Department of Computer Science
CS 370 - Artificial Intelligence

Fall 1998 Syllabus

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
The goal of the subfield of Artificial Intelligence is to build software systems that behave "intelligently". By this, we mean that the computer systems "do the right thing" in complex environments--that they act optimally given the limited information and computational resources available. This course provides an introduction to artificial intelligence with an emphasis on the programming techniques and skills needed to develop high-performance AI systems.

The course will focus on the design of intelligent agents. An intelligent agent is a software system that can interact with an external environment by perceiving that environment and taking actions to change the environment.

TEXTS (required):
Stuart Russell & Peter Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, 1995, and on-line handouts
INSTRUCTOR:
Eric Chown, 207 Adams Hall
Email address: echown@polar.bowdoin.edu
Web address: http://www.bowdoin.edu/~echown
Office Hours: M,T,TH 3:30-5:00, or by arrangement
MEETING TIMES:
Class meeting: MWF 9:00-10:00 - Adams 301
COURSE OUTLINE:
Week of Topics Readings Work Due
Sep 7 Introduction, Intelligent Agents Chapter 1, 2
Sep 14 Problem Spaces and Search Chapter 3
Sep 21 Informed Search Chapter 4 Program 1 A Solution
Sep 28 Game Theory and Search Chapter 5 Homework 1 Solution
Oct 5 Reinforcement Learning Chapter 20
Oct 12 Knowledge Representation Chapter 6 Program 2
Oct 19 First Order Logic Chapter 7
Oct 26 Knowledge Representation and Logic - Continued Chapter 7
Oct 26 *** Midterm ***
Nov 2 Knowledge and Logic Chapters 7, 9 Homework 2
Nov 9 Rule-Based Systems Soccer Project
Nov 16 Learning from Observations Chapter 18 Decision Tree Code
Nov 23 Neural Networks Chapter 19
Nov 25-29 *** Thanksgiving Vacation ***
Nov 30 Neural Networks (Continued) Chapter 19
Dec 7
(1/2 week) 		Current Topics Project Writeup
Dec 15 *** final ***

WORK FOR THE COURSE: The work for this course includes class participation, readings, two tests, several programming assignments, and assorted homeworks.