Engineering Computing and Informatics

Engineering Informatics Group (EIG)

Students: Charles Heenan (Law School), Jie Wang (CEE), David Liu (EE/CS), Jerome Lynch (CEE/EE),

Shawn Kerrigan (CEE/CS), Gloria Lau (CEE/CS), Jim Cheng (CEE/CS), Bill Labiosa (CEE),

Yang Wang (CEE), Arvind Sundarajan (EE), Urmi Holtz (Math/SCCM), Haoyi Wang (CEE/CS),

Xiaoshan Pan (Arch/CS)

Research Engineer: Jun Peng Consulting Faculty: Charles Han (Autodesk, Inc.)

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Distributed Engineering

Services

System Sensing,

Monitoring and Control

Scientific Computing

Information Management and Retrieval

Current Research Topics

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Current Research

I. Scientific Computing

Current Focus: Parallel, Distributed and Internet Computing

• Software Paradigms: SPMD, Task- and Component-based Computing, , ….

• Numerical Methods: Sparse Solvers, Generalized, Quadratic and Perturbed Eigenvalue Problems, ….

• Computational Engineering: Finite Element Computing, Linear and Nonlinear Problems, Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering, Device Simulation

(Students: Urmi Holz, Jun Peng, Yang Wang)(Collaborators: Gene Golub, Ahmed Elgamal, Frank McKenna, Greg Fenves)

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Linear Solver, Eigensolver

(Finite Element Analysis Core Program)

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Current Research

II. Distributed Engineering Services(Mobile, Web and Ubiquitous Computing)

Current Focus: Internet and Wireless Enabled Collaboration

• Middleware Infrastructure: Software Mediators, Communication Technologies, ….

• Service Integration: Access Language, Product and Process Modeling, ….

• Project and Workflow Management: Facility Design, Construction and Operations, ….

(Students: David Liu, Jim Cheng, Pooja Trivedi)(Collaborator: Gio Wiederhold)

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Distributed Engineering Application Services

Distributed Engineering Service and Integration Communication Devices

Mediators (content and access), DBMS, Information Exchange and Software Integration

(PSL, IFC, XML, SOAP, .NET)

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Current Research

III. System Sensing, Monitoring and Control

Current Focus: Wireless Structural Monitoring System

• Technologies: MEMS, Wireless Systems, Microprocessors, ….

• Data Processing and Communication: Embedded Computing, Synchronized and Asynchronized Communication, ….

• Engineering Applications: Structural Damage Monitoring, Damage Assessment and Prognosis, Structural Control….

(Students: Jerome Lynch, Arvind Sundarajan)

(Collaborators: Anne Kiremidjian, Tom Kenny, Ed. Carryer, Chuck Farrar, Hoon Sohn, and others)

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Wireless Sensing Device

• Off the shelf components used

• Size is about 4”x4”x1.5”

• Component Cost is about $400

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Dynamic Vehicle Test

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

-0.1

0

0.1

Time (sec)

Acc

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atio

n (g

)

Response of Alamosa Canyon Bridge to Van Excitation (Los Alamos Lab System)

Piezotronics PCB336A @ 320 Hz

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

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0.1

Time (sec)

Acc

eler

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n (g

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Response of Alamosa Canyon Bridge to Van Excitation (WiMMS System)

Crossbow CXL01LF1 @ 244.14 Hz

0 5 10 15 20 25 3010

-3

10-2

10-1

100

101

Mag

nitu

de

FRF of Alamosa Canyon Bridge to Modal Hammer

Frequency (Hz)

LANL PCB336 WiMMS CXL01LF1

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Current Research

IV. Engineering Information Management(Collaborators: Gio Wiederhold, Barton Thompson, Jim Leckie, Charles Han)

Current Focus: E-Government, Regulatory Information Management and

ComplianceDisabled Access (ADAAG, Title 24)Environmental (40 CFR)• Information Management: Document Management,

Information Retrieval and Access, ….• Public Access and Engineering Application Supports:

Facility Planning, Design, Operations, Conformance Assistance ….

(Students: Shawn Kerrigan, Gloria Lau, Charles Heenan, Bill Labiosa, Haoyi Wang, Xiaoshan Pan)

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Online Code Compliance

Checking

Virtual Simulation

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REGNET: An Infrastructure for Regulatory Information Management and Compliance Assistance

Kincho H. LawProf., Civil and Env. Engr.

Jim Leckie

Prof., Civil and Env. Engr.

Barton Thompson

Prof., School of Law

Gio WiederholdProf., Computer Science

Shawn KerriganBill Labiosa

Gloria LauHaoyi Wang

Jie WangCivil and Env. Engr.

Pooja Trivedi Li Zhang

Liang Zhou(former students)Computer Science

Charles HeenanResearcher, Law Student

Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

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The Public and Scientific Problem

• Regulations are established to protect the public• Regulations constrain businesses’ actions• Many organizations participate to set and use regulations• Interpretation of regulations is costly and inconsistent

• Regulations are voluminous, often incomplete, sometimes conflicting

• Regulations are written in natural language• The objects and interests being regulated are often encoded• Many sources of supportive documents – interpretative

documents, guidelines, etc..

