An intelligent assistant for design and material engineers in the submarine cable industry

This paper describes an industrial application of case-based reasoning in engineering. The application involves an integration of case-based reasoning (CBR) retrieval techniques with a relational database. The database is specially designed as a repository of experiential knowledge and with the CBR application in mind such as to include qualitative search indices. The application is for an intelligent assistant for design and material engineers in the submarine cable industry. The system consists of three components; a material classifier and a database of experiential knowledge and a CBR system is used to retrieve similar past cases based on component descriptions. Work has shown that an uncommon retrieval technique, hierarchical searching, well represents several search indices and that this techniques aids the implementation of advanced techniques such as context sensitive weights. The system is currently undergoing user testing at the Alcatel Submarine Cables site in Greenwich. Plans are for wider testing and deployment over several sites internationally.

Beer, (Anthony) Stafford (1926-2002)

Biography of (Anthony) Stafford Beer (1926-2002), management cybernetician.

The world nuclear industry status report 2009: with particular emphasis on economic issues

A detailed review of the status of the world nuclear industry with particular emphasis on economic aspects.

2009 world nuclear industry status report

Although some countries plan to build new nuclear power plants in the near future, in aggregate the data indicates that nuclear power's influence will continue to dwindle across the globe in coming decades.