Papers by Graham Winstanley
Facilities, 2013
ABSTRACT Purpose – This paper aims to review the impact of design and specification decisions for... more ABSTRACT Purpose – This paper aims to review the impact of design and specification decisions for major works during post-occupancy processes; the routine maintenance and management of school premises. It also seeks to explore the relationship between the main stakeholders and how this impacts decision-making and the post-occupancy operation of school buildings. Design/methodology/approach – In addition to a literature review, qualitative data were also obtained through a focus group; a steering group. The steering group consisted of stakeholders tasked with delivering and managing school premises in the Sussex County. Findings – The findings contribute to understanding the impact of design decisions on post-occupancy processes in schools. A basic model is also presented as a guide for requirements and decision mapping in post-occupancy design decision processes in schools. Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted with the participation of a representative sample of stakeholders. There may be the need to investigate the issues further in a localised context before detailed solutions are proposed. Practical implications – The paper reports findings based on the needs, requirements, and preferences of the stakeholders as well as the opportunities and constraints to improving the quality of design processes which in turn will improve post occupancy processes. Originality/value – The paper highlights the complexity of design decision-making in schools, presents the viewpoint of stakeholders, and proposes a basic model to ensure performance for post-occupancy processes to inform the next stage of the research.
General purpose planners such as STRIPS-style planners have had difficulties in generating realis... more General purpose planners such as STRIPS-style planners have had difficulties in generating realistic plans in real en- gineering domains. On the other hand, the narrowly scoped expert planning systems can be used for specific domains but have little value for even slightly different domains. OAR- PLAN described in this paper attemps to attain both the generality and high performance by
We present a technique which extends the current HTN planning paradigm, by providing a more knowl... more We present a technique which extends the current HTN planning paradigm, by providing a more knowledge centred assessment of activities and ordering constraints. Centred upon a knowledge-rich model, DART-Network planning applies mixed mode reasoning to determine the need for activities and ordering constraints within a plan. We describe a simple construc- tion problem to demonstrate the limitations of existing HTN
The aim of this project is to make simulated characters in interactive real-time software scenari... more The aim of this project is to make simulated characters in interactive real-time software scenarios more believable by increasing the personality of their behaviour. This will be achieved by implementing biologically inspired Artificial Life (Alife) architectures into their control mechanisms.
To develop a quality Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning application, one must understand ho... more To develop a quality Hierarchical Task Network (HTN) planning application, one must understand how to use the representational devices provided by these systems to construct a principled model of an application domain. Support for this objective is currently limited to evolving guidance frameworks and repositories of domain descriptions. To date, there has been no description of the application of these guidance frameworks to form concrete domain descriptions. The developer is instead left to discover for themself the mapping between the steps of the frameworks and entries in the repositories. In this paper, we address this issue by describing the development of a HTN solution for the construction industry with the guidance of the TF Method. From this experience, we conclude that the TF Method o ers signi cant assistance to the knowledge engineer. Speci cally, the method highlights the importance of a planned approach to the development of an application, a conscious commitment to a primary modelling method, and the gradual and considered development of HTN descriptions. The method, however, would bene t from pointers to complementary techniques developed in other areas (e.g. the KADS methodology), and from tool-support.
Software development is widely acknowledged to be a process prone to failure. We argue that there... more Software development is widely acknowledged to be a process prone to failure. We argue that there is thus a need for improved project risk management frameworks and tools. Further, a coherent, concise and accessible risk model can be useful to project development team members in capturing disparate perceptions of project risk and providing a common basis for its analysis, prediction and mitigation. This paper proposes a core model that forms a reasoned foundation for the management process, and which can be extended on a project-to-project basis. This 'Core-Model' is based on cognitive and causal maps. The Core-Model has been applied experimentally to two case studies: a) the evaluation of the performance of a completed project; and b) an attempt at predicting the outcome of a new and ongoing project. The use of causal mapping techniques resulted in the added value of intuitive and interactive visualization of the interrelations between project components and of the propagation of risk through chains of cause and effect.
Journal of Clinical Pathology, Feb 1, 1990
The development of the National Breast Screening Programme has created a demand for the widesprea... more The development of the National Breast Screening Programme has created a demand for the widespread availability of fine needle aspiration cytology services. To meet this demand there must be a rapid increase in the number of pathologists and laboratories able to offer this service. In turn there is a need for improved training methods. The technique of fine needle aspiration cytology is not inherently complicated. The number of possible conclusions is essentially limited to four: unsatisfactory, benign, suspicious and malignant. A computer based expert system, designed to assist pathologists in the diagnosis of fine needle aspirates of the breast, has been developed. The system prompts pathologists to categorise a number of variables in the aspirate including nuclear and cytoplasmic features, and the degree of cellular cohesion, and uses these data to reason about possible conclusions. The final diagnosis is displayed with a detailed explanation listing the factors supporting it.
