Incompleteness And Uncertainty In Information Systems

The Software Engineering and Knowledgebase Systems (SOFfEKS) Research Group of the Department of Computer Science, Concordia University, Canada, organized a workshop on Incompleteness and Uncertainty in Information Systems from October 8-9, 1993 in Montreal. A major aim of the workshop was to bring together researchers who share a concern for issues of incompleteness and uncertainty. The workshop attracted people doing fundamental research and industry oriented research in databases, software engineering and AI from North America, Europe and Asia. The workshop program featured six invited talks and twenty other presentations. The invited speakers were: Martin Feather (University of Southern CalifornialInformation Systems Institute) Laks V. S. Lakshmanan (Concordia University) Ewa Orlowska (Polish Academy of Sciences) z. Pawlak (Warsaw Technical University and Academy of Sciences) F. Sadri (Concordia University) A. Skowron (Warsaw University) The papers can be classified into four groups: rough sets and logic, concept analysis, databases and information retrieval, and software engineering. The workshop opened with a warm welcome speech from Dr. Dan Taddeo, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science. The first day's presentations were in rough sets, databases and information retrieval. Papers given on the second day centered around software engineering and concept analysis. Sufficient time was given in between presentations to promote active interactions and numerous lively discussions. At the end of two days, the participants expressed their hope that this workshop would be continued.

As its title suggests, "Uncertainty Management in Information Systems" is a book about how information systems can be made to manage information permeated with uncertainty. This subject is at the intersection of two areas of knowledge: information systems is an area that concentrates on the design of practical systems that can store and retrieve information; uncertainty modeling is an area in artificial intelligence concerned with accurate representation of uncertain information and with inference and decision-making under conditions infused with uncertainty. New applications of information systems require stronger capabilities in the area of uncertainty management. Our hope is that lasting interaction between these two areas would facilitate a new generation of information systems that will be capable of servicing these applications. Although there are researchers in information systems who have addressed themselves to issues of uncertainty, as well as researchers in uncertainty modeling who have considered the pragmatic demands and constraints of information systems, to a large extent there has been only limited interaction between these two areas. As the subtitle, "From Needs to Solutions," indicates, this book presents view points of information systems experts on the needs that challenge the uncer tainty capabilities of present information systems, and it provides a forum to researchers in uncertainty modeling to describe models and systems that can address these needs.

In 1982, Professor Pawlak published his seminal paper on what he called "rough sets" - a work which opened a new direction in the development of theories of incomplete information. Today, a decade and a half later, the theory of rough sets has evolved into a far-reaching methodology for dealing with a wide variety of issues centering on incompleteness and imprecision of information - issues which playa key role in the conception and design of intelligent information systems. "Incomplete Information: Rough Set Analysis" - or RSA for short - presents an up-to-date and highly authoritative account of the current status of the basic theory, its many extensions and wide-ranging applications. Edited by Professor Ewa Orlowska, one of the leading contributors to the theory of rough sets, RSA is a collection of nineteen well-integrated chapters authored by experts in rough set theory and related fields. A common thread that runs through these chapters ties the concept of incompleteness of information to those of indiscernibility and similarity.

Using qualitative methods to deal with imperfect information.

This book describes the latest advances in intelligent techniques such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, and optimization algorithms, and their relevance in building intelligent information systems in combination with applied mathematics. The authors also outline the applications of these systems in areas like intelligent control and robotics, pattern recognition, medical diagnosis, time series prediction, and optimization of complex problems. By sharing fresh ideas and identifying new targets/problems it offers young researchers and students new directions for their future research. The book is intended for readers from mathematics and computer science, in particular professors and students working on theory and applications of intelligent systems for real-world applications.

Rough set approach to reasoning under uncertainty is based on inducing knowledge representation from data under constraints expressed by discernibility or, more generally, similarity of objects. Knowledge derived by this approach consists of reducts, decision or association rules, dependencies, templates, or classifiers. This monograph presents the state of the art of this area. The reader will find here a deep theoretical discussion of relevant notions and ideas as well as rich inventory of algorithmic and heuristic tools for knowledge discovery by rough set methods. An extensive bibliography will help the reader to get an acquaintance with this rapidly growing area of research.

Covers key rough computing research, surveying a full range of topics and examining defining issues of the field.