hajim urcs
Computer Science @ Rochester

CSC242: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Spring 2013

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Introduces fundamental principles of artificial intelligence, including heuristic search, automated reasoning, handling uncertainty, and machine learning. Presents applications of AI techniques to real-world problems such as understanding the web, computer games, biomedical research, and assistive systems. This course is a prerequisite for advanced AI courses.

I would add that this course will require programming. Plenty of programming. If this is not your strength, please leave extra time to work on assignments and projects. There is no official lab section to this course. We are happy to help, but you must make the time to do the work and seek help as needed.

Class

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2:00pm - 3:15pm, B&L106

Note that class was moved from CSB601 to B&L106 starting Tue Jan 22.

Instructor

George Ferguson <ferguson at cs dot rochester dot edu>

Teaching Assistants

Vedant Ahuwaliavahluwal at u dot rochester dot edu
Seong Bangsbang3 at u dot rochester dot edu
Amsal Karicakaric at u dot rochester dot edu
Simon Luppescusluppesc at u dot rochester dot edu
Matt Overlanm dot overlan at rochester dot edu
Andrew Wongawong16 at u dot rochester dot edu

Additional help available from your very own Computer Science Undergraduate Council (CSUG): CSUG Tutoring

Textbook

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 3rd ed., by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-604259-7. This book and previous editions are on reserve in Carlson Library.

Syllabus

The course will cover most of the material in most of Chapters 1 through 21 of AIMA, as well as additional material on AI topics and applications. Evaluation will include regular short written homework assignments, several larger projects involving both writing and programming, a student poster session, a midterm, and a final exam.

Detailed syllabus (subject to change)

Homework

There is a homework assignment for almost every lecture. They are in BlackBoard and also here. Homework is due in BlackBoard three days after the lecture, at 11PM.

Homework is entirely optional. If you do it (on time), we will grade it and you will get feedback. If you don't do it, it's up to you to know whether you know the material or not. Late homework will not be graded. Because the homework is optional, it will not count towards your final grade (see below).

Projects

In addition to the (optional) homework, we will have four longer assignments which I have called projects even though mini-project might be more accurate. There is one project for each unit of the course. The dates are listed on the syllabus but you usually have about two weeks to do them. Projects will be submitted in BlackBoard also.

The projects will involve programming. I strongly urge you not to leave them until the last minute. Every year several people learn that AI programs are as hard as AI problems. Projects will also involve a written report, which will count for 50% of the grade on the project.

Quizzes

There will be quizzes in class. These may or may not be announced in advance.

The purpose of the quizzes is not to punish you, but to let you know if you understand the material well enough. Seriously. I will spend too much time grading these for it to be for my benefit.

Upper Level Writing

Students may elect to use this course to fulfill their Upper Level Writing requirement. Please see this information about ULW in CSC242 for more details.

Evaluation

Your grade in the course will be calculated as follows (subject to change):

Homework0%
Assignments and projects40%
Poster Session10%
Quizzes10%
Midterm20%
Final20%

So the grade is about half developing and describing AI programs, and about half formal exams, with 10% for our almost-end-of-year poster session.

Your letter grade will follow the University of Rochester Grading Scheme. The following table is an estimate of how the numeric grades will map onto the letter grades (subject to change):

LetterMeaningNumber
AExcellent≥90%
BAbove Average≥75%
CMinimum Satisfactory Grade≥60%
DMinimum Passing Grade≥50%
EFail<50%

Note that the University scheme puts average somewhere between C and B. This mapping from numbers to letters is subject to change, but you get the idea: Getting an A requires truly excellent work. Even a B is above average. Mind you, as in Lake Wobegon, I'm sure all CSC242 students are above average.

Last update: Thursday, 28-Feb-2013 12:14:25 EST