Current Position
Professor Burton J. and DeeDee McMurtry at 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 in engineering risk analysis and management, being the founding head of the MS&E department at Stanford. Her research focuses on how managerial decisions and organizational factors influence the failure of complex systems, which directly connects to the proposal of the chatbot to mitigate operational risks in agriculture. The project treats agricultural operation as a system where human fallibility (the “chronic forgetting”) generates financial risks that technology aims to reduce through safety and communication mechanisms.
”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. Key terms include “Near-misses” (near accidents), which are events that did not result in disaster only by luck, and “Accident Precursors” (accident precursors), signals or conditions indicating the likelihood 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 reading a message (a failure precursor) as a “near-miss,” triggering a phone call to “repair” the process before financial loss (the real 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 vigilance on the farm by automating the “executive secretary,” ensuring that top management has consolidated data to manage the trade-offs between practical operation and financial health.
Risks and Games: Intelligent Actors and Fallible Systems” (2009)
The work examines how interactions between “intelligent actors” and technical systems affect failure risk. It uses the “Principal-Agent Model” (Principal-Agent Model), where a manager defines incentives and punishments for a subordinate, and the concept of “Shadow Price” (Shadow Price), which measures the gain in safety by relaxing a time constraint.
Interaction Between Actors and System Performance
- “Many failure risks stem from interactions among actors and their effects on the performance of the systems involved (technical, political, financial, etc.).” “Many failure risks stem from interactions among actors and 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 with financial management does not degrade business performance due to memory failures.
Impact of Management Decisions on Human Behavior
- “It tracks back the sources of these actions in management decisions, including incentives, operational rules, and available resources.” “It tracks back the sources of these actions in management decisions, including incentives, operational rules, and available resources.”
- Intersection: By providing cash flow reports and proactive alerts, the chatbot changes the available resources and operational rules on the farm, incentivizing the producer to meet deadlines that were previously ignored due to exhausting routines.
The Risk of “Cutting Corners” 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 agriculture, 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 bureaucratic barriers 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