Knowledge Engineer - Overview

Overview

Using information relayed by the domain experts, knowledge engineers are experts at constructing meaningful, useful, and simplistic Knowledge-Based Systems (KBS). Often knowledge engineers are employed to break down the information passed on by domain experts into more simplistic terms which cannot be easily communicated by the highly technalized domain expert (ESDG 2000).

In recent years, the role of knowledge engineers has come under intense scrutiny from those specializing in the area of KBS and expert systems. Many computer systems experts believe that knowledge experts role in the creation and maintenance of complex computer systems is unnecessary, and can be simply left out of the process of systems creation. Conversely, some computer systems experts believe that their role is vital in the fact that they provide a good middle-man between highly specialized domain experts and computer coders. Known for their ability to simplify experts information and instructions, knowledge engineers are useful in that they can interpret, and organize internal information on how to make systems decisions (Aylett & Doniat 2002).

The term "Knowledge engineer" first appeared in the 1980s in the first wave of commercialization of AI – the purpose of the job is to work with a client who wants an expert system created for them or their business. A knowledge engineer would collect the information that the client wants in the system and then put it all into the program. For example, if a client, who is an expert in snakes, wanted a program to identify different types of snakes, then the knowledge engineer will need to collect the necessary information about different species and attributes. It is up to the knowledge engineer to capture the knowledge of the domain expert into a knowledge base, which is then used for an expert system.