CS 440

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence


Fall 2003
Mon & Wed   4:30-5:50 PM   ARC-105
Wed    6:35-7:30 PM    ARC-105

Basics
Organization
Syllabus
Homework
Projects
Tests
Resources

Basics

Instructor

Vladimir Pavlovic
Office: 312 CoRE
Email: vladimir@cs.rutgers.edu
Web: www.cs.rutgers.edu/~vladimir
Phone: 732-445-2654
Office hours: Mon, 3:00-4:00

TA

Zhi Wei
Office:   416 Hill
Email: zhwei@paul.rutgers.edu
Phone:   732-445-6996
Office hours:   Thu, 4:30-6:30 PM

Mailing List

CS440-FALL03@rams.rutgers.edu
List archive.

Textbook

Russell & Norvig, "Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach", 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall, 2003. Also referred to as AIMA.

Organization

Lectures are on Mon and Wed, 4:30-5:50 PM in ARC-105.
Discussion session is on Wed, 6:35-7:30 PM in ARC-105.

Prerequisites

CS314 (Principles of Programming Languages).  You also need a solid knowledge of calculus.  Some knowledge of probability and linear algebra will be beneficial.

Grading

Homework
25%
Presentations
15%
Midterm
30%
Final
30%

Syllabus

This is an introductory AI course.  As such, it will cover, in some depth, a wide range of AI topics:
Detailed syllabus can be found here.

Homework

Assignments are due by the end of lecture on the day indicated.

Your are expected to turn in your assignments on time.  Late homework will not be accepted!

Homework will be assigned on weekly/bi-weekly basis. 

Homework accounts for 25% of the final grade. 

Homework are to be done individually.  You are encouraged to discuss assignments but the solutions you turn in should be yours.  Copying of solutions  will not be tolerated and will be immediately sanctioned.   Please see  Rutgers Policy on Academic Integrity.

Homework scores

Homework scores are here and here (graphical).

Projects

Presentation/projects will be given throughout the semester by teams of students.  Each team will consist of two students.

Presentations will cover specialized subtopics of the topics presented in class (e.g., Bayesian network software.)  The team will be in charge of researching the presentation topic and preparing a 15min presentation.  A copy of the presentation will be posted on this web site. You will need to use the textbook as well as additional resources (books, papers,  etc.)

The team members will be assigned randomly.  Each student will have to participate in one presentation during the semester.

I will assign the presentation topic to the team two weeks before the presentation is due.

If you want to use my laptop for the presentation, you will be responsible for getting the presentation to me in time sufficient for me to place it on the laptop (2 hours before the class meets.)

Tests

All tests will be closed-book, closed-notes.

As with the homework assignments, you are expected to do your tests on your own.  Please follow the same standards of Academic Integrity.

Midterm. Oct. 20, 4:30pm, ARC-105.
Problems Solutions Scores Stats

Final. Dec. 17, 8:00am-11:00am, ARC-105.

Computing

We will use a combination of Java and MATLAB for programming assignments.

We may use O'Caml and Lush.

Resources

AIMA web site.
Kevin Murphy's Bayesian network page.
Useful matrix and Gaussian identities by Sam Roweis.

Matlab

Documentation from Mathworks.
Tutorial from MTU.
Tutorials from University of Colorado.
Probabilistic Modeling Toolkit.