Gonzalez, Avelino J. University of Central Florida Special Project: Acquisition, Preservation, and Re-Use of Programmatic Knowledge . This proposal, striving to provide tools and methods to manage essential knowledge in business organizations, aims at preserving valuable and volatile knowledge in a knowledge-based medium for ease in re-use. The work represents a controlled investigation into the process of managing knowledge using as a case study the programmatic knowledge of NSF's Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers program (I/UCRC) enabling future re-use of the elicited knowledge. Programmatic knowledge will be elicited from the subject matter experts at the NSF I/UCRC program office as well as at various centers. The knowledge will be incorporated into a knowledge-based system for preservation and reuse. After validating and verifying the system, training will ensue. Rigorously measuring the benefits, an evaluation of its projected usefulness will follow.
The intellectual merit and contributions of the proposed project lie in the long-term case study about the application of modern knowledge-based techniques in knowledge management within the real-world domain. Long-term case studies can provide invaluable experience in knowledge elicitation, representation, and re-use for the knowledge management community. These studies are scarce in the published literature.
Broader impact is addressed through students and potential generalization of the process to other organizations. The project involves two graduate students in computer engineering addressing elicitation and development. One, focusing in knowledge elicitation, will reside in DC/VA area and will attend and follow closely the site visits necessary for the program. The other, focusing in validation and verification, will receive the knowledge and contribute in the development of the expert system. Moreover, the case study will be incorporated into classes in knowledge management.
