Global Research Lead for Software Engineering, Accenture Technology Labs
Research Interests
I am a senior research manager at Accenture Technology Labs in Silicon Valley.
I have over 20 years experience working on issues at the intersection of information technology, human learning, and human performance.
My core interest is in creating knowledge-based tools to help people do their jobs better. I shape the Labs' vision in e-learning and knowledge-based performance-support. I have most recently been focusing specifically on tools to help improve the requirements definition phase of the software development process.
Recent Projects
- Accenture Requirements Engineering Suite (AcRES): A suite of AcRES (the Accenture Requirements Engineering Suite), created by Accenture Technology Labs, in conjunction with Accenture Delivery Tools and Requirements and Analysis Capability, is a an evolving suite of intelligent tools that helps automate the acquisition, specification, review, and visualization of requirements. The Requirements Analysis Tool, the most mature component of the suite, has been deployed on hundreds of projects to help identify defects in requirements clarity and completeness in order to avoid downstream rework. This tool employs a combination of text-processing techniques to identify both lexical and structural issues with the requirements, and to generate diagrams that visualize the interactions being specified by the text. (This work done in close collaboration with Kunal Verma)
- Corporate Radar Projects: Business Event Advisor, Accenture Technology Lifecycle Tracker, and Accenture Technology Vision Tracker are research prototypes that explore use of Web Mining techniques guided by semantic domain models to derive various sorts of business insight from public Web content. For example the Technology Lifecycle Tracker is a tool that automatically and continuously tracks developments in the technology areas that interest a particular client. (This work done in close collaboration with Peter Yeh).
- Mobile Personal Performance Coach: Imagine a world where a device in your pocket would let you know if you are talking too much on a sales call, interrupting your colleagues too frequently, managing your time effectively, or getting enough sleep. Consider if that same device could alert a diabetic to take food or medication when needed—and even guide that person to the closest drugstore that has their medication in stock at the best price. The Personal Performance Coach project explored the use of mobile sensors and simple analytics to turn the mobile phone into a coach that could help a user monitor and shape their own behavior.
Selected Publications
Books Edited
- Inside Case-Based Explanation
Edited with R. Schank and C.Riesbeck.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
1994
Hillsdale, NJ.
Book Chapters / Journal Articles
- A Knowledge Based Approach for Capturing Rich Semantic Representations from Text for Intelligent Systems
International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms 2(1), 33-48. To appear in 2010.
- Transforming the Cell Phone into a Personal Performance Coach
B.J. Fogg, Editor In Mobile Persuasion: 20 Perspectives on the Future of Influence, Stanford Captology Media. 2007
- Computer Environments Designed To Promote Cognitive Change Through the Development of Well–Reasoned Recommendations
With J. Herman In Humane Interfaces: Questions of Method and Practice in Cognitive Technology. J. Marsh, B. Gorayska, and J. Mey, eds. 1999 Elsevier/North-Holland, New York.
- Retrieving Stories for Case-Based Teaching
With R. Burke In Directions in Case-Based Reasoning, D. Leake, (ed.) AAAI Press 1997 Menlo Park, CA.
- How to Support Learning from Interaction with Simulated Characters
With R. Burke and W. Fitzgerald In Cognitive Technology: In Search of a Humane Interface, B. Gorayska and J. Mey, eds. Reprinted as ILS Technical Report #64 1996 Elsevier/North-Holland, New York.
- A Goal-Based Scenario for High School Students
With R. Schank Communications of the ACM, 39:4, 28-29 1996
- Supporting Learning through Active Retrieval of Video Stories
With R. Burke Expert Systems with Applications. 9(3): 361-378 1995
- Tweaker: Adapting Old Explanations to New Situations
R. Schank, A. Kass and C. Riesbeck Inside Case-Based Explanation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1994 Hillsdale, NJ.
- Constructing Learning Environments for Complex Social Skills
With R. Burke, E. Blevis and M. Williamson. Journal of the Learning Sciences. 3(4). 1994
- Question Asking, Artificial Intelligence, and Human Creativity
T. Lauer, E. Peacock, and A. Graesser (ed.) Questions and Information Processing, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Reprinted as ILS Technical Report #11. 1992 Hillsdale, NJ.
