Computer Expert System

Throughout the fiscal year, work continued on the Fair Housing Computer Expert System funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Thomas A. Baria, Professor in the Industrial Engineering Department, Iowa State University, is the computer consultant. He works with an eightmember managment team representing the 15 agencies in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska, who are participants in the project.

The expert system will enable housing investigators, especially inexperienced ones, to process cases more quickly, and to provided more consistent and complete application of housing laws and regulations. The system will assist in determining "probable cause"or"no probable cause" in individual housing discrimination cases based on the facts entered in the system. In December 1991 a hand-ons training session was held in Des Moines for the project particiapnts. An extension of time to June 30, 1992, was granted for fine tuning of the project.