CSC 466 - 3 Semester Hours

Topics in Artificial Intelligence

The course will be project-oriented in that each you will be required to engage in a modest, meaningful research project. Projects will consist of explorations of a problem domain by means of LISP or Prolog programs which (1) represent elements of the problem domain, and (2) promote opportunities for experimentation and exploration.

Students will be responsible for crafting a research project from a collection of suggestions. Emphasis will be on defining progress and demonstrating project progress in a very public forum--on a Web page. All required required project elements are to be made available on the Web page on a regular basis.

A research paper based on the research project is also to be written. This paper is to take the form required by some well known real world academic journal for which the work appears to be appropriate.

Structured peer reviews of both oral and web presentations of the research projects, as well as the associated research papers, will be featured in the course.

Topics of significance to Artificial Intelligence which complement the classical ideas presented in the first course will be featured in readings, lectures, discussions, and quizzes.

CSC 416

Upper division Computer Science elective. Taken by most Computer Science B.S. Degree students with the Artificial Intelligence concentration. Required by Cognitive Science B.S. Degree Majors. Taken by most Computer Science B.A. Degree majors as part of their "learning agreement". The course is taken by many Computer Science majors in partial fullfillment of the General Education Writing Across the Curriculum Requirement.

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Craft, engage in, and summarize the results of a research project which falls within the realm of AI and which explicitly addresses and implicitly integrates (1) problem formulation, (2) background research, (3) programming (either LISP or Prolog, (4) experimentation/exploration of the problem through your program, (5) methodical, constant, incremental conceptual articulation of your agenda and accomplishments, and (6) a culminating appraisal of the state of the work completed which features a critical analysis of the work.
2. Develop a Web site which reflects your work on the project.
3. Prepare and present oral reports on your research project.
4. Write a "pretend paper" for "pretend submission" to a real scholarly journal of your choice.
5. Engage in the evaluation of projects and papers of your classmates.

NOTES:

• The first item below will take place over the first two weeks of the semester.
• The middle two items will be interleaved throughout the middle 12 weeks of the semester.
• The final item below will take place over the last two weeks of the semester. \vs

1. Research Methods and Project Expectations
   1. Project Description
   2. Review of Sample Projects from Previous Semesters
   3. Characteristics of Appropriate Problem Domains
   4. Methodological Considerations
2. Cyclical Engagement in Project Development and Review
   1. Program/Demo Development
   2. Oral Status Reports with Feedback
   3. Web Reviews with Feedback
3. Topical Lectures and Discussions
   1. Neural Networks
   2. Genetic Algorithms and Genetic Programming
   3. Learning in Symbolic Contexts
   4. Multi-Agent Systems
4. Final Presentations
   1. Project Site Presentations
   2. Research Paper Presentation

1. Lectures
2. Readings
3. Writings
4. Discussions
5. Research Project
6. Research Paper
7. Quizzes

Attend class. Take all exams. Satisfactorily complete a research project and all related activities. Build a Web site which reflects the course and records work completed in the course.

1. Writings
2. Discussions
3. Research Project
4. Research Paper
5. Course Web Site
6. Quizzes

Computing machines and software.

I. Bratko, PROLOG: Programming for Artificial Intelligence, Addison Wesley, 1990.

D. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, Touchstone: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

W. Hennessey, Common Lisp, McGraw Hill.

M. Mitchel, Genetic Algorithms, The MIT Press, 1992.

P. McCorduck, Machines Who Think, Freeman, 1979.

N. Nilsson, Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis, Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.

E. Rich and K. Knight, Artificial Intelligence, McGraw Hill, 1991.

D. Rummelhart, and J. McClelland, Parallel Distributed Processing, MIT Press, 1986.

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

H. Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, The MIT Press, 1996.

M. Spitzer, The Mind within the Net: Models of Learning, Thinking, and Acting, The MIT Press, 1992.

A. Staugaard, Robotics and AI: An Introduction to Applied Mchine Intelligence, Prentice Hall, 1987.

G. Steele, Common LISP, Digital Press, 1984.

N. Stillings, M. Feinstein, J. Garfield, E. Rissland, D. Rosenbaum, S. Weisler, and L. Baker-Ward, Cognitive Science: An Introduction, A Bradford Book: The MIT Press, 1995.

P. Winston, Artificial Intelligence, Addison Wesley, 1977.

M. Yazdani (editor), Artificial Intelligence: Principles and Applications, Chapman and Hall, 1986.