There will be an AI coding project (Project details TBA). The AI coding project will be a CSP solver for Sudoku (see Ch. 6 in R&N textbook). “Dumb” coding shells are available in C++, Java, and Python. You must write the “smarts.” Details will be released shortly.

This is an individual or pair project, i.e., you must do it entirely by yourself or form a team of two people. Sometimes teams do not work out. Any team member may dissolve their team at any time by so notifying the Instructor, TAs, and Tournament Director. Any code written before the dissolution is “community property” which may be used freely by both former team members. Any code written after the dissolution is the sole property of the person who wrote it.

Please note that you are encouraged to discuss concepts, methods, algorithms, etc.; but you are forbidden to copy: (1) source code from any source, although you are allowed to include standard libraries provided by the environment or compilation environment; or (2) text from any source unless properly cited and set off as a quote. Except for standard libraries and class materials provided from this class website, you or your team must invent and write all of your own code by yourself. Except for properly referenced material, you or your team must write all of your own project report by yourself.

Please note that your source code and project report are subject to analysis by automated plagiarism detection programs, and that direct copying will be treated as a violation of academic integrity (please see the section on “Academic Integrity” below).

Please start your AI coding project earlier than you believe necessary, i.e., immediately. It will take longer and be more difficult than you expect (as is true of all coding projects everywhere at all times).

For your project report, please write a short (~2 page) description using the provided template (TBA).

All the various CS-171 AI project shells were written by former CS-171 students who became interested in AI and signed up for CS-199 in order to pursue their interest and write more interesting AI project shells. Please let me know if this is of interest to you (CS-171 grade of A- or better required).

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Textbook:

Required: Russell & Norvig : Artificial Intelligence; A Modern Approach, 3rd edition.

The course is based on, and the UCI bookstore has, the 3rd edition. The assigned textbook reading is required, and is fair game for quizzes and exams. You place yourself at a distinct disadvantage if you do not have the textbook. I expect that you have a personal copy of the textbook, and quizzes and exams are written accordingly.

Please purchase or rent your own personal textbook for the quarter (and then resell it back to the UCI Bookstore at the end if you don't want it for reference). Please do not jeopardize your precious educational experience with the false economy of trying to save a few dollars by not having a personal copy of the textbook.

I do deplore the high cost of modern textbooks. You may find the textbook cheaper if you look online at sites such as eBay.com, Amazon.com, etc.; or search the web for other sites related to the textbook.

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Grading:

Your grade will be based on Discussion Section participation (10%), a coding project (20%), the four quizzes (20%), a mid-term exam (25%), and a final exam (25%). Homework is assigned but ungraded.

Four Quizzes will be given the first 20 minutes of class (dates below), and are closed-book, closed-notes. Your lowest quiz score will be discarded in computing your grade. It is not possible to make-up missed quizzes, but one missed quiz may be discarded as your lowest quiz score.

The Mid-term Exam will be given in class (date below), and is closed-book, closed-notes. It is not possible to make-up a missed Mid-term exam.

The Final Exam will be given in class (date below), and is closed-book, closed-notes. The Final exam will cover all course material from the entire quarter, i.e., the Final Exam will be comprehensive. It is not possible to make-up a missed Final exam.

I honor all requests made by the UCI Disability Services Center.

Also, I make exceptions for:

• genuine medical conditions (I require a signed note from your doctor on official letterhead or equivalent documentation, e.g., a scanned copy of official hospital discharge papers),
• births/deaths in the family (I require a copy of the birth/death certificate or equivalent documentation, e.g., a scanned copy of official funeral papers),
• jury duty or other court proceedings (I require a copy of your jury service papers or other official court documents), or
• field maneuvers of the US military or National Guard (I require a copy of your official orders).

Discussion Section is REQUIRED and roll will be taken each period.  You may not leave after roll has been taken and before the end of the period, i.e., it is not OK to show up for roll and then depart prematurely.

Your TA may excuse you for good cause and record you as "Present" because excused.  In general, important professional events involving travel to distant cities, such as conferences, hackathons, and non-local job interviews, are sufficiently important to the student involved as to warrant an excused absence. (The student is required to provide full and complete documentation to your TA that supports your request, including copies of your confirmed travel itinerary.)  In contrast, minor local events, such as a local company lunch or a local job interview that easily could be switched to a different time, probably are less important than attending Discussion Section, and probably do not warrant an excuse.  In any case, your TA has sole authority to grant or not grant excused absences from Discussion Section.  Your TA's decision is final.

The Discussion Sections are an important part in the teacher training of your TAs as future professors.  As such, Discussion Sections are an important part of the UCI educational mission at the graduate student level.  If your smarts and motivation take you to graduate school someday, and you find that you yourself have become a TA, you then will appreciate how valuable this teacher training experience is to a TA who will become a future professor.  For this reason, Discussion Section attendance is required.