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MotivationThe complexity, diversity, and volume of

federal and state regulations:• Require considerable expertise to understand• Increase the risk of companies failing to comply

with environmental regulations• Hinder public understanding of the government

How would IT help• to make “applicable” regulations easily

accessible? • to assist parties involved in regulation

compliance?

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REGNET Research Goals

• Research questions

– What is an appropriate model for a information management system for compliance assistance?

– How to build such a system

– How to deal with the conflicting objectives?

• Research goal

– Developing information management frameworks that can facilitate public access to regulations, improve the efficiency of regulation compliance and facilitate the compliance process.

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• Repositories: Infrastructure for online repository of regulations and translating texts into processable form and facilitate access

• Access Tools: Access of the regulation text and related information

• Ontology Development: Formalize terms and meanings to help development of logical rules about relationships in the regulations and among the different regulations

• Integrated Access: Retrieval of regulations based on the content or relationships between the regulations

• Analysis Tools: To validate and improve the quality of the ontology and to check the content of regulations within a domain or across different domains of federal, state and local regulations.

• Compliance Checking Assistance: To develop the means to interface the regulations with usage.

Research Tasks

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Establishing Concepts and Classification Structure

Original Documents(pdf,html)

TextCategorization

(Semio)

Concepts andClassificationin Documents

Documents with

Concept Tags

Document

Program

Concepts of InterestsAnd Rules

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Home page (http://eil.stanford.edu/regnet/)

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Establishing Classification Structures

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Classification Structures(EPA List of Extremely Hazardous Substances)

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Classification Structures (cont’d)

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Classification Structures (cont’d)

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Displaying Context using Semio

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• Developed a hierarchical structure to organize documents

• Regulations structured using XML• Methodology developed to classify documents for

different purposes with a singled repository• Included a variety of documents – guidelines,

background information, etc… • Developed a logic-based compliance assistance

methodology and prototype• Integrating compliance assistance with document

repository

Current Features of REGNET

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Document Repository and Access

XMLRegulation

HTMLRegulation

AddConcepts

RegulationDocuments

Semio

XML Regulation With Concept

Tags

Parser

Concept List

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Regulatory Compliance Assistance

Shawn Kerrigan

Engineering Informatics Group

Stanford University

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Background• Current state of compliance checking:

• Paper-based process• Locating and interpreting the relevant regulations is

complex, even with the help of supplementary information

• Small companies have difficulty conducting compliance checks due to lack of resources and knowledge

• Vision for future:• Up-to-date regulations and compliance-checking

assistance procedures available online• Improved regulation and compliance-requirement

transparency through clear presentation and linking

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Research Questions

• How can we make the information and rules more accessible?

• How can we represent the information and rules in environmental regulations in a computer interpretable format?

• How can we structure this information to assist with regulation compliance checking?

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General Approach

• Information Integration• Formalization of meaning and relationships• Regulation-centric• Tie the information to the appropriate

portion of the regulation

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Regulation Assistance System (RAS)

• Provides a unifying web interface for the regulation documents and meta-data

• Demonstrates the usefulness of XML structured regulation documents with meta-data

• Works with a logic-based compliance-checking assistance system to demonstrate web-based regulation services

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Regulation Parsing

• Need to transform plain text/PDF regulations into XML

• Can structure the XML to represent the hierarchical structure of the regulation

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HTML to XML Regulation Parsing

XMLStructuredDocument

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Regulation Parsing§ 279.12 Prohibitions.

(a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts

264 or 265 of this chapter.

<regElement id = “40.cfr.279.12” title = “Prohibitions”> < regElement id = “40.cfr.279.12.a” title = “Surface Impoundment prohibition”> <regText>

Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter.

</regText> </regElement></regElement>

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Adding Meta-Data to Regulations

Regulation taggedwith meta-data

Add LegalInterpretation

Reference Extraction

Add LogicalInterpretation

Add Concepts

Original XMLdocument

Document

Program

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Parsing ReferencesPART 279—Standards For The Management Of Used Oil

Subpart B – Applicability

…§ 279.12 Prohibitions.(a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. (b) Use as a dust suppressant. The use of used oil as a dust suppressant is prohibited, except when such activity takes place in one of the states listed in § 279.82(c).(c) Burning in particular units. Off-specification used oil fuel may be burned for energy recovery in only the following devices: (1) Industrial furnaces identified in § 260.10 of this chapter; (2) Boilers, as defined in § 260.10 of this chapter, that are identified as follows: (i) Industrial boilers located on the site of a facility engaged in a manufacturing process where substances are transformed into new products, including the component parts of products, by mechanical or chemical processes; (ii) Utility boilers used to produce electric power, steam, heated or cooled air, or other gases or fluids for sale; or (iii) Used oil-fired space heaters provided that the burner meets the provisions of § 279.23. (3) Hazardous waste incinerators subject to regulation under subpart O of parts 264 or 265 of this chapter.

