This course surveys the foundations and applications of symbolic approaches
to artificial intelligence. The approach emphasizes the formal basis of
automated reasoning and includes an introduction to programming in Prolog.
Fundamentals covered include search, knowledge representation, automated
inference, planning, non-monotonic reasoning, and reasoning about belief.
Applications include expert systems, natural language processing and agent
architectures.
This course is a prerequisite for CSE561 Dialogue, Multi-agent
systems, and CSE562 Natural language processing.
If you have questions about the course and whether you have the right
background for it, please contact me.
The textbook for the class is listed below. The website for the
textbook is here. Chapter 1
is available in PDF format from their website. The book is also on
reserve in the library.
Required:
-
Computational Intelligence: A logical approach. D. Poole, A. Mackworth and R. Goebel. Oxford University Press. 1998.
An important dimension to this course is learning Prolog, which is a
logic programming language, especially suited symbolic Artificial
Intelligence. Logic programming languages are very different from
procedural languages, such as C.
The Computer Science and Engineering department has several versions
of Prolog available. Quintus prolog is available on the department
machine church (invoked with the command prolog). Sicstus
prolog is also available (invoked with the command sicstus.
Students with PC's, especially part-time students, might find it
benefitial to install a Prolog on their own machine. There are
several public domain Prolog interpreters available. I use SWI-Prolog
on my notebook computer, which runs on Windows95. Source code is
available for SWI-Prolog, and I have heard that you can build the
executable for running on Linux (with the gcc compiler).
Alternatively, Amzi has a version that can be installed on Linux.
Homework is due at the beginning of class and is due in hardcopy.
Email homework is only acceptable for students taking the class
remotely, or if they are unable to attend the class in which it is
due. Emailed homework must be in a single PDF file. Tar files and
Zip files are not acceptable.
| Assignments and Projects | 50% |
|---|
| Midterm | 25% |
|---|
| Final | 25% |
|---|
Your marks so far are here.
The syllabus is still under construction.
Students must read the assigned readings before
class.
