January 10 (Tue), 2017 HW1 assigned exrcise at the end of Ch.1 [L] due Thursday, January 12, 2017. Reading assigned: article by Brian Hayes linked to the course home page: "The Manifest Destiny of Artificial Intelligence." (See elsewhere on web site for full reference.) Administrative information: textbook and syllabus. Please read handout with the grading policy for the course. Ch.1[L] ("Thinking and Computation") through 1.3.2.
January 12 (Thu), 2017 Q1. Ch.1[L] completed; ch.12[L] ("Can Computers Really Think?"), including the the Turing Test, John Searle's Chinese Room argument and Hector Levesque's Summation Room counterargument. Definitions of AI: Negrotti's survey from IJCAI-83 with the roboticist, behavioristic, and congnitive definitions. Students are asked to read Ch.2[L] and Ch.1[P].
January 17 (Tue), 2017 Ch.2[L] ("A Procedure for Thinking") completed.
January 19 (Thu), 2017 Q3. (Note: Q3 was done before Q2.) Ch.3 [L] ("The Prolog Language"), almost completed.
January 24 (Tue), 2017 Q2. (Note: Q2 was done before Q3.) Ch.3 [L] completed. Unification in detail, including the occurs check. Ch.4 [L] ("Writing Prolog Programs") almost completed.
January 26 (Thu), 2017 HW2 assigned: exercise 5.5 [L], due on Thursday, February 2, 2017 (via the departmental dropbox). Ch.4 [L] ("Writing Prolog Programs") completed. Ch.5 [L] ("Case Study: Satisfying Constraints") through Section 5.2.
January 31 (Tue), 2017 Use of protocol/1 and noprotocol to record a session with Prolog. Ch.5 [L] completed.
February 2 (Thu), 2017 Q4. Ch.6 [L] ("Case Study: Interpreting Visual Scenes"): section 6.1 and 6.2 done; sections 6.3 and 6.4 assigned to be read. Ch.7 [L] ("Lists in Prolog") almost completed.
February 7 (Tue), 2017 Ch.7 [L] ("Lists in Prolog") completed. Ch.8 [L] ("Case Study: Understanding Natural Language") to the beginning of section 8.2.
February 9 (Thu), 2017 HW3: exercises 1-6 at the end of Ch.8 [L], due on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. Use the scene in Figure 8.16 [L] with the following restriction son blocks: A is a pyramid, B is a large cube, G is an orange wedge. In your world model, please name your blocks as follows: block_a, block_b, ..., block_g. Ch.8 [L] ("Case Study: Understanding Natural Language") completed.
February 14 (Tue), 2017 The midterm exam will be on Thursday, February 23, 2017. First part of Ch.9 [L] ("Case Study: Planning Courses of Action"): through 9.2.5. This class was narrated over PowerPoint, because the instructor was absent; the TA (Mr. Cui) led the class.
February 16 (Thu), 2017 The midterm exam will be on Thursday, February 23, 2017. Second part of Ch.9 [L] ("Case Study: Planning Courses of Action"). This class was narrated over PowerPoint, because the instructor was absent; a graduate student proctored.
February 21 (Tue), 2017 The midterm exam will be on Thursday, February 23, 2017. It will be closed book and notes. It will cover chapters 1-9 and 12 [L] and introductory materials. Q&A on the midterm. Note: the projector in B213 did not work; I used the board. I called 777-1800 to report the failure at the end of class. Ch.13 [P] (Poole's textbook), section 13.2. How to represent values of properies of objects: reification and the Object-Property-Value (a.k.a. Object-Attribute-Value) representation. RDF and the Turtle description language. Inheritance translated as Prolog sules. Ch.10 [L] ("Case Study: Playing Strategic Games.") started (through most of section 10.1).
February 23 (Thu), 2017 Midterm (MT1).
February 28 (Tue), 2017 MT1 returned and discussed. Ch.10 [L] ("Case Study: Playing Strategic Games.") completed.
March 2 (Thu), 2017 Reading assigned: Ch.11 [L], Chs.1-3 [P], to be read during Spring break. Ch.11 [L] ("Case Study: Other Ways of Thinking."). Backchaining as subject matter. Breadth-first variation of the establish procedure. Forward chaining. Explanation and learning (basics).
March 14 (Tue), 2017 Ch.11 [L] continued and almost completed. Deduction, abduction, induction (according to C.S. Peirce). Background knowledge, explanation, and assumables. Single-fault and multiple-fault diagnosis. Non-Horn clause logic: disjunctions and reasoning by cases. Conjunctive normal form and disjunctive clauses (dclauses).
