CS575 Artificial Intelligence II

Spring, 1999

Instructor

Roger Hartley, SH 148, telephone 646-1218
Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:00 am - 12:00 noon; Fridays 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm; also by appointment.
Email: rth@cs.nmsu.edu
Internet: http://www.cs.nmsu.edu/~rth/cs

Where and when

Room: SH113 Time: MWF 12:30 - 1:20 pm

Textbook:

Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach. Russell and Norvig. Prentice Hall, 1995.

Course outline

This course will carry on from CS475 (Artificial Intelligence I) in the sense that the same textbook, with the same general approach, will be used. We will however, take topics that were not covered. Specifically, we will concentrate on section VI, Learning. The major methods will be covered:

    1. Decision trees
    2. Neural networks
    3. Belief networks

We may also have time to study genetic algorithms and perhaps other, more advanced techniques.

Some of the material for these approaches is presented in earlier chapters. In particular, basic search techniques, and representation using first-order predicate calculus will be assumed.

Since this is a 500 level class, I will expect students to have a lot of initiative in tracking down related material in the library and on the web, and to incorporate this into the class. The textbook has many fine references, but I will supply others as needed to be followed up as part of the assignments. I will introduce each topic and provide pointers to help in understanding. We will then try out some of the techniques using software we find on the web, and also software that I provide. We will try to avoid having to write software from scratch, but it may be necessary in some cases. If this is necessary, any language can be used; I will not be teaching Lisp or Prolog, or expecting you to use either one.

Calendar

1999:

January :    13th: First day of class

22nd: Last day to add

29th: Last day to drop

February:

March :    12th: First test

16th: Last day to withdraw

26th: Moratorium for missing assignments

29th: Spring break starts

April:    2nd: Spring break ends

May:             7th: Last day of class

                    10th: Finals weeks starts, Moratorium for missing assignments

                    14th: Finals weeks ends

 

 

Assessment

Each major topic will involve solving a worked problem from the textbook, and writing a program to test out the ideas. I anticipate three or four such assignments, each involving real data, which I will supply. We may use the same application for each one, but it may be more appropriate to choose different data for each program. There will be no tests.