George Mason University
School
of Information Technology and Engineering
Department of Computer Science

CS 580 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

 

Meeting time: Tuesday 4:30pm – 7:10pm

Meeting location: IN 132

 

For current information on this course see: http://lac.gmu.edu/cs580-fa04/cs580-tecuci-g.htm

 

Instructor: Dr. Gheorghe Tecuci, Professor of Computer Science

Office hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 7:10pm-8pm
Office: ST-II, Room 421
Phone: 703 993 1722
E-mail: tecuci@gmu.edu

 

Course Description

 

Artificial Intelligence is the Science and Engineering domain which is concerned with the theory and practice of developing systems that exhibit the characteristics we associate with intelligence in human behavior such as reasoning, planning and problem solving, learning and adaptation, natural language processing, and perception. This course presents the basic principles and the major methods of Artificial Intelligence, preparing the students to build complex systems incorporating capabilities for intelligent processing of information. Covered topics include: heuristic search and game playing, knowledge representation and reasoning, problem solving and planning, learning and knowledge acquisition, knowledge engineering, expert systems and intelligent agents, Common LISP. The students will also learn about the Disciple agent development environment created in the Learning Agents Center of George Mason University.

 

Grading Policy

 

There will be several homework assignments, a mid-term exam and a final exam. It will be permissible, on an individual basis, to replace the assignments with a project. This option requires an early submission of a proposal.

 

The course grade will be determined as follows:

Assignments or project 33.3%

Mid-term exam 33.3%

Final exam 33.3%

 

Exam Dates

 

Mid-term exam: 10/26/2004

Final exam: 12/14/2004

 

Lateness Policy

Each assignment should be received by the day indicated as the deadline of the assignment. Any delay will be penalized with 15%/day.
Objective cases of delay will be considered individually, and are not subject to the above policy. An example of such a case is a longer business trip that privents one to return the assignment in time. In such cases permission from the instructor should be requested as soon as possible.

 

Honor Code Policy

Everyone has to do the assignments and the exams by himself or herself. If it is determined that two assignments or exams are too similar to have been done independently, then the grade will be split between their authors. For example, in case of a 30p assignment each will receive 15p.

 

Required Readings

 

Tecuci G., Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 2004, available online (see outline below).

 

Recommended Readings

 

Russell S., and P. Norvig P., Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, Second edition, ISBN: 0131038052, 2003. 

 

Graham P., ANSI Common Lisp, Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0133708756, available on line.

 

Other Useful Readings

 

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

 

Coppin B., Artificial Intelligence Illuminated, Jones and Bartlett publishers, 2004.

 

Dean T., Allen J., Aloimonos Y., Artificial Intelligence: Theory and Practice, The Benjamin/Cummings Pub. Comp.

 

Ginsberg M., Essentials of Artificial Intelligence, Morgan Kaufmann.

 

Luger G., Artificial Intelligence: Structures and Strategies for Complex Problem Solving,

Addison Wesley, 2002.

 

Negnevitsky M., Artificial Intelligence: A Guide to Intelligent Systems, Addison Wesley, 2002.

 

Rich E., Knight K., Artificial Intelligence, McGraw-Hill.

 

Steele G.L., Common Lisp the Language, 2nd Edition.

 

Tecuci G., Building Intelligent Agents: An Apprenticeship Multistrategy Learning Theory, Methodology, Tool and Case Studies, Academic Press, 1998.

 

Wilensky R., Common LISPcraft, Norton & Company, 1989.

 

Winston P.H., Artificial Intelligence, Addison-Wesley.

 

Winston P.H., Horn B.K.P., LISP, Addison-Wesley.

 

 

G. Tecuci, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 2004

Overview of Artificial Intelligence and Intelligent Agents

Common Lisp

Solving Problems by Searching (uninformed search; informed search; constraint satisfaction problems; adversarial search)

Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (logic; natural deduction; resolution; prolog; production systems; probabilistic reasoning; semantic networks and ontologies; planning; problem solving agents) 

Machine Learning and Knowledge Acquisition (learning strategies: version spaces, decision trees, instance-based, explanation-based, analogical, multistrategy; problem solving and learning agents)