Intro to Artificial Intelligence (EECS 348)

Spring 2012
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department
Northwestern University

Class Meets: 11:00AM-11:50PM MWF Tech LR5

Instructor: Doug Downey
Office Hours: Thursdays, 2:00-3:00 (or by appt), Ford 3-345
Email: ddowney <at> eecs <dot> northwestern <dot> edu

Teaching Assistant: Tim Rambo
Office Hours: 4:00-5:00PM Tuesday, M350
Email: TimothyRambo2017 <at> u <dot> northwestern <dot> edu

Policies

Textbook

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Prentice Hall (2009). The latest version is the third edition, though you can get through the course using the second edition.

Grading

The majority of the course grade is based on problem sets assigned roughly weekly. The problem sets will involve both exercises and programming.

Problem Sets (6): 60% of grade
Each set is worth approximately 10 points
Late assignments will not be graded
Midterms (2): 30% of grade
To be held in Week 3 (April 13) and Week 8 (May 18)
Final Othello tournament: 10% of grade (participation-based)
Held Monday, June 4, 3:00-5:00PM (Tech LR5)

Mid-term 2 Topics

The second midterm will be mostly (80%) about the topics in homeworks #3 and #4, that is: logic (including the pros and cons of propositional versus first-order logic, resolution proofs, and challenges in logic systems) and game playing (including the Minimax algorithm and alpha-beta pruning, see the sample exam question on Blackboard). The remainder of the exam will deal with the most recent machine learning topics, including decision trees and probabilistic reasoning.

Othello Tournament

The Othello Tournament will be held on finals day, Monday June 4, from 3-5PM in Tech LR5. You should have turned in your homework #6 by that time. Also, bring a laptop or other device you can use to play your Othello player against your opponents. If you don't have a suitable device please contact the professor ASAP.

Homeworks

Problem Set 1	Due 11:59PM Tuesday, April 3
Problem Set 2	Due 11:59PM Tuesday, April 17
Problem Set 3	Due 11:59PM Friday, April 27
Problem Set 4	Due 11:59PM Friday, May 11
Problem Set 5	Due 11:59PM Tuesday, May 29
Problem Set 6	Due 3:00PM Monday, June 4

Lectures

Week 1	Introduction Search
Week 2	Heuristic Search Local Search Constraint Satisfaction
Week 3	Constraint Satisfaction (cont.) Agents Logical Agents Friday: Exam (covers class material up to, but not including, agents and logic)
Week 4	Logic (cont.) First-order Logic
Week 5	Inference in First-order Logic Note typo: bottommost green box on slide #46 should be not Enemy(Nono, America) Challenges for Logic Systems
Week 6	Games Chess Games -- summary Intro to Machine Learning
Week 7	Decision Trees Probabilistic Reasoning
Week 8	M: Naive Bayes W: No class, at 2PM please see Randy Beer's talk F: Exam
Week 9	M: Bayes Nets

Reading

Given in terms of the 3rd edition; if you're using the 2nd edition, check the 3rd edition's table of contents for correspondences.

Week 1	Ch. 1 & 3 (through 3.4)
Week 2	Ch. 3 (3.5, 3.6) Ch. 4 (4.1)
Week 3	Ch. 6 (through 6.4)
Week 4	Ch. 7
Week 5	Ch. 8, Ch. 9 (can skim 9.3, 9.4)
Week 6	Ch. 5
Week 7	Ch. 18, 13
Week 9	Ch. 14