Schedule of topics

August 29. The nature of intelligence. Computational approaches to artificial intelligence. (Lecture notes in PostScript and Portable Document Format.)

Reading: Russell and Norvig, preface (pages vii-x), chapter 1 (pages 1-31) and sections 26.1 and 26.2 (pages 947-960).

September 1. ``Weak'' and ``strong'' AI.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 26.3 and 26.4 (pages 960-967); ``Software engineering code of ethics and professional practice.''

September 3. Programming ethics. Ethical dilemmas in AI.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 2 (pages 32-58).

September 5. Agents.

Reading: Fogel and Bar, chapter 2.

September 8. Using CVS (Concurrent Versions System).

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 3.1 through 3.4 (pages 59-81).

September 10. Solving problems by searching.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 3.5 through 3.7 (pages 81-93).

September 12. Improving searching algorithms.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 4.1 and 4.2 (pages 94-110).

September 15. Heuristics.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, section 4.3 (pages 110-119).

September 17. Local search and optimization.

September 19. Simulated annealing.

September 22. Genetic algorithms.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 4.4 through 4.6 (pages 119-136).

September 24. On-line search agents.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 5 (pages 137-160).

September 26. Constraint-satisfaction problems; backtracking.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 6.1 and 6.2 (pages 161-167).

September 29. Adversarial search.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, section 6.3 (pages 167-171).

October 1. Alpha-beta pruning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 6.4 through 6.8 (pages 171-193).

October 3. Search under time constraints; games of chance.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 7.1 through 7.4 (pages 194-211).

October 6. Knowledge and deductive reasoning; propositional logic.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, section 7.5 (pages 211-220).

October 8. Inference and theorem-proving in propositional logic.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 7.6 through 7.8 (pages 220-239).

October 10. The Davis-Putnam algorithm.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 8 (pages 240-271).

October 13. First-order logic and knowledge representation.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 9.1 and 9.2 (pages 272-280).

October 15. Unification.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 9.3 through 9.6 (pages 280-319).

October 17. Resolution.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 10.1 through 10.3 (pages 320-340).

October 27. Knowledge representation.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 10.4 through 10.6 (pages 341-354).

October 29. Semantic networks.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 10.7 through 10.9 (pages 355-374).

October 31. Reasoning with defaults; exceptions; truth-maintenance systems.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 11.1 through 11.2 (pages 375-387).

November 3. Planning and search.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, section 11.3 (pages 387-395).

November 5. Partial-order planning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, section 11.4 (pages 395-402).

November 7. Planning graphs.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 13 (pages 462-491).

November 10. Probability; Bayes's rule.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 14 (pages 492-536).

November 12. Probabilistic reasoning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 16 (pages 584-612).

November 14. Making decisions.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 17 (pages 613-648).

November 17. Markov decision processes.

November 19. The Bellman algorithm.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 18 (pages 649-677).

November 21. Learning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 19.1 through 19.3 (pages 678-694).

November 24. Learning with background knowledge.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 19.4 through 19.6 (pages 694-711).

November 26. Inductive reasoning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 20.1 and 20.2 (pages 712-724).

December 1. Bayesian learning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 20.3 and 20.4 (pages 724-736).

December 3. Learning with hidden variables.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, sections 20.5 through 20.8 (pages 736-762).

December 5. Neural networks.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 21 (pages 763-789).

December 8. Reinforcement learning.

Reading: Russell and Norvig, chapter 25 (pages 901-946).

December 10. Robotics.

December 12. Summary and review; student evaluations.

December 17, 9 a.m. Final examination.


This document is available on the World Wide Web as

http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/courses/artificial-intelligence/schedule-of-topics.xhtml

created August 28, 2003
last revised November 19, 2003

John David Stone (stone@cs.grinnell.edu)