Syllabus: CS 5541 Artificial Intelligence (Fall 2001)


Course Information

Instructor: Chris Prince (http://www.d.umn.edu/~cprince)
Email: cprince@d.umn.edu
Office: 313 Heller Hall
Phone: 726-6514
Office Hours: Mon, Wed, Fri: 10am-11am; Tues: 3pm-4pm; and by appointment

Course web page: http://www.cprince.com/courses/cs5541fall01

Course Texts

Dr. Scheme

Scheme Interpreter: http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/PLT/packages/drscheme/
Dr. Scheme documentation: http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/PLT/packages/doc/index.html
How to program in Scheme: http://www.cs.rice.edu/CS/PLT/Teaching/Lectures/Released/
Scheme r5rs documentation (.pdf)
Scheme Programming Book
(online version of Felleisen, et al., 2001)

RatCog 2.0 under Redhat Linux 7.0, 7.1

RatCog 2.0
      http://www.cprince.com/PubRes/RatCog
      http://www.cprince.com/projects/RatCog

Prolog

http://www.swi.psy.uva.nl/projects/SWI-Prolog/

Course Content and Prerequisites

This course is an introduction to the field of artificial intelligence (AI), with an emphasis on the construction of rational agents. You can expect to learn about fundamental AI methods in machine problem solving through knowledge representation and reasoning. You will learn a variant of the AI programming language Lisp (Scheme), and you will also learn to think and write about the issues which dominate the field.

You should have completed CS 2511 (Software Development) and Math 3355 (Discrete Math) or their quarter equivalents.

Grading Basis

Your grade will be based on the total points you earn on exams, programming exercises, and assignments. These points are broken down as follows (the following is subject to revision):

Item Number Points each Total
Midterm Exam 1 (October 5, class time) 1 75 75
Midterm Exam 2 (November 9, class time) 1 75 75
Final Exam (4pm-5:55pm, Thurs, Dec 20) 1 150 150
Redhat Linux Intro 1 10 10
C++ Programming Exercise: RatCog 1 30 30
Scheme Programming Exercises 4 30 120
Other Assignments 3 25 75
Grand Total 535


The final grades will be based on the 535 point total. Generally:

90% guarantees an A-
80% guarantees an B-
70% guarantees a C-
60% guarantees a D

These grade cutoffs will never be raised; but they may be lowered.

Course Policies

Lectures

You are responsible for all material presented in lecture. Lecture notes will be available from the course web page (see above).

Assignments and Labs

The C++ and Scheme exercises and other assignments will be posted on the course website. Assignments will consist of programming problems, non-programming problems, and potentially some programming problems in languages other than C++ or Scheme. Programming assignments will be discussed in the Wednesday lab, and will be demonstrated to the lab instructor (a CS graduate student) in the lab on the days they are due. A missed lab demonstration will be regarded as late and assessed a 20% penalty per day. On lab days in which no assignments are due, the lab instructor will be available for consultation.

Exams

Exams will cover all lecture, reading, and assignment material. The second exam should be considered to be cumulative, though the emphasis will be on course material not yet covered by exam. The final exam will be cumulative. Coverage and topics will be given on the course web page well before the time of the exam. Exams must be taken on the hour they are scheduled. They will not be given early, and can be made up only if documented evidence of medical emergency or death in the family is presented before the time of the exam.

Collaboration

Currently, there are no team projects scheduled for this course. You may discuss an assignment and general approaches to a problem with your professor, your lab instructor, lab consultants, or your classmates, but you must design your program and write the code yourself. You may consult with others about your design or seek help in debugging, but you may not collaborate with anyone on the writing of your code.

Assignment Reports

While programs will be demonstrated in lab, program writeups and nonprogramming assigned problems will be due by 8:00 p.m. in Heller Hall 314, in the box of the lab instructor (Krishna Venkataraman Chengavalli) on the due date. Late exercises and assignments will be charged 20% per day.

Etc.