Topics In Artificial Intelligence

Objectives

Professor

Textbook

Attendance

Grades

Exams

Written Assignments

Rules on Giving/Getting Help


Homework Assignments




Objectives

  • Artificial Intelligence covers a vast amount of content. This course will introduce a variety of these topics and intends:
    • to study various kinds of intelligent agents
    • to understand search as a problem solving strategy
    • to use adversarial search in the context of game playing
    • to introduce several types of learning such as neural nets and reinforcement learning
    • to cover some topics in robotics.
  • As in all computer science courses, we learn the most when we actually design and implement programs to apply the theory we learn. Consequently, the students in the course will
    • write programs in python dealing with topics like game playing and search
    • write Java programs to program Lego NXT robots
    • use a simulator for more advanced robotics application
  • To complete some readings to broaden our background in the vast literature related to artificial intelligence.

 

Professor

Dr. Christine Shannon 
Olin 115 
Phone: 5406 (Office) 238-7422 (Home) 
e-mail: shannon@centre.edu 
You might also be interested in visiting my home page at http://web.centre.edu/shannon/.

Office hours: I am generally on campus every day between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. and often later than that.. If I am not in class, I am usually in my office or one of the computer labs. I will try to observe the following office hours and will notify you if I won't be available.  I teach in B and F blocks this Fall and I have a problem seminar from 4-5:30 on Tuesday afternoons.

MWF

10:20 - 11:30 a.m.

T-Th 1:00 - 2:30 p.m.

Please feel free to come by at other times and you are always welcome to make an appointment. 

Textbook and software resources

Russell, Stuart J, and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.

The Lejos tutorial for programming the Lego NXT robots is found at http://lejos.sourceforge.net/nxt/nxj/tutorial/index.htm

The website for pyrorobotics is found at http://pyrorobotics.org

The website for the AAAI is at http://www.aaai.org/AITopics/index.html

Attendance 

I expect students to be present for all classes. Please let me know in advance if you must be absent for a scheduled college activity. Illness might prevent you from being present for a couple of classes during the term but anything beyond that will probably have a detrimental effect on your grade. Those of you who must be absent for college sponsored activities should be particularly careful not to miss any other classes. It is very important that you be present for all examinations. Documentation will be required before you are allowed to make up a test and in general the make up will be the appropriate part of the final exam. Only the Associate Dean can make exceptions to the final exam schedule. If you have a good reason to be absent from class, you are still responsible for the homework assignments. Except in the case of serious illness, all assignments are to be turned in on time. 

Grades

Your grade for the course will be determined by the following: 
Tests (2) -- will probably include take-home portions 125 points each
Classwork/Written Responses/Homework/Projects
150 points
Final Exam 150 points

Your final grade will be determined by the total number of points you accumulate out of the 550 possible points. 150 points will be composed of the points you gain on programming projects, other written assignments, responses that you give to reading assignments as well as any class presentations. You will be asked to submit a 2-3 paragraph response to certain reading assignments. This should not be a summary of the article but your thoughts after having read it. Did it raise questions? Are there things you would like to pursue? Does it relate to other things you have read? These will be used in class discussions. Borderline cases will be determined by improvement on the final and participation in class. Students who are ill-prepared, miss class, or otherwise fail to live as responsible citizens will not get the benefit of any doubt. I will use a 15 point grading scale so that you are guaranteed an A or A- if you score 85 or above, a B-, B or B+ for 70-84, C-,C or C+ for 55-69 a D for 45-54 and anything lower is failing. However, at the end of the semester, I reserve the right to give a higher grade than this if the grade distribution warrants.

Exams

There will be two exams on Monday, October 6,.and Monday, November 17 . These exams may include a take home portion which will give you additional time to complete the less routine questions. There will also be a cumulative final during the final exam period on Thursday, December 11.  

Written Assignments 

There will be reading assignments and exercises assigned each day. These will be discussed at the next class meeting. There will also be some exercises and programming assignments which I will collect and grade. All work must be submitted on time. Late projects will be penalized 10% per day. I do not accept other assignments past the deadline but there will be some "grace" at the end of the semester.  Unless the project is specifically designated as a team project you are to work independently. You are responsible for safeguarding the security of your accounts. You should NEVER give your password to another person or permit someone to read your code (unless another member of YOUR team is checking your work.) You must give credit BY NAME to any person who assists you in completing an assignment. Failure to acknowledge such help is PLAGIARISM and will be dealt with accordingly. 

All students will conclude their project with the statement: 

This is my own work except for the help from the persons whom I have noted above. I gave help to the following students: (list names). Follow with your signature. 
.

General Rules for Giving/Getting Help

If you are seeking help: Another person may read your code if you are trying to find a bug. You must acknowledge their help and indicate that they read your code as part of the documentation. You may not read another person's code but it is permissible to talk about the solution of the problem (not the actual code). Anyone with whom you discuss the problem, must be listed in your documentation. 

If you are giving help: you may read another person's code if you are looking for an error. It is their responsibility to list you as a resource. You may not allow another student to read your code "to get the idea". It is permissible to talk about your solution but be judicious about the hints you give. Again, the other student is responsible for listing your help in the documentation