CPS 270: Introduction to Artificial

Intelligence (Spring 2016)

Overview Overview

Syllabus
Algorithms and representations used in artificial intelligence. Introduction and implementation of algorithms for search, planning,
perception, knowledge representation, logic, probabilistic representation and reasoning, robotics, and machine learning.
Prerequisites
Some portions of the course will be based on material from Ron Parr's Spring 2014 Intro to AI course.
Schedule
Instructor
George Konidaris
Assignments Office: North 133
Office Hours: Mondays 5-6pm, Tuesdays 12-1pm
Grading Email: gdk at cs dot duke dot edu

Resources TA
Cameron Allen
Office: N141 North
Piazza Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:30am-12:30pm, Thursdays 11am-12pm, at LSRC D309
Email: cam at cs dot duke dot edu

UTAs
Diego Farias Canepa
Office Hours: Mondays 6-9pm at The Link (Perkins Library)
Email: diego dot farias dot canepa at duke dot edu

Kaighn Kevlin
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:55-2:55pm at The Link (Perkins Library)
Email: kaighn dot kevlin at duke dot edu

Yixin Lin
Office Hours: Thursdays 4:30pm-7:30pm at The Link (Perkins Library)
Email: yixin dot lin at duke dot edu

Ying Qi
Office Hours: Tuesdays 7-9pm, Fridays 12-1pm, at The Link (Perkins Library)
Email: ying dot qi at duke dot edu

Yilun Zhou
Office Hours: Mondays 9am-12pm, at North 206.
Email: yilun at cs dot duke dot edu

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Syllabus

1. Agents and Agenthood

2. Search
Uninformed
Informed
Mini-Max for Game Playing
3. Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
Propositional Logic
First-Order Logic
Reasoning and Logical Inference
Uncertain Knowledge
Bayes' Rule
Probabilistic Reasoning
Bayes Nets
4. Planning
Task Planning
Robot Motion Planning
5. Learning
Supervised Learning
Unsupervised Learning
Reinforcement Learning
6. Philosophy of AI

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Prerequisites

You should be comfortable independently writing and debugging programs in C, C++, or Java. (The actual assignments with be in
Python, but there will be a Python tutorial early in the semester.)

You should be able to do short proofs.

You should be comfortable with the core computer science concepts of computational complexity and the analysis of algorithms.

You should know some calculus. Basic probability and statistics are helpful but not required.

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Schedule
The first class is on Wednesday January 13th. The class meets on a Monday-Wednesday schedule, from 3:05pm to 4:20pm in
LSRC B101.

Note that the schedule below is tentative, and may be revised as we go along.

Date Topic Homework Slides

Read chapters 1 and 2
install python (point 3) (with thanks to Susan Rodger)
Download search.zip
January
Introduction Run pacman.py (complete ASAP) PDF
13th
Familiarize yourself with Python
(Nothing to turn in)
Eclipse users, try python console in eclipse
January No class - Martin Luther
18th King day
January
Uninformed search. Read chapter 3 (up to but not including 3.5) PDF
20th
January (Cam Allen)
Python Tutorial PDF
25th Homework 1 available
PDF
January
Informed Search Read the remainder of Chapter 3. A*
27th
proof
February Game Playing and Minimax
Read chapter 5, up to and including 5.4. PDF
1st Search
Knowledge Representation
February
and Reasoning: Propositional Chapter 7 PDF
3rd
Logic
February
KRR: First-Order Logic Chapters 8 and 9. PDF
8th
Chapter 13.
Optional: The Cancer Cluster Myth, and The Hot Hand
February
Uncertainty in Basketball: On the Misperception of Random PDF
10th
Sequences.

February
Cancelled due to weather
15th
February Game Theory (guest lecturer
PDF
17th Vincent Conitzer)
February Game Theory (guest lecturer
PDF
22nd Catherine Moon)
February
Bayesian Networks Chapters 13 and 14 (up to 14.4). PDF
24th
February
Class cancelled
29th
 March Bayesian Networks II PDF
2nd
March
Midterm review Midterm review
7th
March
Midterm Midterm
9th
March
Spring break
14th
March
Spring break
16th
March
Hidden Markov Models Chapter 15 (up to and including 15.3) PDF
21st
March
Planning Chapter 10 PDF
23rd
March
Probabilistic Planning Chapter 17 (up to and including 17.3) PDF
28th
March
Robot Motion Planning Sections 25.4 - 25.6 (inclusive) PDF
30th
April
Machine Learning Intro Chapter 18 PDF
4th
April
Machine Learning II PDF
6th
April Wikipedia entries on Principal Component Analysis
Unsupervised learning. PDF
11th and ISOMAP.
April
Reinforcement Learning Chapter 21. PDF
13th
April
Philosophy of AI Chapter 26 PDF
18th
April
Final Review (last day of class)
20th

Final exam: Monday May 2nd, 9am-noon.

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Assignments

Assignment Available Due

HW1 January 25th February 10th (before midnight)
HW2 February 15th February 28th (before midnight)
HW3 March 1st March 11th (before midnight)
 HW4 March 23rd April 5th (before midnight)
HW5 April 13th April 24th (before midnight)

What to turn in:

For written answers, please turn in a PDF. Do not turn in Microsoft Word or other formats.

For programming questions, please include your code and any supporting files needed, along with some examples of how
your code runs. If any special instructions are needed for compiling or executing your code, please include this in a readme.txt
file. If it is not obvious how to make your code work, you may not receive full credit!

It is not necessary to embed an extra copy of your code within your written solutions. The files you submit are sufficient for
this purpose. However, if you want to reference something in one your files, please do so in a clear manner by mentioning
specific file names and functions.

Include your name in all files that you submit. Put it at the top of the first page of your written solutions and in the comments
to each file you submit for your code.

Please avoid turning in scanned, handwritten assignments. This is permitted but discouraged because slows down the grading
process and because it leads to very large files. If there is some emergency that necessitates submitting scanned material, pick
a DPI and compression level that will lead to reasonable file sizes.

Include figures directly in your PDF rather than as separate attachments.

How to turn it in:

Unless otherwise stated, solutions are due immediately before class on the due date.

Homework assignments should be turned in electronically through Sakai.

Include your name as part of the file name of the file you upload to sakai. (It is confusing for the TAs if they need to wade
through 60 files all named hw.pdf.) If your assignment involves multiple files, please put them in a single folder/directory and
zip them. Do not use other compression methods such as zoo, rar, etc.

Academic Honesty

We take academic honesty very seriously. This matrix should leave no ambiguity about what is permitted and what is not
permitted. You should check if you have any confusion about what is permitted.

Lateness policy

You may request an extension before the due date of the assignment. Valid reasons for extensions include (but are not
necessarily limited to) interviews, travel for research or academic purposes, and illness.

Late assignments (without a previously granted extension) will be penalized 10% per day. Assignments will not be accepted
more than 5 days after the due date.

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Grading

Graded components will be the homeworks (40%), the midterm (30%), and the final exam (30%).

I expect all Duke students to conduct themselves with the highest integrity, according to the Duke Community Standard. If
you are unsure what this means, please refer to this link. For a more concrete description, this matrix outlines what forms of
collaboration with others are and are not allowed during this course.

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Resources

Required Text

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig. Be sure to check for errata! (scroll down for a list of
current errata)

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