA net sites.

B. Sharing and interactions with other SUMEX-AIM projects.

As described above, we have had moderate levels of interaction with
other members of the SUMEX-AIM community, in the form of writing and
reviewing Handbook material. During the development of this material,
limited arrangements have been made for sharing the emerging text. As
final manuscripts are produced, they will be made available to the SUMEX-
AIM community both as on-line files and in the hardcopy, published edition.

C. Critique of Resource Management

Our requests of the SUMEX management and systems staff, requests for
additional file space, directories, systems support, or program changes,
have been answered promptly, courteously and competently, on every
occasion,

TIT. RESEARCH PLANS (8/80 - 7/83)
A. Long Range Project Goals

The following is our tentative schedule for completion and
publication of the AI Handbook:

Spring and Summer, 1980 - Volume I will go through final editing,
computer typesetting, and printing.

Fall, 1980 through Spring, 1983 - Volume I will be published. Research
for Volume II will be started and draft material will go through
the external review process.

B. Justifications and requirements for continued SUMEX use

The AI Handbook Project is a good example of community coliaboration
using the SUMNEX~AIM communication facilities to prepare, review, and
disseminate this reference work on AI techniques. The Handbook articles
currently exist as computer files at the SUMEX facility. All of our
authors and reviewers have access to these files via the network facilities
and use the document-editing and formatting programs available at SUMEX.
This relatively small investment of resources will result in what we feel
will be a seminal publication in the field of AI, of particular value to
researchers, like those in the AIM community, who want quick access to AI
ideas and techniques for application in other areas.

Privileged Communication 147 E. A. Feigenbaum
AI Handbook Project Section 9.1.2

C. Your needs and plans for other computational resources
We will use document preparation programs at SUMEX and a xerographic
output device at the Stanford Computer Science Department to produce the
final copy of the AI Handbook.

D. Recommendations for future community and resource development

None.

E. A. Feigenbaum 148 Privileged Communication
 

Section 9.1.3 DENDRAL Project
9.1.3 DENDRAL Project
The DENDRAL Project
Resource-Related Research: Computers in Chemistry
Prof. Carl Djerassi

Department of Chemistry
Stanford University

I, Summary of Research Program

 

The DENDRAL Project is a resource-related research project. The
resource to which it is related is SUMEX-AIM, which provides DENDRAL its
sole computational resource for program development and dissemination to
the biomedical community.

I.A, Project Rationale

 

The DENDRAL project is concerned with the application of state-of-
the-art computational techniques to several aspects of structural
chemistry. The overall goals of our research are to develop and apply
computational techniques to the procedures of structural analysis of known
and unknown organic compounds based on structural information obtained from
physical and chemical methods and to place these techniques in the hands of
a wide community of collaborators to help them solve questions of structure
of important biomolecules. These techniques are embodied in interactive
computer programs which place structural analysis under the complete
control of the scientist working on his or her own structural problem,
Thus, we stress the word assisted when we characterize our research effort
as computer-assisted structure elucidation or analysis.

Our principal objective is to extend our existing techniques for

“computer assistance in the representation and manipulation of chemical

structures along two complementary, interdigitated lines. We are
developing a comprehensive, interactive system to assist scientists in all
phases of structural analysis (SASES, or Semi-Automated Structure
Elucidation System) from data interpretation through structure generation
to data prediction. This system will act as a computer-based laboratory in
which complex structural questions can be posed and answered quickly,
thereby conserving time and sample. In a complementary effort we are
extending our techniques from the current emphasis on topological, or
constitutional, representations of structure to detailed treatment of
conformational and configurational stereochemical aspects of structure,

By Meeting our objectives we will fill in the “missing link" in
computer assistance in structural analysis. Our capabilities for
structural analysis based on the three-dimensional nature of molecules is
an absolute necessity for relating structural characteristics of molecules
to their observed biological, chemical or spectroscopic behavior. These
Capabilities will represent a quantum leap beyond our current techniques

Privileged Communication 149 £E. A. Feigenbaum
 

DENDRAL Project Section 9.1.3

and open new vistas in applications of our programs, both of which will
attract new applications among a broad community of structural chemists and
biochemists who will have access to our techniques. This access depends
entirely on our access to and the continued availability of SUMEX-AIM.
These issues are discussed in detail in the subsequent section,
Interactions with the SUMEX-AIM Resource.

The primary rationale for our research effort is that structure
determination of unknown structures and the relationship of known
structures to observed spectroscopic or biological activity are complex and
time-consuming tasks. We know from past experience that computer programs
can complement the biochemist's knowledge and reasoning power, thereby
acting as valuable assistants in solving important biomedical problems. By
meeting our objectives we feel strongly that our programs will become
essential tools in the repertoire of techniques available to the structural
biochemist.

Our research grant has recently been renewed for a three-year period
beginning May 1, 1980. This renewal has come at a particularly opportune
time in the development of computer aids to structure elucidation. We are
beginning to push our techniques for spectral interpretation, structure
generation (e.g., CONGEN) and spectral prediction to their limits within
the confines of topological representations of molecular structure. Even
so, these techniques are perceived to be of significant utility in the
scientific community as evidenced by our workshops, the demand for the
exportable version of CONGEN and the number of persons requesting
collaborative or guest access to our programs at Stanford (see Interactions
with the SUMEX-AIM Resource). In order to proceed further in providing to
the community programs which are more generally applicable to biological
structure problems and more easily accessible we must address squarely the
limitations inherent in existing approaches and search for ways to solve
them. Our major objectives are based on the following rationale.

None of our techniques (or the techniques of any other’ investigators)
for computer-assisted structure elucidation of unknown molecular structures
make full use of stereochemical information. As existing programs were
being developed this limitation was less important. The first step in many
structure determinations is to establish the constitution of the structure,
or the topological structure, and that is what CONGEN, for example, was
designed to accomplish. However, most spectroscopic behavior and certainly
most biclogical activities of molecules are due to their three-dimensional
Nature. For example, some programs for prediction of the number of
resonances observed in 13CMR spectra use the topological symmetry group of
a molecule for prediction. However, in reality it is the symmetry group of
the stereoisomer that must be used. This group reflects the usually lower
symmetry of molecules possessing chiral centers and which generally exist
in fewer than the total possible number of conformations. This will
increase the number of carbon resonances observed over that predicted by
the topological symmetry group alone. More generally, few of the techniques
in the area of computer-assisted structure elucidation can be used in
accurate prediction of structure/property relationships, whether the
properties be spectral resonances or biological activities.

E. A. Feigenbaum 150 Privileged Communication