The Management Process, Management Information and Control Systems, and Cybernetics

byZenon S. Zannetos and Jarrod W. Wilcox

Cybernetics is determined as a science of control through communication, and we can definitely find ample examples where cybernetic principles exert significant influence on management activities. Managerial activity in business organizations includes both planning and control aspects, for example:

• environmental analysis in order to assess the state of nature regarding both the external and internal environment with which the organization is dealing;

• determination of goals or alternative directions;

• objectives for action;

• choice of the critical decisions and operations which are necessary for reaching the objectives and design of an operational plan for execution;

• choice of the signals or indicators which are necessary to inform management as to whether the execution of operations is according to the chosen plan;

• choice of the measurements.

It is in the area of control of operations that cybernetics exerts a significant and undisputed influence. Today so-called cybernetic controls manage large chemical processes, provide automatic quality control, facilitate traffic flows, schedule freight cars and many other operating processes. In this sense managerial functions have been taken over, redefined, or upgraded with the aid of cybernetics. Clearly one of the most obvious applications of cybernetics to management is in the area of servomechanism control.

Cybernetics can serve not only as a conceptual-philosophical aid but also as an operational tool in both managerial planning and control. This is especially true in the planning sphere. Only in the area of control of operations has the impact of this promising field shown tangible results.

EXERCISE 5

Answer the questions.

1. What is a management control system? 2. Can you find any difference between definitions to a management control system given by different authors? Do they treat the conception equally? 3. Can you give any examples how management control systems are used by business firms or governments? 4. What tasks are fulfilled by information measurement and control machines? 5. In what way are such processes, as image identification, measurement of physical parameters, testing and technical diagnostics interrelated with purposes of management control systems? 6. What is cybernetics? 7. What aspectsdo managerial activities in business organizations include? 8. What is the area where cybernetics exerts a significant and undisputed influence? 9. What is the role of cybernetics in managerial planning and control?

EXERCISE 6

Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with verbs written in the box. Coordinate the subjects and the predicates.

Influence involve compete evaluate carry out alter rely on take over provide schedule motivate exert facilitate deploy

1. Governments ……….. information systems to provide services cost-effectively to citizens. 2.Management control systems ……… the behavior of organizational resources to implement organizational strategies. 3. Management control systems are the formal, information-based routines and procedures managers use to ……….. patterns in organizational activities. 4. In the area of control of operations cybernetics ……… a significant and undisputed influence. 5. A control system ……… the behavior of managers which cannot be expressed by equations. 6. Business firms ……….. information systems ……… their operationsand ………in the marketplace. 7. Management control system is an integrated technique for collecting and using information …………..employee behavior and ………… performance. 8. Today cybernetic controls ………… automatic quality control and traffic flows, …freight cars and many other operating processes.

EXERCISE 7

Correct the machine translation where it is necessary.

Управляющие системы и автоматика Чтобы машины и установки могли работать самостоятельно, то есть автоматически, они оснащаются разного рода управляющими и регулирующими устройствами. К такому оборудованию относятся механические, электрические, пневматические и гидравлические приводы и всевозможные органы управления. Управление и регулирование в машиностроении включает в себя весь комплекс аспектов, так или иначе касающихся элементов механики, пневматики, гидравлики, электротехники, электроники, систем связи, компьютерной техники и составляющих новую и очень актуальную сейчас область знаний, которая называется мехатроникой.

Control and Automation Systems   To install the machine and can work independently, that is, automatically, they are equipped with all kinds of control and regulation technology. Such equipment includes mechanical, electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic actuators, and all sorts of controls. Management and regulation in mechanical engineering includes all aspects of the complex, one way or another related to the elements of mechanics, pneumatics, hydraulics, electrical, electronics, communications, computers and components of a new and up to date knowledge of the area now called mechatronics.

EXERCISE 8

Translate the text into English and title it.

Системы управления лабораторной информацией координируют образцы, пользователей, инструменты, стандарты и другие лабораторные функции, такие как управление покрытием и автоматизация рабочего потока.

Используя новейшее программное обеспечение и технологии от ThermoScientific, мы поставляем технологии, предназначенные для удовлетворения потребностей всех лабораторий экологического, исследовательского анализа или коммерческих лабораторий, таких как фармацевтические, химические или нефтехимические.

Наши информационно-управляющие системы поддерживают действия по сбору информации, принятию решений, расчетам, обзору и выпуску, внутри и вне рабочего пространства посредством создания непрерывной организации

Наши клиенты – это различные организации, от производственных лабораторий на предприятиях до  экологических,  исследовательских и коммерческих лабораторий, как контрактных, так и правительственных.

EXERCISE 9

Make a summary to the text “The Management Process, Management Information and Control Systems, and Cybernetics”. Express your opinion.

EXERCISE 10

Say what you know about Information and Control systems, their tasks, functions, and application.

UNITVI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Text I

Artificial intelligence

EXERCISE 1

Read and translate the text.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that studies and develops intelligent machines and software. In other words, it is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines. The central problems of AI research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects. Currently popular approaches include statistical methods, computational intelligence and traditional symbolic AI. There are an enormous number of tools used in AI, including mathematical optimization, logic methods based on probability and economics, and many others.The field was founded on the claim that intelligence of humans can be precisely described and simulated by a machine. Artificial intelligence has been the subject of tremendous optimism but has also suffered stunning setbacks. Today it has become an essential part of the technology industry in computer science.

Artificial Intelligence System (AIS) was a distributed computing project with the long-term goal of simulating the human brain in real time, complete with artificial consciousness and artificial general intelligence. They claimed to have found the mechanisms of knowledge representation in the brain which is equivalent to finding artificial intelligence, before moving into the developmental phase.

The project's initial goal was recreating the largest brain simulation to date, performed by neuroscientist Eugene M. Izhikevich of The Neurosciences Institute in California. Izhikevich simulated 1 second of activity of 100 billion neurons (the estimated number of neurons in the human brain) in 50 days using a cluster of 27 3-gigahertz processors.  In 2008 the first phase of the project was completed by reaching the 100 billion neuron mark.  The project then continued to simulate neurons while they completed the development of the other applications.

AIS simulated the brain via an artificial neural network. The project utilized the BOINC distributed computing platform. The application had four primary modules—for creating neurons, simulating neurons, visualizing neurons, and finally, knowledge acquisition. Intention was that the neuronal generator would eventually use genetic algorithms to generate neurons for simulation. The neuron simulator used mathematical models to simulate those neurons. Initially Hodgkin-Huxley models were used, but more models (perhaps hundreds) were intended to be utilized in the future. The visualization software was to allow the administrators to monitor and control the neuronal simulators. The knowledge acquisition module involved feeding information to the system and training it to build its knowledge base.