- Explanations, Machine Learning and Creativity
With R. Schank In Kodratoff, et al (Ed.) Machine Learning, an Artificial Intelligence Approach, Vol. III. Morgan Kaufman Publishers, Inc. 1989 San Mateo, CA.
- Representing Meaning in People and Machines
With R. Schank In U. Eco,(Ed.) Meaning and Mental Representations, Indiana University Press. 1987 Bloomington, Indiana. Also appeared in the journal, Versus quaderni di studi semitotici. December 1986
- SWALE: A Program that Explains
With D. Leake, and C. Owens In Roger Schank, Explanation Patterns: Understanding Mechanically and Creatively. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1986 Hillsdale, NJ
Public Presentations and Conference Papers
- Capturing the Semantics of Online News Sources for Business Intelligence Applications
with Peter Z. Yeh. Proceedings of the IEEE Twentieth International Conference on Tools with Artificial Intelligence ICTAI 2009. Dayton, Ohio
- Automated review of natural language requirements documents: generating useful warnings with user-extensible glossaries driving a simple state machine
With Prateek Jain, Kunal Verma, Reymonrod G. Vasquez. Proceedings of India Software Engineering Conference: 37-46. 2009 Pune, India
- Exploring Two Enterprise Semantic Integration Systems
With Mark Gisnberg and P.Z. Yeh. Proceedings of Hawai’i International Conference on Systems Science (HICCS-41): 1-10. 2009 Waikaloa, Hawaii
- Enhancing Process-Adaptation Capabilities with Web-Based Corporate Radar Technologies
With P. Jain, P.Z. Yeh, K. Verma, and A. Sheth. Proceedings of the ISWC First International Workshop on Ontology-supported Business Intelligence OBI 2008 Karlsruhe, Germany
- Requirements Analysis Tool: A Tool for Automatically Analyzing Software Requirements Documents
with Kunal Verma Proceedings of the International Semantic Web Conference 2008: 751-763. 2008. Karlsruhe, Germany
- A Knowledge Based Approach for Capturing Rich Semantic Representations from Text
With Peter Z. Yeh and Daniel R. Farina. Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Knowledge-Based and Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems Zagreb. KES 2008 Croatia
- Technology Investment Radar: A Tool to Automatically Track Technology Maturation
With Peter Z. Yeh and Daniel R. Farina Proceedings of the IEEE Second International Conference on Semantic Computing. ICSC 2008 Santa Clara, CA
- Interpreting the Web without the Semantic Web
With Peter Z. Yeh and Daniel R. Farina Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Semantic Computing. September, 2007
- Business Aware Web Processors: A Journey toward Web 3.0.
Presented at Indian Institute of Science Global Conference. July, 2007 Santa Clara, CA.
- Business Aware Web Clients
With Peter Z. Yeh. Semantic Technology Conference. May, 2007 San Jose, California.
- Using Lightweight NLP and Semantic Modeling to Realize the Internet’s Potential as a Corporate Radar
With Christophe Cowell-Shah AAAI Fall Symposium on Capturing and Using Patterns for Evidence Detection. October, 2006 Washington, DC.
- Business Event Advisor: Mining the Net for Business Insight with Semantic Models, Lightweight NLP, and Conceptual Inference
With Christopher Cowell-Shah Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining Workshop on Data Mining for Business Applications, at KDD. August, 2006 Philadelphia, PA.
- Designing an Online, Distributed, Project-Based Course in Mobile Autonomous Robotics
Proceedings of 2004 AAAI Spring Symposium in Accessible AI and Robotics Education. 2004 San Jose, CA
- Balancing Structure and Flexibility in a Class of Computer-Based Educational Simulations
With J. Herman Proceedings of the 1998 International Conference of the Learning Sciences. American Association for Computers in Education (AACE). 1998 Charlottesville, VA.
- A Fully-Integrated Approach to Authoring Learning Environments: Case Studies and Lessons Learned
With M. Jona Proceedings of the 1997 AAAI Fall Symposium on Intelligent Tutoring Authoring Tools, 39-43, AAAI Press. 1997 Menlo Park, CA.
