Systems Engineering: Optimizing Creation of Virtual Conversational - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Systems Engineering: Optimizing Creation

• f Virtual Conversational Human Agents

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Daniel P. Burns CAPT, USN-Ret Home Ports Solutions, LLC Los Angeles, California Dan M. Davis & Julianne M. Nordhagen

• Univ. of Southern California

Los Angeles, California

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Major Theses

• Personnel & funding constraints are limiting mentoring
• Computer-generated conversational agents address this
• Complex implementation issues are problematic
• System Engineering (SE) tools are available and useful
• These can often be applied by researchers and users
• Optimizing Virtual Humans with SE has shown success
• A quick introduction to those tools will be helpful

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 2

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Existing Problem

• Declining budgets and demanding Ops Schedules
• Burgeoning need for more mentoring and technicians
• Virtual Conversational Humans can fill the need
• Virtual mentors available 24/7 anywhere net reaches
• Research and implementation complex & expensive
• SE tools not in widespread use in academia and DoD
• Constraints not likely to improve in foreseeable future

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Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Research in Virtual Humans (VH)

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 4

• Three USC VH programs
• New Dimensions in Testimony –

Holocaust memories preserved

• MentorPal – Advising STEM

students on career paths

• SimCoach – Counseling PTSD

Veterans via internet

• All complex and difficult to

implement efficiently

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

SE Optimization

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 5

• Staffing, processing, and producing deliverable items
• Especially useful to help organize several systems
• SE Goals

– Design, develop, implement and operate systems – Forecast behaviors in various environments – Deliver intended functions in sustainable fashion

• Can be utilized by journeyman researcher/user
• Helpful even at elementary level of implementation

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Commonly Used SE Tools

• V-Model – reminds user

that for every stage of development, there is a corresponding evaluation phase

• Stakeholder Diagram –

a formalization of recognizing all of the entities who have and interest in the initiative

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Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

SE Tools Continued

• Context Diagram – examines

and documents environment in which the system will

• perate
• Interfaces, boundaries, …

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• Pugh Matrix – plots

design satisfaction vs. implementation options

• Numerical analysis of

various paths to goal

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

More SE Tools

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• Analytic Hierarchy Process –

Quantifies the decision processes

• Quantitative analysis by assigning

numerical values to components

• Design Structure Matrix – ID’s

subsystems and interfaces

• X indicates connectivity and
• rigin of data flow

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Two SE Tools

• Functional Modeling – identifies

and documents functionality and critical interconnection

• Breaks model down into small

sub-systems for better comprehension and analysis

• Implementation Means Analysis -

a second way to look at alternative paths to goal

• Not quantified, but shows choices

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 9

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Last SE Tools

• Failure Mode & Effects Analysis – specifies and logs

potential causes and effects of failure

• System Requirements Model – puts requirements

into a framework: Operational and Functional

• N2 Analysis – examines impact of growth of system
• Requirement Relationship Analysis – relates sponsor

needs and leadership vision to requirements

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 10

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

MentorPal Project

• DoD needs technically trained personnel
• Several factors inhibit students’ pursuing tech careers

– Lack of effective mentors – Misunderstanding instilled by media – Poor understanding of career characteristics

• Low SES and geographically remote get little help
• Virtual Human capable of conversation can augment
• ICT has developed a series of successful VH systems
• VH can respond to questions from students

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 11

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

SE Tools Applicable to MentorPal

• V-Model
• Context Diagram
• Stakeholder Diagram
• Articulating Requirements
• System Requirement Model
• Implementation Mean Analyses
• Failure Mode and Effects Analysis

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Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Record/Estimates of Time

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018 13

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Impact to Date

• Drove formalization and documentation of issues
• Function analysis found areas in the heterogeneous

code base that were causing crashes

• Implementation Means study identified huge time

investment in transcription, which was cut back

• Stakeholders’ Diagram helped suggest follow-on work

which will drive new proposals

• Context diagram illuminated issues for implementation

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Future Research

15 Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

• Would be useful to seek funding to

– Assess needs for this approach – Quantify benefit

• Social, professional and personal resistance to

change when SE is introduced into processes

– Need to proselytize – Careful selection of SE’s to work well with researchers

• Seek funding during implementation phase of

MentorPal to prove efficacy of SE

Norfolk, Virginia  April 24-26, 2018

Getting Student Evaluations

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• SE’s are useful and beneficial
• Few researcher take the time to apply SE
• Can give good return on investment
• Save costs
• Improve morale
• Help meet schedule
• Taking a few moments to formalize and record

issues is a good investment

Conclusions

Acknowledgements & Caveats

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Much of the work described above was conducted in response to a Office of Naval Research contract named MentorPal: Growing STEM Pipelines with Personalized Dialogs with Virtual STEM Professionals, N00014-16-R-FO03. The opinions expressed herein are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Army or the U.S. Government.