William Clancey

William J. Clancey (born 1952) is an American computer scientist who specializes in cognitive science and artificial intelligence. He has worked in computing in a wide range of sectors, including medicine, education, and finance, and had performed research that brings together cognitive and social science to study work practices and examine the design of agent systems. Clancey has been described as having developed “some of the earliest artificial intelligence programs for explanation, the critiquing method of consultation, tutorial discourse, and student modeling,” and his research has been described as including “work practice modeling, distributed multiagent systems, and the ethnography of field science.” He has also participated in Mars Exploration Rover mission operations, “simulation of a day-in-the-life of the ISS, knowledge management for future launch vehicles, and developing flight systems that make automation more transparent.”

Early life and education William J. Clancey was born and grew up in New Jersey. He was a Boy Scout and rose to the rank of Eagle Scout. He would later write that “The courses that had the greatest influence on my later work were 'The philosophy of knowledge' (Konstantin Kolenda), 'Language, thought, and culture' (Stephen Tyler), and 'The radical sociology of knowledge' (Kenneth Leiter). My advisor was Ken Kennedy, who taught a fantastic course on compilers. Altogether, I took 40 courses in 13 departments, including six anthropology and three philosophy courses. Rice's teachers were wonderful lecturers who inspired you with their own enthusiasm and the clarity of their thought.” He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa He also designed “the instructional program GUIDON for teaching medical diagnostic strategy.” In his own words, he “developed some of the earliest AI programs for explanation, the critiquing method of consultation, tutorial discourse, and student modeling. My work on 'heuristic classification' and 'model construction operators' has been influential in the design of expert systems and instructional programs.”

Clancey co-founded Teknowledge, which describes itself as an “IT solutions & ITES company with specialization in Finance Domain, Stocks, Forex, Supply-Chain Management, Enterprise (BOT) Build Operate and Transfer Model & Mobile Development.” and he has also been a Senior Editor of Cognitive Science.

At the end of a May 2012 talk to a group of Eagle Scouts he addressed the question “Are we alone? Are there other beings like us in the universe?” He said, “I think the universe is saying to us, 'Take a guess. The answer should be obvious' That could mean the Universe is an unimaginably large space full of a diversity of life and cultures – in the memorable words of Carl Sagan, there are billions and billions of planets like Earth.” He concluded by saying: “Everyday I remind myself of where I am and how we are part of this incredible hum and vibrancy of life. And I feel an immense privilege to be alive now, knowing and enjoying this gift.”

Miscellaneous activities Clancey often speaks about space science at schools, museums, and other venues. He has given talks in over twenty countries.

Selected books Knowledge-Based Tutoring (1987) Conceptual Coordination: How the Mind Orders Experience In Time (1999)

Conceptual Coordination How the Mind orders Experience in Time His 1999 book Conceptual Coordination: How the Mind Orders Experience in Time has been described in a review by Melanie Mitchell as a book “about the nature of human memory, and how it differs from processes in computers....In Clancey's view, memory consists not of the storage and retrieval of symbols, but of a dynamical process of activation of physically connected neural structures. New memories or concepts are embodied as physical relations between structures in the brain that include not only an encoding of some external contents but, very centrally, the perceptual and motor activities making up 'what I am doing now.' Remembering consists of an approximate re-activation of these structures, in place and in sequence, with the possibility of substitutions, reconstructions, and new interpretations. In this view, a few basic processes at the neural level can explain many different aspects of memory.” While Clancey has learned from thinkers like William James and the founders of Gestalt, his original contribution “is a detailed exposition and extension of these basic ideas, revealing the deep links between perceptual-motor skills and higher-level cognition, a detailed re-examination and recasting of well-known cognitive phenomena and models into this 'conceptual coordination' framework, yielding some interesting novel explanations, and a preliminary link to some recent research in neuroscience.”

Working on Mars Working on Mars, published by MIT Press, describes how the Mars Exploration Rovers (MRS) have “changed the nature of planetary field science,” enabling his team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena to remotely operate the MRSs on the Martian surface and thus have a virtual experience of being on the red planet themselves. A reviewer of the book notes that “Clancey, while a computer scientist, is in Working on Mars more of an anthropologist at times, comparing and contrasting the people working on the mission. There are the differences between the scientists using the rovers to study Mars and the engineers who built and operate the rovers, roles that can lead to conflict but also cooperation, as he notes. There’s also differences within the science team, particularly between those whose background is working in the field and those who primarily work in the lab. The former often wanted to quickly move on to the next destination, while the latter often wanted to linger and perform more observations with their instruments.”

Working on Mars received the 2014 Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award.

Selected publications Clancey, W.J. 2009. "Becoming a Rover". In S. Turkle (Ed.), Simulation and Its Discontents, Cambridge: MIT Press, pp. 107–127. Clancey, W.J. 2006. "Clear Speaking about Machines: People are exploring Mars, not robots". AAAI Workshop: The Human Implications of Human-Robotic Interaction, Boston. Clancey, W.J. 2011. "Relating Modes of Thought". In T. Bartscherer and R. Coover (Eds.), Switching Codes, University of Chicago Press, pp. 161–183. Clancey, W.J., Sierhuis, M., Alena, R., Dowding, J., Scott, M., and van Hoof, R. 2006. "Power Agents: The Mobile Agents 2006 Field Test at MDRS". To appear in F. Crossman and R. Zubrin (eds.), On to Mars: Volume 3, Burlington, Canada: Apogee Books. [Mars Society Presentation] Clancey, W. J., Lee, P., Cockell, C., Braham, S., Shafto, M. 2006. "To the North Coast of Devon: Collaborative navigation while exploring unfamiliar terrain". In J. Clarke (Ed.) Mars Analog Research, Vol. 111, American Astronautical Society Science and Technology Series, San Diego: Univelt, Inc., pp. 197–226. AAS 06-263. Clancey, W.J. 2006. "Observation of work practices in natural settings". In A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P. Feltovich & R. Hoffman (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook on Expertise and Expert Performance. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 127–145. Clancey, W. J. 2008. "Scientific antecedents of situated cognition". In Philip Robbins and Murat Aydede (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Situated Cognition. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 11–34. Clancey, W.J, Sierhuis, M., Damer, B., Brodsky, B. 2005. "Cognitive modeling of social behaviors". In R. Sun (Ed.), Cognition and Multi-Agent Interaction: From Cognitive Modeling to Social Simulation. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 151–184. Clancey, W.J. 2006. "Participant observation of a Mars surface habitat mission simulation Habitation", 11(1/2) 27-47. Pedersen, L., Clancey, W.J., Sierhuis, M., Muscettola, N., Smith, D.E., Lees, D., Rajan, K., Ramakrishnan, S., Tompkins, P., Vera, A., Dayton, T. 2006. "Field demonstration of surface human-robotic exploration activity".AAAI-06 Spring Symposium: Where no human-robot team has gone before, Stanford, March. Clancey, W.J. 2004. "Roles for agent assistants in field science: Understanding personal projects and collaboration 34" (2) 125-137. Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part C: Applications and Reviews, May. Clancey, W.J., Lowry, M., Nado, R., Sierhuis, M. 2011. "Software Productivity of Field Experiments Using the Mobile Agents Open Architecture with Workflow Interoperability". Proceedings of IEEE Fourth International Conference on Space Mission Challenges for Information Technology (SMC-IT), Palo Alto, CA, August 2011, pp. 85–92