- How Technology Can Help The Department of Veterans Affairs Create New Learning Paradigms
Keynote address, Department of Veterans Affairs Employee Education Systems’ Learning Technologies and Media Development Conference. 1997 St Louis, MO
- Beyond Cost and Convenience: How Technology can Change the Cognitive Structure of Learning Environments
Keynote address Annual Meeting of the Distance Education and Training Counsel. 1997 Washington, D.C.
- Design Choices for Learning-by-Doing Software: When to Choose Advise
With M. Korcuska and M. Y. Jona Proceedings of The International Conference on the Learning Sciences. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. 1996 Charlottesville, VA.
- Authoring Learning Environments Using an Embedded Pedagogical Model
With S. Kedar, D. Guralnick, A. Holum, R. Bareiss, and R.Beckwith Proceedings of The International Conference on the Learning Sciences. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. 1996 Charlottesville, VA.
- Improving Education and Training Through Computer-Based Learning-By-Doing Environments
Invited address M.I.T. Center for Educational Computing Initiatives Conference on Creating Effective Multimedia and Assessing Its Impact. 1995 Cambridge, MA
- Adaptation Overview and Practical Value of Case Adaptation
Panel discussions AAAI Fall Symposium. 1995 Cambridge, MA
- The Importance of Expert Feedback in a Journalism-Based Learning Environment for High School Students
Presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association. 1995 San Fransisco, CA.
- Creating Education and Training Technology that Really Matters
Invited address Department of Energy Training Resources and Data Exchange (TRADE) Annual Conference. 1995 Santa Fe, New Mexico.
- New Horizons for Learning Through Advanced Technology
Invited address Third Annual Conference and Exhibition, Los Padres Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development. 1995 Ventura, CA
- How Technology Can Really Make a Difference
Invited presentation Meeting of the West Michigan Learning Initiative. 1995 Grand Rapids Community College.
- Using Interactive Story Systems to Teach
With R. Burke Working Notes of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Interactive Story Systems. 1995 Stanford University.
- Computer Based Learning Environments that Challenge Students to Think Critically about Narratives
Invited address National Council of Teachers of English Midwinter Symposium on Literacy and Technology. 1995 Chicago, IL.
- Structuring Multimedia Learning Environments to Support Learning-by-Doing
Invited address MIT Enterprise Forum on Multimedia in Education and Training. 1995 New York, NY.
- Tailoring Retrieval to Support Case-Based Teaching
With R. Burke Proceedings of AAAI-94. Association for Artificial Intelligence. 1994 Menlo Park, CA.
- Refining the Universal Indexing Frame to Support Retrieval of Tutorial Stories
With R. Burke Proceedings of the AAAI-94 Workshop On Indexing And Reuse In Multimedia Systems. 1994 Seattle Washington.
- Acquiring Retrieval Knowledge for Multimedia Stories
With S Kedar and R. Burke Proceedings of the AAAI-94 Workshop On Indexing And Reuse In Multimedia Systems. 1994 Seattle Washington.
- An Authoring System for Creating Computer-Based Role-Performance Trainers
With D. Guralnick Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia Annual, 1994. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. 1994 Charlottesville, VA.
- Using Broadcast Journalism to Motivate Hypermedia Exploration
With S. Dooley, F. Luksa and C. Conroy. Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia Annual, 1994. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. 1994 Charlottesville, VA.
- Integrating Simulation, Case Presentation, and Socratic Tutoring
Invited presentation Concerted Action on Multimedia and Distance Learning. Sponsored by Consorzio Netuno. 1994 Rome, Italy.
- Adapting Explanation Patterns: A Case-Based Approach to Developing Explanations in Support of Language Understanding
Invited address International Workshop on Knowledge Structure for Understanding Speech and Language. 1993 Kobe, Japan.
- Intelligent Learning-By-Doing Environments: Using AI and Multi-edia to Create Effective Training Systems
Keynote speech Third International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Economics and Management. 1993 Portland Oregon.
