Current position
Burton J. and DeeDee McMurtry Professor in the School of Engineering and Professor of MS&E
Intersection with the project
Overview
Professor M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell is related to the project as a world authority on engineering risk analysis and management, and the founding chair of Stanford’s MS&E department. Her research focuses on how management decisions and organizational factors influence the failure of complex systems, which connects directly to the chatbot’s proposal to mitigate operational risks in agribusiness. The project treats agricultural operations as a system where human fallibility (“chronic forgetfulness”) generates financial risks that technology, acting as a safety and communication mechanism, aims to reduce.
”Improving Risk Management: From Lame Excuses to Principled Practice” (2014)
This research discusses the pillars of risk analysis: assessment, management, and communication. The author proposes going beyond blame attribution and focusing on the root causes of operational failures. Central terms include “Near-misses”, which are events that did not result in disaster only by luck, and “Accident Precursors”, signals or conditions that indicate the probability of a future failure.
Risk Communication Optimization
- “what shall we say about it, to whom, when, and how?” “what shall we say about it, to whom, when, and how?”
- Intersection: The chatbot is essentially a risk communication tool, as it defines the “what” (maintenance/payment reminder), the “who” (rural producer), and the “how” (via dynamic messages and phone calls) to avoid financial losses.
Learning from Near-misses
- “identifying mistakes and their fundamental causes after a failure or a near-miss is key to learning effectively about what went wrong and how to do better in the future.” “identifying mistakes and their fundamental causes after a failure or a near-miss is key to learning effectively about what went wrong and how to do better in the future.”
- Intersection: The “High-Priority Alerts” system treats the absence of a message read receipt (a failure precursor) as a “near-miss”, triggering a phone call to “repair” the process before the financial loss (the actual accident) occurs.
Safety Culture and Vigilance
- “A safety culture starts at the head of an organization, with a true commitment to recognize and properly manage unavoidable trade-offs…” “A safety culture starts at the head of an organization, with a true commitment to recognize and properly manage unavoidable trade-offs…”
- Intersection: The chatbot promotes a vigilance culture on the farm by automating the “executive assistant”, ensuring that top management has consolidated data to manage trade-offs between practical operations and accounting health.
”Risks and Games: Intelligent Actors and Fallible Systems” (2009)
This work examines how interactions between “intelligent actors” and technical systems affect the risk of failure. It uses the “Principal-Agent Model”, where a manager defines incentives and penalties for a subordinate, and the concept of “Shadow Price”, which measures the safety gain from relaxing a deadline constraint.
Interaction between Actors and System Performance
- “Many failure risks stem from interactions among actors and on their effects on the performance of the systems involved (technical, political, financial, etc.).” “Many failure risks stem from interactions among actors and on their effects on the performance of the systems involved (technical, political, financial, etc.).“.
- Intersection: The chatbot acts as an additional “intelligent actor” in the agricultural system to ensure that the producer’s interaction (human) with financial management (system) does not degrade business performance due to memory failures.
Impact of Management Decisions on Human Behavior
- “tracks back the sources of these actions in management decisions, including incentives, operational rules and resources available.” “tracks back the sources of these actions in management decisions, including incentives, operational rules and resources available.”.
- Intersection: By providing cash flow reports and proactive alerts, the chatbot alters the available resources and operational rules of the farm, encouraging the producer to meet deadlines that would previously have been missed due to the exhausting routine.
The Risk of “Corner Cutting” Under Pressure
- “What the agent does to meet the schedule constraints to which he is subjected can affect the performance of that technical system later in operation, especially if he decides to cut corners…” “What the agent does to meet the schedule constraints to which he is subjected can affect the performance of that technical system later in operation, especially if he decides to cut corners…“.
- Intersection: In agribusiness, field pressure leads the producer to “cut corners” in financial administration (neglecting entries and deadlines). The chatbot mitigates this risk by facilitating data collection via audio and images, eliminating the bureaucratic barrier and preventing future failures.
Full papers
M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell - Improving Risk Management From Lame Excuses to Principled Practice.pdf M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell - Risks and Games Intelligent Actors and Fallible Systems.pdf