The purpose of this grant is to provide expert system development tools to students in an undergraduate course in artificial intelligence (AI) at Marietta College. These tools will provide students with the means to develop programs that are able to apply the rules used by human experts when they solve problems. The Compaq 80386 computers and the OPS5+ expert development system used in this grant will give students practical experience in the design and implementation of an expert system. The project chosen for this class is the development of a system that may help mental health practitioners to differentiate between clients with schizophrenia, which is a serious (psychotic) mental disturbance, and various forms of personality disorders, which are less serious. This distinction is often a difficult one for psychologists and psychiatrists to make accurately. Students will be able to evaluate the validity of their system by comparing the diagnoses produced by the expert system to those of professionals in the field.