Due to the rapid introduction of new technology and the increasing complexity of the marketplace,... more Due to the rapid introduction of new technology and the increasing complexity of the marketplace, Software systems development and implementation has become progressively more difficult. This paper proposes an evaluation framework for identifying the causes of shortfalls in implemented information system projects. This framework has been developed during a longitudinal case study of a problematic project, which is described.
Conventional computer-assisted medical decision-making systems have had limited impact on routine... more Conventional computer-assisted medical decision-making systems have had limited impact on routine clinical practice. This has stimulated an alternative approach to the utilization of medical knowledge bases. Centering on the storage and retrieval of medical information, it aims to provide clinicians with computerized medical reference systems. In this paper we describe the development of a prototype menu-driven browsing tool, which allows clinicians to browse through the contents of a knowledge base in a number of ways. Operations include interrogation via disease classes, names or attributes; hierarchical display of all or part of a disease profile; printing of a disease profile; construction of differential diagnosis lists and comparison of two diseases. We discuss how the use of a menu-driven interface can help to overcome some of the problems encountered with previous designs of medical reference systems.
ABSTRACT Capital investment fund for schools increased from £683 million in 1996-97 to £8.2 billi... more ABSTRACT Capital investment fund for schools increased from £683 million in 1996-97 to £8.2 billion in 2010-2011. Decentralisation, has led to devolving responsibilities to local authorities, bringing along more independence for the schools and at the same time an increase in the number of decision makers with a new set of agendas, criteria, concerns and priorities. School buildings on the other hand are prone to post-occupancy design and alteration. In addition to post-occupancy design decisions, many other operational and maintenance decisions need to be made on a day-to-day basis to ensure that all activities within a premise will be carried out flawlessly. An ongoing research project focuses on post-occupancy design issues in schools in the UK. The research investigates the key factors in post-occupancy performance, in close collaboration with key stakeholders in school projects. It also outlines the maintenance and management of those premises and maps out the flow of information and the exchange of knowledge in this process. Using those findings it will then propose a decision support system to assist schools as well as local authorities in their post-occupancy design decisions. This paper establishes the decision processes and investigates the relationships between the stakeholders and how those may have impacts on the decision processes. The main focus of this paper however, is on the collaborative work processes for all the stakeholders to co-create knowledge and value. Once established it will then be used to devise a decision support system which will act as a permanent hub to facilitate information flow and knowledge exchange for post-occupancy works in school buildings. The paper will conclude with the design criteria for such a platform.
This paper examines the use of causal mapping as a means of modelling the way that activities may... more This paper examines the use of causal mapping as a means of modelling the way that activities may, or may not, contribute to the objectives of an organization. Among other benefits, it enables management information systems to be designed that allow a more accurate picture of the performance of an organisation to be drawn. Such maps have the advantage that they can be drawn collaboratively and thus assist in the building of organisational consensus.
Our research seeks to improve the management of the risk of failure in information system develop... more Our research seeks to improve the management of the risk of failure in information system development projects. As such it clearly needs to address issues of causality. A desirable outcome would be the construction of models which could indicate the likelihood of project failure for a given set of circumstances, based on the analysis of the performance of past projects. This paper reports on some of the obstacles to the construction of such models. In particular it considers: the diversity of perceptions and the problems of constructing a consensus between project actors with regard to the real circumstances of a project; the problems of diagnosing the causal relationships between project variables where more than one variable has an influence on a project outcome; the confounding influence on causal analysis of project actors who, quite rationally, desire a positive outcome to the project and so work to reduce the influence of negative outcomes.
CorMod to facilitate the applicability of applying a causal core model in a workshop/focus group ... more CorMod to facilitate the applicability of applying a causal core model in a workshop/focus group environment to enhance the identification and analysis process of risk in the early stages of E-Gov development projects. The model/tool was based on the techniques of causal maps and has been used previously in three different traditional case studies of IS development projects with encouraging results. The model/tool combines different approaches such as brainstorming, questionnaires, and workshop/focus-groups. These methods have been used in IS traditional development projects, however, this research is concerned with their applicability within E-Gov development projects. One feature of CorMod is its ability to structure risk factors in development projects. This experiment, using CorMod, was conducted in the early stages of a large scale E-Gov development project based in Kuwait. The case study was conducted at a government agency within the government of Kuwait in charge on executing the national E-Gov program in the country. One main objective of this experiment is to improve the assessment of risk management approach in E-Gov development projects.