March 16 (Thu), 2017 HW4 assigned: Exercise 3.3 [P] due on March 30, 2017. Ch.11 [L] completed. Proofs by refutation and the swimming pool example: ?-estsat([[a], [not(a),d,b], [not(b),c], [not(d),c]], [c]). Extra example of first-order reasoning: texting and terrorism: ?-estunsat(2, [[isT(b)], [not(isT(c))], [sM(b,a)], [not(sM(b,c))], [not(sM(b,a))], [sM(a,c)]], [sM(X,Y), isT(X), not(isT(Y))] ). The resolution refutation proof of the texting and terrorism example is shown, just as a teaser. Ch.3 [P] ("States and Searching") started.
March 21 (Tue), 2017 Graduate and honors students are reminded to choose a paper for presentation. After class, the instructor added three papers to the "Student Presentations" section of the course website. Some issues from Ch.1[P]: Succinctness (conciseness) of representations: state-space, features or propositions, objects and relations; bounded rationality. Ch.3 [P] ("States and Searching"). Depth-first search, breadth-first search, and Dijkstra's algorithm with a detailed example. DFS vs. backtracking.
March 23 (Tue), 2017 Graduate and honors students are reminded to choose a paper for presentation. More "papers for presentation" are on the course websits under "Student Presentations." Ch.3 [P] ("States and Searching"). Proof that nodes closed by Dijkstra's algorithm do not need to be reopened. Definition of heuristic function. Best-first search. A* with and without monotone heuristics. Detailed discussion of the difference between Dijkstra's algorithm and A*. Admissibility of A*. Proof that monotonicity allows A* to avoid re-expanding closed nodes.
March 28 (Tue), 2017 HW4 due date changed to April 4, 2017 (Tuesday). Quiz 6. Admissible heuristics. Monotone (consistent) heuristic. Proof of the admissibility of A* (A* with admissible heuristic finds the optimal solution (cheapest path to the goal)). Proof that A* with monotone (consistent) heuristic does not need to reopen closed nodes.
March 30 (Thu), 2017 HW4 due date changed to April 6, 2017 (Thursday). HW4 can be submitted as a paper document or through dropbox. Quizzes 7-10. Examples of Depth-first search, heuristic depth-first search, best-first search. Dynamic programming. Example of search using dynamic programming.
April 4 (Tue), 2017 Detailed discussion of requirements for HW4. Iterative Depth-First Search.
April 6 (Thu), 2017 HW5 assigned (by mass email after class): Ex.3.4[P] due on Thursday, 2017-04-13. Heuristics computed by problem relaxation and their properties, including Valtorta's theorem. Ch.3 [P] completed.
April 11 (Tue), 2017 HW5 (Ex.3.4[P]) due date changed to Tuesday, 2017-04-18. Please indicate the order of node expansions in the search tree for exercise 3.4(a), preferably by writing it in a circle near each expanded node. Definition of search trees with a detailed example using Dijkstra's algorithm. Q11 on A* with monotone heuristics and search trees. Discussion of exercise 3.4[P] requirements.
April 13 (Thu), 2017 HW6 assigned: Exercises 4.1 (parts (a)-(c)only; also draw the constraint network for the second representation) and 4.11 [P]. Features and Constraints (Ch.4 [P]) through statement of the Arc Consistency algorithm and its use on a three-variable, two-constraint example (example 4.20[P]).
April 18 (Tue), 2017 HW6 delayed to 2017-04-21: Exercises 4.1 (parts (a)-(c)only; also draw the constraint network for the second representation) and 4.11 [P]. (Students are encouraged to do Exercise 4.1 before next class.) Q12 on constraint networks. Features and Constraints (Ch.4 [P]): several examples of the arc consistency algorithm. Hints for exercise 4.1.
April 20 (Thu), 2017 HW6 is due at 2300 (11pm) on Monday, April 24. The final exam will be closed book and notes, except for one handwritten side of a letter-sized sheet with formulas and expressions, but no complete examples. The final exam will include the topics covered since the midterm, and in particular chapters 8-11 [L], chapter 3 [P]. and chapter 4 [P] through section 4.7. Example 4.20 [P] in great detail, with a trace of the domains and the TDA set. Variable Elimination (section 4.7 [P]). Hints for exercise 4.11 [P]. Student evaluation of course. End of course.