CIS 561 - Artificial Intelligence

  Syllabus
 Other Resources

Instructor Information

  • Instructor: Dr. Xiaoqin Zhang (Shelley)
  • Office: 302C Dion
  • Office Hours: Mon. 11:30 AM -1PM, Wed.: 2 - 3:30 PM and Friday: 12 - 1PM
  • Phone: (508) 999-8294
  • Email: x2zhang@umassd.edu
  • Lecture Meeting: MW: 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm, Dion 101

    • Prerequisites

    CIS 360 (Algorithms and Data Structures), and familiarity with at least one programming language.  Undergraduate AI course is a plus.

    Course Description

    This course is an in-depth introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We will focus on those approaches and techniques that allow AI systems to operate in real time environments and deal with uncertainties, missing information and bounded computational resource. Topics include: advanced search techniques,  reasoning with uncertainty, learning, decision-making and intelligent systems. All these topics fit together with a single unifying theme: that AI is the study of how to construct intelligent  programs that act rationally in dynamic environments with uncertainties to solve problems.

    Course Objectives

    After this course you will be able to...

  • Understand motivation, mechanisms, and potential of advanced Artificial Intelligence techniques. 
  • Construct small AI systems,  understand how complex AI systems.
  • Apply AI techniques in non-AI settings, especially to handle uncertainty and bounded-resource limitations. 
  • Read and understand the AI literature, evaluate AI-related technology claims.
    •  

    Course Resources and Information

  • Textbook: Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 2nd Edition By Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig.
  • Course Homepage: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~xqzhang/courses/CIS561/
  • Syllabus, updated weekly, contains links to homework assignments, projects, additional reading material, and lecture notes: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~xqzhang/courses/CIS561/syllabus.html
  • Other links, provides number of links to other useful and interesting resource on web: http://www.cis.umassd.edu/~xqzhang/courses/CIS561/links.html

    • Course Requirements and Grading

    You are expected to take an active role in your learning in this course. This includes regular attendance, paying attention in class, reading the textbook, and completing all course requirements. You are encouraged to study with your classmates outside of class.
    There will be 1 midterm exam,  1 Final exam, class presentation, projects and homework assignments. The material of all exams will come from either a material covered in class, homework problems, and/or assignment readings. Complete all required work on time. In the event that an exam must be missed, or required work cannot be completed on time, due to illness or other serious and unavoidable circumstance, notify the professor as far in advance as possible by phone or e-mail. Make-up exams will not be given for any reason.

    The evaluation will be based on:
  • 15% Midterm
  • 10% Class presentation, participation
  • 25% Final Exam
  • 25% Projects
  • 25% Homework Assignments

    • Late assignments will NOT be accepted unless a permission of extension has been granted by the professor in advance.

    The letter grades will be assigned using the following approximate scale: (A+,A)[100-90],(A-,B+,B)[90-80], (B-, C+,C)[80-70], (C-,D+,D)[70-60], and F[60-0].

    Academic Honesty

    You are encouraged to discuss assigned problems with other people but you must individually design and write your own solutions / code for all assignments. Furthermore, you should explicitly acknowledge any sources of ideas used that are not your own; this includes other people, books, web pages, etc. "Sharing" of solutions to homework problems and projects is strictly prohibited. Submitting modified versions of other people's work as your own is considered cheating. Academic dishonesty will be "rewarded" with a grade of "F".