Meetings: MWF 11:30-12:30, Olin 305 (calendar)

Instructor: Peter Drake

Texts:

Russell & Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition

Eiben & Smith, Introduction to Evolutionary Computing

Mailing List: 09sp-cs-369-01@lclark.edu

Course Policies

Overview

This course examines the philosophical and practical issues involved in the design of thinking machines. We will explore the techniques used to get computers (and robots) to solve problems that once were (and in some cases still are) though to be strictly in the domain of human intelligence.

Topics

In terms of the ACM’s Computing Curricula 2001, this course covers Intelligent Systems (IS1, IS2, IS4, IS6, IS8, and IS10).

A rough schedule follows:

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Intelligent Agents

Week 3: Solving Problems by Searching

Week 4: Informed Search and Exploration

Week 5: Adversarial Search

Week 6: Learning from Observations

Week 7: Neural Networks

Weeks 8-9: Robotics

Weeks 10-13: Evolutionary Computing

Week 14: Philosophical Issues Revisited

Resources

Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”

Singer, “Robots at War: The New Battlefield”

Johnson, “Eurisko, The Computer With A Mind Of Its Own”

Grading

100    Each assignment (roughly 8)

        #1: Vacuum World

        #2: Eight Puzzle

        #3: Reversi

        #4: Decision Trees

        #5: Neural Networks

        #6: Robotics

        #7: Gardening

200    Final project

100    Each quiz (roughly 4)

200    Midterm

400    Final exam