BNet.News
In This Issue: May/June 2005 
•   BNet.EngineKit Beta Released
•   BNet.Builder User Tip
•   Watch Out for BNet.EngineKit 1.0 Release
•   BNet.EngineKit User Tip
•   Charles River Analytics' BNet Developer Interviewed by ADT Magazine
•   Publicize Your Belief Network Success Story
BNet.EngineKit Beta Released
The beta version of BNet.EngineKit was released in mid-May.

BNet.EngineKit is a developer toolkit for researchers and engineers to use to embed belief networks in software applications. Unique in its focus on clear APIs with the right functionality, BNet.EngineKit offers software developers who aren’t inference algorithm specialists a chance to use Bayesian networks without spending years learning about them.

You can find out more about Engine.Kit and belief networks on our Web site. You can also download a trial version of Engine.Kit.

See BNet.EngineKit in Action

Watch Out for BNet.EngineKit 1.0 Release
Charles River Analytics will release BNet.EngineKit 1.0 in early July. EngineKit 1.0 includes learning functionality that allows you to learn your CPTs from data. Two easy-to-use algorithms learn CPTs when you have data for all nodes in your network (fully observed) and when you have missing data or hidden nodes (partially observed). The learning
algorithms use a standard interface for obtaining data, so you can also create your own implementation and provide data from any custom source.

More About Engine.Kit

Charles River Analytics' BNet Developer Interviewed by ADT Magazine
Zach Cox, software engineer and chief developer of BNet.Builder and BNet.EngineKit, was interviewed by ADT (Application Development Trends) Magazine in November, 2004. In this interview, Zach discussed BNet and Bayesian Networks.

To read the interview, click here

BNet.Builder User Tip
Belief Update Settings

BNet.Builder features advanced belief updating technology which means you never have to "compile" your network or switch back-and-forth between edit and query modes. Beliefs are updated automatically after any modification you make to your network.

In some cases, for example when working with large networks, you may not want beliefs to be updated automatically for performance reasons. BNet.Builder gives you total control over when belief updating occurs. Here's how to set it up:

1) Open the Network Properties

  • Select the Window->Network Properties menu item
  • Right-click in the main network view and select Network Properties
  • Use the Ctrl+5 keyboard shortcut

2) Select the Belief Update tab
3) Place a checkmark next to the modifications after which you'd like beliefs to be automatically updated

Beliefs will only be updated automatically after the modifications that are checked. To manually update beliefs, either click the Update beliefs toolbar button or select the Tools->Update beliefs menu item.

BNet.EngineKit User Tip
Opening Files

BNet.EngineKit makes it incredibly easy to open Bayesian networks from files. It currently supports XBN, Hugin, and Netica files. Here's how to read a Bayesian network from one of your existing files:

BayesianNetwork network = XbnFormat.read(new File("myfile.xbn"));
BayesianNetwork network = HuginFormat.read(new File("myfile.net"));
BayesianNetwork network = NeticaFormat.read(new File("myfile.dne"));

Publicize Your Belief Network Success Story
Want to show off your applications of belief networks to others using them in their research? Send us your success stories. We would like to include at least one in each edition of BNet.News.

Send us your success story

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