CS 444: Artificial Intelligence
James Madison University, Fall 2012

Course Information and Catalog Description

Students will study the history, premises, goals, social impact and philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. Students will study heuristic algorithms for large state spaces and learn to develop recursive and non-deterministic algorithms.

Location: CS/ISAT 243
Meeting Time: MWF 1:25-2:15PM
Prerequisites: CS240
Course Web Page: http://w3.cs.jmu.edu/spragunr/CS444/
Required Textbook: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 3rd Edition. Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Prentice Hall, 2009

Instructor Information

Name: Dr. Nathan Sprague
Office: ISAT/CS 226
Office Phone: 568-3312
Email: spragunr@jmu.edu
Office Hours: http://w3.cs.jmu.edu/spragunr/schedule.html

You may use email to contact me. However, I encourage you to use Piazza to ask questions related to course content. You are welcome to call or stop by my office any time, with the understanding that I may or may not be available outside of my posted office hours.

Course Content and Goals

At the conclusion of this course students should be able to:

Preliminary Course Schedule

A detailed schedule, including reading and homework assignments, is available on the course web page. That schedule will be updated throughout the semester and should be checked regularly.

Week(s) Topic
1-3 State-space search
4-5 Logic-based knowledge representation and inference
6-7 Machine learning and neural networks
8-9 Midterm (10/17)
Probability-based knowledge representation and inference
10-11 Markov decision problems and reinforcement learning
12 Natural language processing
13 Thanksgiving Break
14 Robotics and computer vision
15 Poster session and review

Methods of Evaluation

Course grades will be based one midterm and a final exam, in-class activities, homework assignments, projects, and occasional quizzes. Projects will include 4-5 programming assignments and a poster presentation. Assignment specifications and due dates will be posted to the course schedule page. The final grade will be computed as follows:

In-Class Activities and Quizzes 10%
Homework Assignments 15%
Projects 30%
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 25%

Course Policies

Attendance and Participation

Attendance is not required. However, regular attendance and fully engaged participation is expected. Your grade will be partially based on in-class assignments and quizzes, so attendance will affect your grade.

Academic Integrity

It is expected that your work in this course will comply with the provisions of the JMU honor code: http://www.jmu.edu/honor/code.shtml. It is not a violation of the honor code to discuss assignments and solutions with other students. However, all individual work that you submit must be written by you, based on your own understanding of the material. Representing someone else's work as your own, in any form, constitutes an honor code violation. It is also a violation of the honor code to "render unauthorized assistance to another student by knowingly permitting him or her to see or copy all or a portion of an examination or any work to be submitted for academic credit."

A key component of academic integrity is giving credit where credit is due. If you receive assistance, either from another student or from some other source, you must explicitly acknowledge that fact in your submission.

I will prosecute honor code violations if they come to my attention. If in doubt about what is allowed, ask me.

Missed and Late Assignment Policy

If you are unable to take an exam at the scheduled time because of illness or other problems, you must contact me beforehand to arrange to take the exam at a different time. Failure to make prior arrangements for a missed exam will result in a grade of 0 for the exam.

It will not be possible to receive credit for in-class work or quizzes that are missed due to absence. In recognition of the fact that absences are occasionally unavoidable, I will drop the two lowest scores in this category when calculating your final grade.

Homework and Programming assignments will be due at 9:00AM on the due-date. Late assignments lose 20% in value per weekday late (therefore assignments are worth 0 after 5 weekdays).

No extensions will be given due to illnesses or school activities. Extensions will only be considered in the case of extended illness or serious family emergencies. Such extensions must be requested prior to the due date.

Adding/Dropping

Students are responsible for adding and dropping courses via MyMadison. The last day to add a course for Fall 2012 is Thursday, September 13, 2012 (signatures required after Tuesday September 4). The last day to drop a course for the Fall 2012 semester with a "W" grade is Thursday, October 25th, 2012.

Disability Accommodations

If you need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, you should contact the Office of Disability Services (Wilson Hall, Room 107, www.jmu.edu/ods, 540-568-6705) if you have not previously done so. Disability Services will provide you with an Access Plan Letter that will verify your need for services and make recommendations for accommodations to be used in the classroom. Once you have presented me with this letter, you and I will sit down and review the course requirements, your disability characteristics, and your requested accommodations to develop an individualized plan, appropriate for this course.

Inclement Weather Policy

This class will operate in accord with JMU's inclement weather policy available at http://www.jmu.edu/JMUpolicy/1309.shtml

Religious Observation Accommodations

I will give reasonable and appropriate accommodations to students requesting them on grounds of religious observation. If you require such accommodations you must notify me at least two weeks in advance.