This thesis examines the evolution of Internet based knowledge networks (e-knowledge networks) in the domain of sustainable development. The objective of this thesis is to use an engineering systems approach to understand knowledge networks, identify the barriers to their sustainability…

If we are provided a face database with only one example view per person, is it possible to recognize new views of them under a variety of different poses, especially views rotated in depth from the original example view? We…

Humans recognize optical reflectance properties of surfaces such as metal, plastic, or paper from a single image without knowledge of illumination. We develop a machine vision system to perform similar recognition tasks automatically. Reflectance estimation under unknown, arbitrary illumination proves…

Industrial Ecology (IE) is a systems approach to efficient resource use and protection of the
environment. Instead of just devising improved methods of waste treatment and disposal, we look for the best
opportunities to reduce waste throughout the total material…

We have developed a method and prototype program for assisting two experts in their attempts to construct a single, consensus knowledge base. We show that consensus building can be effectively facilitated by a debugging approach that identifies, explains, and resolves…

This report develops a conceptual framework in which to talk about mathematical knowledge. There are several broad categories of mathematical knowledge: results which contain the traditional logical aspects of mathematics; examples which contain illustrative material; and concepts which include formal…

Does knowledge of language consist of symbolic rules? How do children learn and use their linguistic knowledge? To elucidate these questions, we present a computational model that acquires phonological knowledge from a corpus of common English nouns and verbs. In…

This paper introduces a model of spatial cognition to describe the states of partial knowledge that people have about the spatial structure of a large-scale environment. Spatial knowledge has several different representations, each of which captures one aspect of the…

Drawing on an empirical study on automakers? management of supplier
involvement in product development in Japan, this paper shows that when the design of
a component is outsourced to a supplier, how much and what automakers know about
the component…

This paper presents a version of frames suitable for representing knowledge for a class of reconition problems. An initial section gives an intuitive model of frames, and illustrates a number of desirable features of such a representation. A more technical…