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CSE 471/571

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Fall Semester 2000

Syllabus

Catalog Description: CSE 471/571 "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" (3-0-3)

The philosophical base that makes up Artificial Intelligence today.  Development of various representations commonly used.  A study of knowledge bases including several applications and expert systems.  A close look at genetic algorithms, a new area of Artificial Intelligence.

Required Textbook:

Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, 1995.
Herbert A. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, MIT Press, 3rd Edition (3rd printing), 1999.
Optional Books:
Elaine Rich and Kevin Knight, Artificial Intelligence, Mc Graw Hill, 2nd Edition, 1991.

Professor-in-Charge: Gregory R. Madey

Office: 350 Fitzpatrick Hall, Phone: (219) 631- 8752, E-mail: gmadey@nd.edu
Office Hours: by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Shuang (Szan) Luan

Office: 385 Cushing Hall, Phone: (219) 631-3637, E-mail: sluan@cse.nd.edu
Office Hours: by appointment

Course Goals:

It is the goal of this course to study the foundations of Artificial Intelligence in today's environment and to instill an uinderstanding of representations and external constraints with the idea of enabling a student to think creatively.  Students will be required to present chapters from the book by Simon. A large number of short programs and several longer programs will be required as part of the homework assignments.

Prerequisites:

Advanced standing in Engineering or Science
Some knowledge of SCHEME or LISP will be helpful

Topics:

All chapters in the book by Russell & Norvig will be covered. Some will be covered in more depth that others, based on student interest. Our approach will be breadth first, with selective depth search based on students interests.

Computer Usage:

Some homework assignments will require programming in LISP or SCHEME.

Laboratory Usage:

None

Grading:

The course will be graded on the basis of homework assignments from chapter problems and other sources, one midterm exam and a comprehensive final (possibly take-home). The following weights will be used to compute the final grade:

A grade of 92% or above is guaranteed an A, 82% or above a B, 72% or above a C, and 62% or above a D.

This grading formula implies that there is no curve; your grade will depend only on how well you (and, to a small extent, your partners) do, and not on how well everyone else does. (If everyone does exceptionally badly on some exam, I may decide the exam was at fault rather than the students, in which case I'll adjust the grade cutoffs as I deem appropriate. But I won't adjust in the other direction; if everyone gets an A, that's great). Plus and minus grades will be assigned to individuals close to the boundaries between letter grades.

Make-up exams will be given only in extraordinary (and documented) circumstances.

Homework assignments:

There will be about six homework assignments, some of which are to be done alone, others will be done in groups of three (these assignments will be specified as group problems). Homeworks are to be turned in at the beginning of lecture on the day they are due. Your computer programs are to be submitted electronically to the course hand-in directory.

Each homework assignment will cover a major course topic. .The programming problems are designed to let you ``get your hands dirty'' with computer problems, to introduce new topics, to fully develop concepts from lecture, and to test your mastery of the course material. Some of the problem sets may require you to demonstrate your program to the teaching assistant, in which case part of the problem set grade will be based on the demonstration. Any member of your group may be asked any question at all about the problem set during that demonstration. Therefore, it will be to your advantage to teach each other about the material.

The programming problems will generally involve quite a bit of computer programming. Do not wait until the night before a homework assignment is due to start working on it!

Late work will be accepted, but a penalty of 20% per calendar day late (and fractions thereof) will be assessed! Problem sets turned in after the start of class on the day that they are due will be considered to be late!

Cooperative Learning:

Much of the work for this course (with the exception of homework assignments that have to be solved individually) can be carried out in groups, in which case each group will turn in one copy of the assignment, with the names of all group members on it.

This may be the first time in your college career that you have worked cooperatively in a group and it will be a change from the traditional approach in which students work competitively and in isolation. However, current educational research has shown that cooperative learning is an extremely effective means of learning.

One advantage of cooperative learning is that it allows the instructor to give very comprehensive (and very intense) assignments, from which you will learn a great deal. At the same time, the amount of individual work per student is kept at a reasonable level. Another advantage is that the students can understand new ideas by discussing them with other students. Even the ``smartest'' person in a group will learn alot by discussing the material with other students. Most professors will tell you (and I certainly will) that they didn't really understand their course material until they had to teach it. And, hopefully, all of you are here to learn as much as you can - not to just get by.

Also, working as a member of a project team is (in all likelihood) how you will work in real life. Learning how to do that well -- and how to work out the little inconveniences (scheduling, personalities, etc.) that come along with it -- is a valuable skill that you will be able to take with you into the world of work.

In this text there are no ``drill and practice'' exercises; every problem teaches a new idea. For example, a good question to ask about each exercise in this followup session is, ``Why did they include this exercise in the book?'' It's best if your group also discusses the problems together before you split up to work on individual exercises, to make sure that everyone in the group understands the broad ideas of the assignment. Always keep in mind that the exams will be done individually!

If you split up the work, then be sure that your group meets to collect the results before the last minute! If one group member fails to do the work, the entire group is responsible for ensuring that it gets finished.

If some medical or personal emergency takes you away from your group for an extended period of time, or if you decide to drop the course altogether, don't just silently disappear. Inform the instructor and the other members of your group.

Class Presentation:

Every student is expected to present part of one chapter from the book by Simon in class in the course of the semester.  A list of possible topics (together with guidelines for the presentation) will be made available online.  The class presentation is thought the give students the opportunity not only to study material in detail, but also the check if they have really understood it by presenting and explaining it to the whole class (although there are other measures, being able to explain a topic in such a way that others can follow is a sign of having a good grasp of the material).

Class Participation:

Although no rigorous attendance policy will be implemented for this course, students are expected to attend classes regularly (students with excessive absences will be very unlikely to pass the course).  Everybody is encouraged to participate actively and contribute to the course by asking questions and volunteering to solve problems on the board.  Students who attend and participate regularly are more likely to become known to the instructor (which might count in their favor in case they are in between grades).

Exam and Final:

There will be a short (probably in-class) exam somewhere half way through the semester and a comprehensive (probably take-home) final at the end.  Take-home exams have the advantage that students can take them at their whim within a given time frame and that the problems can be more advanced since there is more time to solve them.  Yet take-home exams are still exams and are not thought to be group exercises (academic honesty!).  So, work alone on a take-home, start it early and not a few hours before it is due.

Course Content:

Academic Honesty:

Learning cooperatively might seem to cloud the issue of academic honesty, but really it doesn't. The honesty issues relate to the group corporately. For instance, if a particular problem set includes a large number of written exercises, you may be tempted to simply divide them among the group members so that each of you does only two or three exercises. This is perfectly fine, as long as you get together after doing the individual work to discuss the results and to ensure that each member of the group understands every exercise (and could work it individually if necessary).

Directly copying homework answers or computer code from another group or from any other external source is not cooperative learning. It is cheating. When in doubt, ask the instructor.

Nobody begins the semester with the intention of cheating. Students who cheat do so because they fall behind gradually, and then panic at the last minute. Some students get into this situation because they are afraid of an unpleasant conversation with an instructor if they admit to not understanding something. I would much rather deal with your misunderstanding early than deal with its consequences later. Please, feel free to ask for help as soon as you need it.


General Recommendations
  1. Come to class (on time).
  2. Complete the readings prior to lecture.
  3. Complete and understand all homework assignments.
  4. Discuss the course material with your classmates.
  5. Do not wait until the night before homework is due to start your homework.
  6. Do not be reluctant to ask for help (the professor and/or teaching assistant).
  7. Do not wait to ask for help if you are feeling lost.