Syllabus for CS250
Aritificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field that draws on many disciplines,
and so too will this course. The use of the computer as a tool for research,
and a firm grounding in computation distinguishes AI from other cognitive
sciences. Thus, this course will include readings on the philosophy of mind,
logic, linguistics and computer programming (mainly in Lisp).
The texts for the course include:
Note: Did you know that you can buy your textbooks online (for all classes, not just this one)? Both BigWords and Varsity Books sell textbooks from the Web. If you go to BigWords, tell them reference number 2681 sent you.)
AIMA is the main textbook and has become very popular with introductory AI classes nationwide. I evaluated several books, but chose AIMA because of its breadth of coverage. The book addresses natural language processing, robotics, vision and other topics not found in other texts.
Although I haven't used this book extensively myself, it looks well-written and covers CLOS2 as well as "ordinary" Lisp. I'm very interested in your thoughts on this book.
The MIT Press is rolling out a new encyclopedia, and is making the text available online. The articles are short, but the quality of insight and authorship is a bit uneven. Generally, I've assigned the readings as introductory material before tackling the AIMA textbook.
This is the definitive book on Lisp (and I do mean definitive). The text is a bit dated, the explanations long and detailed with a smattering of humor (try looking up "recursion" in the index). But if you want to know whether you're wrong or your Lisp compiler is, this is the place to go. If you're going to continue in AI or just with Lisp, you need this book.
The syllabus closely parallels the AIMA book, and the topics are keyed to AIMA chapters. The MITECS readings are short, and usually offer a good introduction to the topic. In the first week, the MITECS readings are important becuase they discuss the philosophy in a bit more depth than the AIMA book. (MITECS is also a good place to look for background on project ideas you might have.) The Lisp readings are designed to give you the needed background in Lisp to understand the code that accompanies the book.
Note: If a lecture title is linked, then the lecture is available online. See the heading Linked Lectures for more info on reading online lectures.
| When | Topic | AIMA | MITECS | Lisp |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Intelligence: Real and Artificial | Chapter 1 - Introduction (Read this first) | Chinese Room
Argument Optional: Intelligence, Computation and the Brain, Computational Theory of Mind |
|
| Introduction to Lisp | Chapters 1 and 2 | |||
| Week 2 | Problem Solving through Search (Tuesday, Thursday) | Chapter 3 | Problem Solving (Read this first) | |
| Week 3 | Smart Searching (Tuesday, Thursday) | Chapter 4 | Heuristic Search (Read
this first) Optional: Game Playing |
|
| Week 4 | Logical Reasoning (Tuesday, Thursday) | Chapter 6 | Rules and Representations | |
| Week 5 | First-Order Logic (Tuesday, Thursday) | Chapter 7 | ||
| Week 6 | Midterm | Chapters 1-7, except 2 & 5 | Programming Review | Chapters 3 & 4 |
| Week 7 | Knowledge Bases (Tuesday, Thursday) | Chapter 8 | For CS350: Some Philosophical Problems from the Standpoint of Artificial Intelligence | |
| Week 8 | Inference in First-Order Logic | Chapter 9 | ||
| Week 9 | Logical Reasoning Systems | Chapter 10 | ||
| Week 10 | Deciding What to Do Next | Chapter 11 | Planning |
The lectures will usually be written in Microsoft PowerPoint '97, which means they can be read either with Office '97 (Windows) or Office '98 (Mac).
If you want to view the PowerPoint '97 files on a Mac that only has
PowerPoint 4.0, you can
download a converter from
Microsoft.
To use the converter in the MacLab:
2. CLOS is the Common Lisp Object System, and brings together Lisp and object-oriented programming. CLOS has many powerful features as an OO language, and in fact is more powerful than C++ in some ways. (Return)
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