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CS 497, Section EA
Reasoning in Artificial Intelligence
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Spring 2004
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- November 15, 2003: Please read the first article from the syllabus for the first class.
- January 9, 2004: Please read the first application article the first class.
- January 27, 2004: Notice the change in office hours (mentioned in class last week).
- February 25, 2004: The lecture room is changing to Siebel Center 4405 starting 3/2/04.
Lecture: 1 unit, TuTh 11:00-12:15PM, 4405 Siebel Center (changed from 335 M E Building)
Professor: Eyal Amir
- Office: Siebel 3314
- Phone: (217) 333-8756
- email: eyal@cs.uiuc.edu
- Office hours: Tue 2pm-3pm, Thu 1pm-2pm
Useful Information and Handouts
- Syllabus & Important Dates
- Handouts
- Frequently Asked Questions
Course Description
The course covers reasoning algorithms and their application to
problems in artificial intelligence. The focus is on reasoning with
propositional and first-order logical knowledge, use of structure and
monte-carlo techniques in automated reasoning, reasoning with directed
and undirected probabilistic graphical models, inference in first-order
probabilistic models, inference in dynamic systems, and filtering
(state estimation). The course will cover both exact and approximate
techniques for reasoning with those kinds of knowledge, and will
emphasize applications of these techniques in vision, robotics,
virtual worlds, and others.
Prerequisites
- Familiarity with the basic concepts of logic and probability theory.
- Knowledge of basic computer science principles and skills.
- Knowledge of basic artificial intelligence problems and principles (at the level of CS348).
- Mathematical ability and the ability to understand and analyze fairly
complicated algorithms and data structures. (CS373 is sufficient but not necessary.)
- Independence.
| Machinery: Tasks and Coursework |
The course will consist of lectures by the teacher, lectures by
students, and a final project, with the actual consistency depending
on the number of students in the class.
Due dates and recommended projects and papers for presentation
are indicated in the syllabus.
Presentations by students
I expect students to present one or two papers during the
course of the semester. They will select their paper/s from the list
of recommended papers that is provided in the
papers section of the syllabus.
If a student wishes to present a paper that does not
appear in this list, an approval from me (the instructor) will be required.
Final project
Students will also be expected to submit an initial project proposal
and a more detailed proposal (after the first proposal was approved),
according to the dates in the syllabus. Projects may have an
implementation emphasis, a theoretical emphasis, or a combination
(preferred, but not mandatory). I urge students to propose their own
projects, but if they cannot find ones by themselves, then they may
select projects from the project list provided in the
projects section of the syllabus.
In either case, the students should expect to meet with the instructor
to present their initial proposal and their detailed
proposal. Projects may be done by single students or in pairs. In the
case of a pair of students, the project must be appropriately larger
or more ambitious, and the contribution of each of the students
clearly identifiable. In the conclusion of the class the students
will present their projects in a poster session, and will also submit
a technical paper describing the project (see syllabus for dates).
The proposals and the final paper must be handed in during the class
on the date indicated in the syllabus. Recognizing that students may
face unusual circumstances and require some flexibility in the course
of the quarter, each student will have a total of seven free
late (calendar) days to use as s/he sees fit. Once these late days
are exhausted, any paper or proposal turned in late will be penalized at the
rate of 20% per late day (or fraction thereof). Under no
circumstances will an assignment be accepted more than a week after its
due date. Late days are from noon to noon.
Late assignments should be turned in at the turn-in box outside my
office. You must write the time and date of submission on
the assignment. Alternatively, you can fax it to the course secretary
(see the fax number above) or email it to
eyal@cs.uiuc.edu.
The final grade will be calculated using the following formula:
0.25*technical paper + 0.25*poster + 0.3*presentation + 0.1*proposal1 + 0.1*proposal2
Up to 3% extra credit may be awarded for class participation.
Bonuses will be given for more ambitious, imaginative, and original work, but standard works that are correct and sufficient will still not be penalized and will receive full credit.
I strongly encourage students to come to office hours instead
of emailing questions to me. Also, as explained above, late
assignments should be turned in at the turn-in box outside my
office. You can also email these assignments to eyal@cs.uiuc.edu.
Please do not e-mail me with grading questions. If you want me to explain
why I took points off, you can talk to me after class
or during office hours. If you want a regrade, please write an
explanation and hand the assignment and the explanation to me
during office hours or after class.
Occasionally I may need to broadcast a message to entire class. I will do
so over the WebBoard for the class.
| Textbooks and Papers Information |
The primary reading materials will be book chapters and papers as described in the syllabus.
The main book people should get a hold of for the first ten lectures is
Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig,
Artificial Intelligence, a Modern Approach, Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 2003.