§ 262.11 Used Oil Specification.…..

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<regText>(a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter.</regText>

Before:

<regText>(a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter.</regText><reference id = "ref.40.cfr.264" /><reference id = "ref.40.cfr.265" />

After:

Parsing References

Original XMLdocument

XML withReference List

Reference Extraction

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What is a “Concept”?

• Examples:– emission requirement

– leaked hazardous substance

– disposal of solvents

– principal hazardous constituent

• Why are they useful?– identify similar regulations even when they do not

reference each other

– provide a “context” for the regulation provision

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Regnet Taxonomy

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Tagging with Concepts

<regText>Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. </regText>

<regText>Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. </regText>

<concept name = “waste pile” /><concept name = “surface impoundment” />

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XML Embedded Logic

<logic_sentence> all _o (usedOil(_o) -> -(dustSuppressant(_o))).</logic_sentence>

Rule logic represents the rules specified by the regulation:

40.CFR.279.12.b – Use as a dust suppressant:

“The use of used oil as a dust suppressant is prohibited…”

Option elements define the user interface:<logic_option> <question> Is the used-oil used as a dust suppressant? </question> <logic_opt answer = "yes"> (usedOil(oil1) & dust_suppressant(oil1)). </logic_opt> <logic_opt answer = "no"> (usedOil(oil1) & (-(dust_suppressant(oil1))). </logic_opt></logic_option>

Control statements specify processing instructions for compliance-checking:<control> <goto target = “ref.40.cfr.279.65” /> <switchTo target = “ref.40.cfr.279.73” /></control>

<control> <end target = “ref.40.cfr.279.12” /></control>

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XML-based Regulations

Additional Input Files

Interactive User Input

Regulation Compliance

Decision

Logic input file Found proof / no proof found

RASweb•Provides web interface

•Displays regulation information

RCCsession•Implements compliance checking procedure

User input Results / requested information

RAS System Structure

* Otter is an automated-deduction program developed by William McCune at Argonne National Laboratory

Otter*

•Attempts to find proof by contradiction from input file

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Regulation Assistance System

Demonstration Session

• Display regulations with meta-data• Compliance example• Non-compliance example• Use of control elements• Use of “I don’t know” to check multiple paths

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Summary

• Can decompose regulations into a structured XML document

• Adding rich meta-data about regulations enables more sophisticated interaction with the documents

• Automated assistance with environmental compliance-checking may be possible

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Similarity Analysis (Ms. Gloria Lau)

measurements

exceptions

definitions

author-prescribed

indices

glossary terms

feature matchingbase score

near-tree refinement

refined score

reference distribution

final score

Similarity Analysis Core

trash belowthreshold pairs

Conflict Analysis Corepart-of-speech tagger

list of senses:(1) flush, adj: => even (vs uneven) => rich (vs poor)(2) lip => edge(3) beveled => inclined(4) transition => passage

WordNet

knowledge engineer

section matcher

machine-generated

rules

human-generated

rules

conflicting pairs

refined XML regulations

related pairs

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Similarity analysis core• Our goal

– Suggest to the user a ranked list of related provisions

– Sieve out below threshold pairs for conflict analysis

• Assumption: conflicting sections are similar

Measure Similarity score f(secA, secU) 0..1

secA and secU are sections from two different regulation trees

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Preliminary results

• Based on concept match and similarity scoring • ADAAG vs UFAS (Very similar documents)

ADA4.1.6(3)(d) Doors(i) Where it is technically infeasible to comply with clear

opening width requirements of 4.13.5, a projection UFAS4.14 Entrances4.14.1 Minimum NumberEntrances required to be accessible by 4.1 shall be part of an

accessible route and shall comply

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4.13 Doors 12.5.4 Doors

4.13.9Door Hardware

12.5.4.2Door Furniture

12.5.4.14.13.1

4.13.3

4.13.2

4.13.12

UFAS BS8300

parent

sibling

UFAS 4.13 Doors4.13.1 General…4.13.9 Door HardwareHandles, pulls, latches, locks, and other operating devices on accessible doors

shall have a shape …4.13.12 Door Opening ForceBS8300 12.5.4 Doors12.5.4.1 Clear Widths of Door Openings12.5.4.2 Door FurnitureDoor handles on hinged and sliding doors in accessible bedrooms should be

easy to grip and ….

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Thank You!

Questions?

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Discussion Questions

• How will such a system be useful?

• What are examples of how you could use such a system?

• What would make the system more useful?

• Do you have suggestions for people/fields we should contact that might be interested in what we are doing?

• How are the problems addressed currently dealt with?

• What are some existing technologies we should investigate?

• What are recommendations for issues we should address?

• What might be complementary tools to develop next?