Computer Science 261 deals with the principles and methods of artificial intelligence, defined as the attempt to enable computers to accomplish things that would normally require human reason, insight, or creativity.
The class meets in Science 2435 at 11 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The principal textbook for the course is Artificial intelligence: a modern approach, second edition, by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003), ISBN 0-13-790395-2.
The authors have supplied a list of errata for our edition, and they invite us readers to submit (by e-mail to the principal author any other errors that we detect.
Implementations in Java, C++, and Python of many of the algorithms discussed in the textbook are available in the authors' online code repository.
We'll use the Concurrent Version System (CVS) to develop projects collaboratively. The on-line book Open source development with CVS, second edition, by Karl Fogel and Moshe Bar, describes this software. The authors have released the entire book under the GNU General Public License, so feel free to make a copy of the PDF file if you want one.
Under the College's newly revised ``Academic computer use policies,'' participants in collaborative software-development projects must review and follow the Association for Computing Machinery's ``Software engineering code of ethics and professional practice.''
I'm John David Stone. My office is Science 2418. My office hours this semester are Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to noon, Thursdays from 2:15 to 4:05 p.m., Fridays from 9 to 11 a.m., and by appointment. I can be reached by telephone at extension 3181, or by e-mail to stone@cs.grinnell.edu.
Each student in the course is expected to read the assigned sections of the textbooks carefully, to learn the ideas, methods, and techniques that are presented there, to submit solutions to exercises requiring the application of those ideas, methods and techniques, to prepare for and attend the sessions of the class, and to take and pass a three-hour final examination.
The schedule of topics for the course includes reading passages in the timetable. Please study each specified section before the beginning of the class that follows it in the schedule.
I have been asked to make my lecture notes available on line. On the schedule of topics, I have created links to PDF versions of those notes.
From time to time, I also provide handouts on topics related to the course.
Exercises are assigned regularly throughout the
course. Please submit any programs that you develop as parts of your
solutions by e-mail to stone@cs.grinnell.edu, as plain text. (From a MathLAN machine, for
instance, you can use the command mail -s "Exercise 13"
stone@cs.grinnell.edu <frogs.ss to send me the contents of the file
frogs.ss in a message with the subject heading `Exercise 13'.)
You may submit solutions to non-programming exercises by e-mail or in hard copy, as you prefer. For good-looking hard-copy documents containing mathematical material, I strongly recommend the LATEX document-preparation system.
It is especially helpful if students raise for discussion any questions they may have about the day's topic, the assigned reading, or the exercises. I suggest that you write out such questions as part of your preparation for class sessions.
The final will be an open-book, open-notes examination consisting of a dozen or so problems at various levels of difficulty. None of the problems will require programming. There will be at least one essay question.
Your performance on exercises will determine three-fifths of your final grade, class attendance and participation one-tenth, and the final examination the remaining three-tenths.
Since you will receive credit on the basis of your individual performance, it would be unethical to submit for credit any work that is not your own. If I encounter any indications of plagiarism or collaboration on exercises, the Committee on Academic Standing will deal with them.
This document is available on the World Wide Web as
http://www.cs.grinnell.edu/~stone/courses/artificial-intelligence/
created August 25, 2003
last revised August 28, 2003