ABSTRACT Post occupancy evaluation (POE) and associated processes have recently been highlighted ... more ABSTRACT Post occupancy evaluation (POE) and associated processes have recently been highlighted as an important stage in a buildings’ lifecycle. This stage is now well embedded in the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) plan of work. For educational institutions, buildings are important assets in providing good quality services and are subject to rigorous statutory requirements by governing authorities. The effective delivery, maintenance and operation of these assets throughout their lifecycle are therefore equally important. The post occupancy processes such as maintenance and improvement are often complicated as a result of the high number of stakeholders involved, the funding and responsibility hierarchy and the complexity of space functionality. Performance requirements as well as legal and liability-related issues and requirements also need to be taken into account. Preliminary research has shown that these complex and multi-layered processes can be improved by the support of an information and communication technology (ICT) toolkit. This toolkit should be of the same level of complexity or higher to be able to effectively assist in the daily operation of school sites, while providing decision makers with a real-time information support system. The aim is to promote a more direct, informed and feedback-based decision process among stakeholders and other interested parties. This paper presents partial outcomes of an on-going research project and sets out to describe the design principles for this toolkit. It starts with an overview of the stakeholders, their needs and workflow practices and the performance and legal requirements they have to comply with. It then investigates the relationships among stakeholders and what factors need to be prioritised within the system. The paper concludes by presenting an overview of the proposed toolkit based on these user-prioritised factors and the design principles that allow the toolkit to enhance, yet integrate with the established managerial and decision making practices, with the objective of low risk and seamless deployment.
Research and Development in Intelligent Systems XXIV, 2008
The problems associated with planning and managing patient treatment through complex care setting... more The problems associated with planning and managing patient treatment through complex care settings are significant. It has long been realised that support tools are invaluable in ensuring quality and consistency of care in a domain characterised by complex information spread over widely differing contexts. This paper focuses on the temporal nature of medical support tools and describes structures designed to accommodate their representation and reasoning requirements. The paper discusses the temporal facilities of the CIG-Plan medical care planning system and critically compares our work with contemporary research in the medical guideline and AI Planning communities.
We present a compilation-based approach to reducing the representational distance between applica... more We present a compilation-based approach to reducing the representational distance between application domain experts and AI planning technology. The approach combines a representation designed to match the structure of human expertise in the construction industry with an established planning technique. The design of this representation is derived from a study carried out with experts in the industry. This study shows that expertise in the industry is centred on the components of a building and organised into a subcomponent structure. We demonstrate by encoding the results of this study into a HTN formalism that such formalisms fragment expert knowledge. This fragmentation leads to a large representational distance between expert and formalism, making the task of encoding and maintaining a planner knowledge base a complex one. Our solution is to provide a representation designed around the modelling requirements of the construction industry and then to compile HTN sche...
We present an extension to the HTN planning paradigm, which provides a more knowledge centred ass... more We present an extension to the HTN planning paradigm, which provides a more knowledge centred assessment of activities and ordering constraints. Based upon a knowledge-rich model, DART-Network planning applies mixed mode reasoning to determine the need for activities and ordering constraints within a plan. We describe a simple construction problem to demonstrate the limitations of existing HTN formalisms and the advantages of our approach.
ABSTRACT The histopathological diagnosis of breast disease is representative of many problems of ... more ABSTRACT The histopathological diagnosis of breast disease is representative of many problems of differential diagnosis encountered in the medical domain. It requires highly trained and experienced experts and is characterized by a large number of features whose presence or absence involves much uncertainty. Computer-based decision support systems intended to function in a consultative capacity during differential diagnosis have had limited success for two fundamental reasons. Firstly, they take an autonomous role and assume that the user has no contribution to make to the problem-solving process. Secondly, the established techniques for representing and reasoning with medical knowledge are of limited suitability in this domain. Such systems are unable to reach a correct diagnosis quickly and often subject the user to a cumbersome dialogue. These are not tolerated by pathologists working under severe time constraints. We first look at the problem-solving methods employed by pathologists in this domain and examine the functionality of traditional expert system methodologies. We then present a cooperative design which allows the pathologists to express his or her ideas within a decision support system whilst gaining assistance in required areas. A novel inference technique based upon the set partitioning technique in hypergraphs is also described. This mathematical method has the ability to cope with the incomplete or inadequate knowledge which is a characteristic of breast disease, whilst directing data gathering in a meaningful manner. In particular this approach can significantly reduce the amount of irrelevant data which the pathologist must enter before a conclusion is reached. Thus it can potentially improve the efficiency and user acceptability of medical expert systems.
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Papers by Graham Winstanley