- The Teaching Executive: Facilitating Development Of Educational Software Through the Reuse of Teaching Knowledge
With Kemi Jona Presented at the 10th Annual International Conference on Technology and Education. 1993
- Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Effective Learning Environments
Panel discussion at the 10th annual International Conference on Technology and Education. 1993
- Focusing Student Interest in Social Studies Issues by Allowing Them to Create Their Own TV New Show
With Scott Dooley and Frank Luksa Presented at the Conference of the American Education Research Association 1993 Atlanta, GA.
- Road Trip: Learning Geography through Simulated Travel
With Steven McGee Presented at the Conference of the American Education Research Association. 1993 Atlanta, GA. Also published as ILS technical Report #42. Northwestern University 1993 Evanston, IL.
- Steps Toward Automating the Design of Intelligent Learning-By-Doing Environments
Invited address Fourth Annual Summer Instructional Technology Institute. 1992 Utah State University.
- Integrating Case-Presentation with Simulation Based Learning By Doing
With R. Burke Proceedings of the 13th Annual Cognitive Science Conference. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1992 Hillsdale, NJ.
- Augmenting Social Simulation with Storytelling
With R. Burke In Proceedings of the East-West Conference on Emerging Computer Technologies in Education, International Centre for Scientific and Technical Information. 1992 Moscow, Russia.
- Environments for Incidental Learning: Taking Road Trips instead of Memorizing State Capitals
With D. Guralnick Proceedings of the International Conference on the Learning Sciences, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. 1991 Charlottesville, VA.
- Teaching by Means of Social Simulation
With E. Blevis Proceedings of the International Conference on the Learning Sciences, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. 1991 Charlottesville, VA.
- Adaptation Strategies for Plan Recognition
Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Chicago, IL. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 1990 Hillsdale, NJ.
- Are Electronic Tutors Really What We Want to Build?
Working Notes of the AAAI Spring Symposium on Knowledge-Based Environments for Learning and Teaching. 1990 Stanford University.
- Adaptation-Based Explanation: Extending Script/Frame Theory to Handle Novel Input
In Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference On Artificial Intelligence. Detroit Michigan. Morgan Kaufman, Inc. 1989 San Mateo, CA.
- Strategies for Adapting Explanations
Kristian Hammond, Editor. In Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Case-Based Reasoning. Pensacola Beach, Florida. Morgan Kaufman, Inc. 1989 San Mateo, CA.
- Adaptation-Based Explanation: Explanations as Cases
Proceedings of Machine Learning Workshop. Ithaca, NY. Morgan Kaufman, Inc. 1989 San Mateo, CA.
- A Case-Based Approach to Constructing Explanations
With D. Leake In Proceedings of a Workshop on Case-Based Reasoning. Janet Kolodner, Editor. May 10-13. Clearwater Beach, FL. Morgan Kaufman, Inc. 1988 San Mateo, CA.
- Recognizing Plans by Adapting and Applying Knowledge Structures
Working Notes of the AAAI-88 Workshop on Plan Recognition. St. Paul. 1988 MN.
- Natural Language Processing: What's Really Involved?
With R. Schank Proceedings of the Workshop on Theoretical Issues in Natural Language Processing (TINLAP). 1987 Las Cruces, New Mexico.
- Modifying Explanations to Understand Stories
Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. 1986 Amherst, MA.
Education
- Bachelor's in Computer Science, Brown University, 1983.
- Ph.D. in Computer Science, Yale University, 1990.
Personal Interests
I enjoy playing with all sorts of gadgets; read about and debating politics and public affairs; following most major sports; taking a relaxing bicycle ride; and dabbling with digital photography. But the main ‘hobby’ that occupies my wife I and these days is enjoying time with our two wonderful, energetic children.
What do you like most about being in the Accenture Technology Labs?
I enjoy inventing creative solutions to important problems, and helping other researchers do the same. Fantastic colleagues are the biggest attraction a job can have.
What kind of project do you enjoy working on most?
My favorite kind of project is one in which a vision can be realized in stages, with an early, simple realization adding enough value to build interest among users, and a series of extensions that require solving increasingly difficult research problems.