Classwork

What is an expert system?
"A computer application that performs a task that would otherwise be performed by a human expert. For example, there are expert systems that can diagnose human illnesses, make financial forecasts, and schedule routes for delivery vehicles. Some expert systems are designed to take the place of human experts, while others are designed to aid them.
Expert systems are part of a general category of computer applications known as artificial intelligence . To design an expert system, one needs a knowledge engineer, an individual who studies how human experts make decisions and translates the rules into terms that a computer can understand."

What are the problems with expert systems?
"The dependence people place on cases poses a problem to those who treat human cognition as being primarily rule-based. Much work in artificial intelligence, for example, is done in "expert systems." These systems are based on the notion that expert knowledge consists of a collection of rules. By determining the rules an expert in a domain uses, the idea goes, we may then simulate expert behavior in that domain. Not surprisingly, expert systems have run into a significant problem: they are brittle. When faced with a problem which bends the rules, they are unable to cope. They fail because they are not grounded in cases. They are unable to fall back on the details of their experience, find a similar case, and apply it."

http://www.engines4ed.org/hyperbook/nodes/NODE-22-pg.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/expert_system.html