THE RESEARCH INVESTIGATOR'S TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM "RITA"

COORDINATING INFORMATION EXCHANGE BETWEEN A LARGE NUMBER OF INTERRELATED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D) PROJECTS HAS TYPICALLY BEEN CONDUCTED USING HIERARCHICAL DATA BASE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FOR CATALOGING AND RETRIEVING PROJECT RECORDS. AN INTELLIGENT R&D INVESTIGATOR'S ASSISTANT, ONE THAT USED OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES TO CLASSIFYPROJECTS AND THAT COULD EMPLOY SUBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HOW CLASSES OF PROJECTS ARE ORGANIZED, COULD BE AN INVALUABLE TOOL IN PROMOTING TECHNOLOGY EXCHANGE AND TRANSFER. IN THIS DOCUMENT, WE PROPOSE TO DESIGN AND PROTOTYPE RITA, A KNOWLEDGE-BASED RESEARCH INVESTIGATOR'S TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANT. A COMPREHENSIVE REQUIREMENTS ANALYSIS, A PRELIMINARY SYSTEMS DESIGN, AND A LIMITED PROTOTYPE WILL BE PRODUCED IN PHASE I OF THIS PROGRAM. DETAILED DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION ACTIVITIES IN PHASE II WILL RESULT IN A FIELD-TESTABLE SYSTEM. WE EXPECT TO DEVELOP A PRELIMINARY DESIGN AND A LIMITED PROTOTYPE OF RITA THAT WILL APPLY SUBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE TO DESCRIPTIVE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT RESEARCH PROJECTS TO CLASSIFY, ORGANIZE, AND PERFORM QUERIES OF FAA PROJECT-RELATED DATA. A TOOL WITH THESE CAPABILITIES CAN GREATLY IMPROVE INFORMATION MANAGEMENT IN RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS, GOVERNMENTAGENCIES, AND UNIVERSITIES BY MANAGING LOGICAL FUNCTIONAL, AND ORGANIZATION RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DATA RECORDS.