Information systems questions amd answers
Questions
Q1. Use an example to clearly explain the difference between data and information.
Q2. Apart from a CD and a hard disk, name two other secondary storage devices.
Q3. Define a 'Management Information System'.
Q4. State the characteristics of a good MIS.
Q5. What is an ‘inference engine’?
Q6. How would you go about making a new Expert System?
Q7. Discuss the pros and cons of online ‘diagnose yourself’ type Expert Systems?
Q8. Discuss the pros and cons of using medical Expert Systems for a very poor, third world country?
Q9. State the three types of knowledge-based system.
Q10. Use the internet for research. Apart from medical-related Expert Systems, state three other areas which have made use of Expert Systems.
Answers
Q1. Data are sets of numbers or characters, for example, in their raw form. Information is when data is given a context.
Q2. Other secondary storage devices include USB pen drives, SD cards, cloud storage, DVDs, magnetic tape etc.
Q3. A Management Information System, or MIS, is a piece of software that collects data from a range of sources and turns it into information appropriate to a recipient's needs to enable them to make decisions.
Q4. The characteristics of a good MIS are that they provide reliable, up-to-date information in a form that managers can use, presented in a way that they can understand, that helps a manager to focus on the important jobs that need doing and that makes the company more profitable by giving them an ‘edge’ over competitors.
Q5. The inference engine is the piece of software that works out how to apply the rules in the database of rules to the data in the knowledge base. It takes requests for information from the user interface and then searches through the knowledge base by applying the rules in the rule base. The inference engine retrieves appropriate knowledge from the knowledge base and passes it to the user interface software.
Q6. If we wanted to make a new expert system, we would need to bring all the experts from a particular field together, put their knowledge into a knowledge base, design rules for the rule base that links the knowledge in the knowledge base, design the inference engine and the user interface and then test the system thoroughly. Based on the results of the tests, we would then seek to improve it. We would need to update the knowledge base regularly, as new facts become available.
Q7. Online systems can give a false diagnosis, which could lead to people trying to treat themselves e.g. by buying drugs online from other countries, where there are no safeguards about the standard of drugs. People can damage their health in this way and may not be getting the real treatment they need for their actual problem. Some people can become quite worried over the results of these systems. You don’t always know for sure who produced the online system and whether it is any good. Sometimes the questions may not be very clear, or don’t ask the right questions. Computers can’t pick up hunches in the same way that a real doctor can. On the other hand, online systems are convenient, can be cheaper than visiting a doctor in some countries and may be better than nothing in some countries, where doctors are limited. For some embarrassing problems, people may prefer the anonymity of a computer rather than seeing a real doctor.
Q8. An expert system in a poor third world country may be a way of getting at least some medical help to very poor people in a country, which lacks basic health care facilities. There may be an erratic power supply, problems getting things fixed when the computer system goes wrong, getting the software updated may be problematic, the initial cost may be an issue and training people to use the system may be an issue.
Q9. The three types of knowledge-based systems are diagnostic, advice-giving and decision-making systems.
Q10. Expert systems can be used to diagnose engine problems in cars, to decide whether or not to mine for a precious metal in a particular area and to identify different types of whales, for example. Allow any other sensible example.