Date of Award

3-6-2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer Engineering

Department

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Timothy J. Halloran, PhD

Abstract

Information models are a critical tool that enables intelligence customers to quickly and accurately comprehend U.S. intelligence agency products. The Knowledge Pre-positioning System (KPS) is the standard repository for information models at the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC). The current approach used by NASIC to build a KPS information model is laborious and costly. Intelligence analysts design an information model using a manual, butcher-paper-based process. The output of their work is then entered into KPS by either a single NASIC KPS "database modeler" or a contractor (at a cost of roughly $100K to the organization). This thesis proposes a tool-supported approach that allows intelligence analysts to create information models for NASIC with almost no database modeler or contractor support. The approach allows analysts to express an information model as a concept map, an analyst-understandable model of an intelligence domain. An existing tool, CmapTools, supports the analyst-in-the-loop process of concept map creation. A completed concept map is automatically converted into KPS by a prototype tool called Cmap Conversion for KPS, which was created as part of this work. They restrict, to a reasonable degree, how analysts express concept maps within CmapTools to ensure that automatic conversion is possible. The authors validated their approach using a representative NASIC-provided KPS information model: performance of fixed-wing aircraft. Using these tools, a new information model was constructed in 4 hours and 20 minutes, an 89% improvement over the 40 hours estimated by NASIC to complete the same task using their existing approach. For this representative information model, NASIC estimates this approach would save them roughly $200K.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GCE-ENG-07-03

DTIC Accession Number

ADA469530

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