Following our class discussion, read pp154-158 in your textbook. Then complete the following tasks: - Spreadsheets
(a) Describe the kinds of analysis supported by a spreadsheet. (b) Identify
one example each of situations/decisions that would be supported (i)
effectively by a spreadsheet or (ii) ineffectively by a spreadsheet.
- Databases
Explain how a relational database can support decision-making in a way that a spreadsheet cannot.
- Expert Systems
(a) Identify the aspects of human intelligence that are imitated by artificial intelligence (AI).
(b) Outline some of the difficulties in designing and implementing an AI-based DSS.
(c) Account for why expert systems would be designed to be domain-specific.
- Neural Networks
(a) Identify the basic concept that neural networks are based upon. Propose arguments for and against the use of this particular concept as the model of a computer-based information system. (b) Neural networks and expert systems are both designed by human software engineers. Contrast the relationships between these two decision support systems and their designers. (c) A neural network's designer is often incapable of providing an explanation for the decisions made by the network as a whole. Explain how this can be the case. (d) Compare the characteristics of parallel processing systems and neural networks.
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