CSCE476/876, Spring 2000: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

Prereq:         CSCE310, Data structures and algorithms.

Course description: Introduction to the basic principles, techniques and tools now being used in the area of machine intelligence.  Lecture topics will include problem solving, knowledge representation and reasoning, search, expert systems, and planning and action.  More advanced topics may be included depending on class interests and performance.  Programming will be done in Common Lisp using Allegro Common Lisp (ACL) and its programming environment.

Time:           Monday, Wednesday, Friday, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:20 p.m.

Place:           Room 111, Ferguson Hall

Instructor:   Prof.  Berthe Y. Choueiry
                      Room 104, Ferguson Hall,
                      choueiry AT cse DOT unl Dot edu, tel: (402)472-5444.
                      Office hours:  Mon/Fri from 1:20 p.m. to 2:20 p.m., or by appointment.

TA:               M. Parwezpasha KOTHWAALSHEIK (Parwez).
                      email: parwez@cse.unl.edu
                      Office hours in Room 16 or Room 17, Ferguson:  Mon/Wed  0930 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
                      Office location: Building 501, Room 6.5.

Class schedule: the page will be regularly updated. Check it out often for reference to required and recommended reading material, homework texts, and announcements.

Required textbooks (check the bookstore):

• Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach (AIMA), by Russell & Norvig.
• LISP, 3rd Edition  (LWH).  Winston & Horn.

• Lectures by instructor, 3 times per week.
• The workload will consist of:
• required and recommended reading material (as indicated in the Class schedule): AIMA (textbook) will be followed in a more or less linear fashion.  The content of the course will be dynamically adapted to students interests and performance. Chapters to be studied may encompass:  Chapter: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 24, 26, and/or 27.   Sections from these and other chapters may be dropped or added during the course.  Regularly check the class schedule.
• glossary:  Students will be have to build an incremental and alphabetically sorted glossary of important terms.  Terms to be included are: (1) the ones mentioned in AIMA in the margin of the required  reading material, (2) the ones highlighted anytime during a lecture,  and (3) the ones sent by email.  A glossary entry can be filled with: (1) its definition in AIMA, (2) its definition from another AI textbook or dictionary, or (3) the student's own interpretation.  All terms encountered during a week are due as a weekly glossary the following Monday.  At the end of the course, the full alphabetically sorted glossary is due. (Hint:  choose a text editor that can sort entries alphabetically.)
• programming, theoretical, and library-search assignments:  Programming assignments must be done in Common Lisp (advice: use Allegro Common Lisp on Linux) and turned in  before 6 p.m. on the due date.  Usually, homeworks must be turned in using the UNIX handin program on cse.unl.edu.  Pen-and-paper assignments must be given to the instructor right before the lecture on the due date. Late homeworks are subject to a 20% deduction per day (including week-ends), any second after the due date counts as an entire day.  Students are kindly requested to indicate how much time they approximately spend on each exercise; this information will be aggregated and used for planning purposes, it does not affect grading and the evaluation of individuals.
• surprise quizzes: There will be a surprise quiz every 2 to 4 weeks,  depending on students performance.  Quizzes will address all material covered during the lectures and/or by the required reading.  No books or personal notes are allowed during the quizzes, unless explicitly specified. Quizzes cannot be made up.
• tests: There will be a pre-test, a mid-term  and a final.  Tests cannot be taken in advance.  Tests cannot be made up except by instructor's permission.
• It is the student's responsibility to ensure an account on the CSE PCs from which Linux (+ xemacs, ACL) can be executed.
• Discussions among students, instructor, and TA are encouraged.  Homeworks however are a strictly individual activity: no sharing is permitted (unless when specified by instructor).  Unethical behavior will be heavily sanctioned (e.g., a null grade on the task).
• Always acknowledge any help received from other individuals.
• Always fully reference material used (e.g., encyclopedia, book, paper, journal, web site).
• Attendance is not mandatory.  But students are responsible for the material covered and announcements (such as lists of terms for glossary) made during the class.  Also, there will be surprise quizzes.

• The plan is to partition the grades as follows:
• Pre-test:  5%
• Glossary: 10%
• (Surprise) quizzes: 20%
• Homeworks: 25% (Programming assignments will be graded as follows: 50% for correctness, 25% for programming style, and 25% for documentation.)
• Tests (mid-term, final): 40% (20% each)
• A bonus will be awarded to students who attend all lectures.
• Students who perform exceptionally well during the semester may be exempted from the final exam.

Grade conversion:
 

• Foundations of Constraint Satisfaction by Edward Tsang.
• A mathematical introduction to logic by Enderton, Herbert B, CALL NO. QA9 .E54 1972.
• Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach (AIMA), by Russell & Norvig.
• Artificial Intelligence, 3rd Edition.  Winston. ISBN 0201533774.
• LISP, 3rd Edition. Winston & Horn. ISBN 0-201-08319-1.
• Essentials of Artificial Intelligence. Ginsberg. ISBN 1-558s60-22-6.  Call number Q335.G55 1993.
• Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis. Nilsson. ISBN 1-55860-535-5.  Call number Q335.N496 1998.
• Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming. Norvig. ISBN 1-55860-191-0. Call number QA76.6.N687.
• ANSI Common Lisp, Paul Graham. ISBN 0-13-370875-6.

• Online Tutorial to Common Lisp , Adaptive Remote Tutor.
• Franz Inc. by David Cooper Jr.: Understanding Common Lisp (Basic Lisp techniques, pdf document).
• From Jason Steele (jsteele@cse): A few good examples on how to create and manipulate classes
• The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences, call number BF311 .M556 1999, LIB USE ONLY.
• Common Lisp, The Language, Second Edition. Guy L. Steele, Jr.  Digital Press, ISBN: 1555580416 (will be made available soon at LL.)
• Encyclopedia of artificial intelligence, 1992, SECOND EDITION,call number Q335 .E53, LIB USE ONLY.
• LISP FAQ by  Mark Kantrowitz.
• Section on "General AI Information" in "AI Resources."
• Web search engines (Altavista, etc.)