IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
Teaching Cognitive Computing
with IBM Watson
Ralph D. Badinelli
Virginia Tech

IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 Me
 Department of Business Information Technology
 Pamplin College of Business
 Virginia Tech
 Researcher – Service Science
 President of International Society of Service Innovation
Professionals (ISSIP)
 Former President of INFORMS Service Science Section
 New course
 BIT 5484: Cognitive Computing for Smart Service Systems
Background
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IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
A new “science of cognitive computing” curriculum
Posted by Jim Spohrer on 25 May 2016, 10:29 am
Currently, I am working on a new “science of cognitive computing”
curriculum for IBM with our partner universities and others to allow people
of all ages to design, build, understand, and work with cognitive
mediators. The curriculum is inspired in part by the work of Douglas
Engelbart, an American engineer and inventor, and an early computer and
Internet pioneer, who urged us to work quickly to augment human intellect
to address complex, urgent problems.
………………………
Course Motivation
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IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 Proposed in fall, 2015
 Approved for MIT program in spring, 2016
 First taught in spring semester, 2017
 Approved for Master of Information Technology (MIT)
degree program
Course History
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IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 Teaching Assistants supported by IBM Faculty Award
 Yelik Murat
 Greg Ichord
 IBM support
 Adam Brown
 Dianne Fodell
 Janine Gerber
 Many others
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Support

IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 Joint venture College of Business & College of
Engineering
 100% online
 Flexible curriculum, 8 modules
 Students are working professionals
 Ranked 2nd Best by US News and World Report for 4
consecutive rows
 Enrollment growth (> 100%, 2014 – 2019)
MIT Program
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IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
1. Design the role of cognitive assistants in smart
service systems.
2. Define and describe the meaning of smartness in
service systems.
3. Design and analyze a smart service system with
integrated cognitive assistants.
Course Goals
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IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
1. Specify a modeling framework for smart service systems.
2. Model decisions made by agents in a service system.
3. Design a smart service system.
4. Integrate a cognitive assistant into a smart service system.
5. Design a context-adaptive cognitive assistant for service
journey customization.
6. Apply a deep question-answer process for a subject matter
domain.
7. Build a cognitive computing system that can learn a subject
domain.
8. Employ the cognitive computing resources that have been
created by major IT service providers and by academic
researchers.
9. Evaluate the performance of smart service systems.
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Learning Objectives

IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
1. Service and service systems
2. Modeling service systems with modeling languages
3. Decision Making in Service Systems
4. Modeling Decisions in Service Systems
5. Smart Service Activities
6. Decision Support Knowledge Bases (Retrieve and Rank)
7. Ground Truth for Smart Decision Support (Retrieve and Rank)
8. Domain Knowledge for Cognitive Assistants (Retrieve and Rank)
9. Deep QA (Retrieve and Rank)
10. Knowledge Discovery (Discovery)
11. Query Representation (Conversation)
12. Design of a Cognitive Assistant
13. Smart Service from a Cognitive Assistant (APIs)
14. Adaptive Service EcoSystems (Node Red)
15. Smart Service System Performance
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Topic Schedule

IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 Self-selected
 Submitted in installments (one per week)
 Sequenced to follow the innovation development
cycle
 Virtual teams
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Term Projects

IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 FeedMe: Smart Service System --Restaurant,
Recipe, and Menu Recommender
 Smart Librarian: State Department of Education
support services for teaching children with learning
disabilities
 MIT Smart Course Advisor : Advise MIT students in
selecting courses and plan of study
 Smart Breather : Cognitive assistant for the
management of a home supplemental oxygen
machine
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Team Projects

IBM Cognitive COI June 22, 2017
 Learning objectives accomplished
 Surprisingly strong performance and interest
 First exposure to cognitive computing
 Strong interest in cognitive computing and the future
impacts of smart service systems
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Outcomes