What is BISC?

The following message circulated on 3 March 1994 by Prof. Lotfi A. Zadeh is intended to provide an answer.

On March 13, 1994, BISC had its third birthday. This nessage is intended to report to you on where BISC stands today and to give you a glimpse of how it is evolving.

A bit of history:

BISC is an acronym for the Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing. My initial proposal was to refer to the initiative as the Berkeley Soft Computing Initiative, but at the suggestion of John Ousterhout the name was changed to Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing, leading to the more euphonious acronym BISC, which rhymes with another Berkeley brainchild, RISC.

As an idea, BISC was conceived in October 1990, and developed in close consultation with Dean David Hodges, EECS Chair Paul Gray, CS Associate Chair David Patterson and Director for College Relations Marily Howekamp. The launching of BISC was announced on March 13 at the 1991 ILP (Industrial Liaison Program) Conference in Berkeley. Since then, BISC has evolved into a worldwide, email-linked community of individuals and organizations that share interest in soft computing and its applications. BISC has three Associate Directors - C. Sequin, M. Tomizuka and E. Wong - with myself serving as Director.

What is soft computing?

Soft computing differs from conventional (hard) computing in that, unlike hard computing, it is tolerant of imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth. In effect, the role model for soft computing is the human mind. The guiding principle of soft computing is: Exploit the tolerance for imprecision, uncertainty and partial truth to achieve tractability, robustness and low solution cost. The basic ideas underlying soft computing in its current incarnation have links to many earlier influences, among them my 1965 paper on fuzzy sets; the 1973 paper on the analysis of complex systems and decision processes; and the 1979 report (1981 paper) on possibility theory and soft data analysis. The inclusion of neural network theory in soft computing came at a later point. At this juncture, the principal constituents of soft computing (SC) are fuzzy logic (FL), neural network theory (NN) and probabilistic reasoning (PR), with the latter subsuming belief networks, genetic algorithms, chaos theory and parts of learning theory. What is important to note is that SC is not a melange of FL, NN and PR. Rather, it is a partnership in which each of the partners contributes a distinct methodology for addressing problems in its domain. In this perspective, the principal contributions of FL, NN and PR are complementary rather than competitive.

Implications of soft computing

The complementarity of FL, NN and PR has an important consequence: in many cases a problem can be solved most effectively by using FL, NN and PR in combination rather than exclusively. A striking example of a particularly effective combination is what has come to be known as neurofuzzy systems. Such systems are becoming increasingly visible as consumer products ranging from air conditioners and washing machines to photocopiers and camcorders. Less visible but perhaps even more important are neurofuzzy systems in industrial applications. What is particularly significant is that in both consumer products and industrial systems, the employment of soft computing techniques leads to systems which have high MIQ (Machine Intelligence Quotient). In large measure, it is the high MIQ of SC-based systems that accounts for the rapid growth in the number and variety of applications of soft computing - and especially fuzzy logic.

The conceptual structure of soft computing suggests that students should be trained not just in neural network theory or fuzzy logic or probabilistic reasoning but in all of the associated methodologies, though not necessarily to the same degree. This is the principle which guides the BISC Seminar on Soft Computing and the course Fuzzy Logic, Neural Networks and Soft Computing which I teach at present. The same applies to journals, books and conferences. We are beginning to see the appearance of journals and books with soft computing in their title. A similar trend is visible in the titles of conferences.

Current status of BISC

At present, the BISC Group - as the community is called - comprises close to 600 students, professors, employees of private and non-private organizations and, more generally, individuals who have interest or are active in soft computing or related areas. A category which was initiated recently is that of the Institutional Affiliates, which applies to universities, laboratories and non-profit organizations. Currently, BISC has over 50 Institutional Affiliates, with their ranks continuing to grow in number. The only qualification for membership in BISC is interest in soft computing.

A recent BISC project aims at a compilation of references centering on various application areas. The current areas are:

Compilation of references is handled by an area editor and co-editors. It is expected that more topics will be added in the near future.

At Berkeley, BISC provides a supportive environment for visitors, postdocs and students who are interested in soft computing and its applications. In the main, support for BISC comes from member companies. Currently, the founding members of BISC are Matsushita, SGS-Thomson, Sharp, Siemens and Sony. In addition, there are members which support BISC on a lesser scale.

The BISC Bulletin Board (BBB) provides a mechanism for communicating information regarding employment and postdoc availability. BBB can also be used for other purposes.

A glimpse into the future

The successful applications of soft computing and the rapid growth of BISC suggest that the impact of soft computing will be felt increasingly in coming years. Soft computing is likely to play an especially important role in science and engineering, but eventually its influence may extend much farther.

In many ways, soft computing represents a significant paradigm shift in the aims of computing - a shift which reflects the fact that the human mind, unlike present day computers, possesses a remarkable ability to store and process information which is pervasively imprecise, uncertain and lacking in categoricity. In this perspective, what is important about BISC is that it provides a platform for the advancement of soft computing - a platform which lowers barriers between the constituents of soft computing and facilitates international cooperation on a global scale.

Invitation

Please communicate to me and the BISC Group any thoughts, comments or suggestions regarding BISC and/or SC that you may have to offer.

cc. Chancellor L. Tien
Provost J. King
Dean D. Hodges
Chair D. Messerschmitt
Past Chair P. Gray
Associate Chair R. Wilensky
Past Associate Chair D. Patterson
Associate Directors: C. Sequin
M. Tomizuka
E. Wong
Director of College Relations: M. Howekamp
Michael A. Lee, Ph.D. / BISC Administrator / leem@cs.berkeley.edu