Every student who fills out a course evaluation for CS-171 will receive a bonus of 1% added to their final grade, free and clear, off the curve, simply a bonus. EEE will return to me the names of students who fill out evaluations (but not the content, which remains anonymous), provided that enough students fill out evaluations so that anonymity is not compromised. I will add 1% free bonus to the final grade of each such named student.

Student course evaluations are very important to me for monitoring and improving the course content, and very important to UCI for evaluating our success at our educational mission. *Please* fill out your student course evaluations.

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Study Habits:

This course is technical, rigorous, and demanding. You will be expected to learn and master a large body of technical material in a very short period of time. You must demonstrate your mastery by (1) accurate performance on frequent quizzes and exams, and (2) successful implementation of an AI coding project.

I deliberately treat you as adults who are responsible for your own educational decisions, and so Lecture is optional. Discussion Section is required and roll will be taken, because it is part of our educational mission to train our TAs to become future professors. Nevertheless, students who do not attend both Lecture and Discussion Section are at a serious disadvantage and do not succeed as well in this class.

Students who don't do the reading, don't attend Lectures, or spend Lectures and Discussion Section sleeping, on cell phones, surfing the Web, or on social media, are wasting their time and might as well be absent. Such students send me email messages to ask questions that already were covered thoroughly and in detail during Lecture and once again in Discussion Section. On quizzes and exams, they miss points that already have been covered thoroughly.

In stark contrast, students who work hard, over-study, and learn the material, tend to do very well indeed.

Your educational moments are precious, and your education now will be the single most important factor in your future career success or failure. Please, make the most of your precious educational moments now. Please, attend both Lecture and Discussion Section, pay attention, ask questions, and master the material.

The class will move very quickly. Please do not ever fall behind in the class material. Instead, study frequently and diligently. Please begin your AI coding project earlier than you believe necessary; it will take longer and be more difficult than you expect (as is true of all coding projects everywhere at all times).

Please work harder and study longer. Please understand thoroughly all class material, and ask questions when you do not understand. Please attend all lectures and discussion sections. Please come to lectures and discussion sections prepared with questions about any material that is not clear. Please do all assigned reading, both before and again after lecture. Please review the lecture notes, several times over, both before and again after lecture, until you understand every detail. Please regularly attend office hours with me and the TA. Please ask questions about any class material that is not absolutely crystal clear.

Please work and understand all past quizzes and exams; they are important guides about the performance that will be expected from you now. Please work and understand all the optional homework.

Please OVERSTUDY!!

 

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Academic Integrity:

"Learning, research, and scholarship depend upon an environment of academic integrity and honesty. This environment can be maintained only when all participants recognize the importance of upholding the highest ethical standards. All student work, including quizzes, exams, reports, and papers must be the work of the individual receiving credit. Academic dishonesty includes, for example, cheating on examinations or any assignment, plagiarism of any kind (including improper citation of sources), having someone else take an examination or complete an assignment for you (or doing this for someone else), or any activity in which you represent someone else’s work as your own. Violations of academic integrity will be referred to the Office of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct. The impact on your grade will be determined by the individual instructor’s policies. Please familiarize yourself with UCI’s Academic Integrity Policy (https://aisc.uci.edu/policies/academic-integrity/index.php) and speak to your instructor if you have any questions about what is and is not allowed in this course."  --- UCI Academic Senate recommended Syllabus text

Any student who violates the UCI Academic Integrity policies, will receive an academic evaluation of "F" for the entire course, with a letter of explanation to the UCI Academic Integrity Administrative Office.  We seek to create a level playing field for all students.

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Week	Date	Event	Comments
1	Tue 9 Jan	Lecture canceled due to illness	Class setup, Intro Agents (Slides)	R&N Ch 1-2 Cultural Interest
	Thu 11 Jan	Lecture	Intro State Space Search (Slides) Uninformed Search (Slides) R&N 3.1-3.4
	Fri 12 Jan	Discussion canceled
2	Tue 16 Jan	Lecture	Heuristic Search (Slides)	R&N 3.5-3.7
	Thu 18 Jan	Lecture	Local Search (Slides)	R&N 4.1-4.2 Cultural Interest
	Fri 19 Jan	Discussion	Review, questions, optional HW #1
3	Tue 23 Jan	Lecture Quiz #1 (quiz; key)	Constraint Satisfaction A (Slides)	R&N 6.1-6.4, except 6.3.3
	Thu 25 Jan	Lecture	Constraint Satisfaction B (Slides)	same as CSP A
	Fri 26 Jan	Discussion	Review, questions, optional HW #2
4	Tue 30 Jan	UCI Blood Donor Center presentation Lecture	Game (Adversarial) Search A (Slides)	R&N 5.1, 5.2, 5.4
	Thu 1 Feb	Lecture	Game (Adversarial) Search B (for slides see Game Search A)	R&N 5.3 (optional: 5.5+) Cultural Interest
	Fri 2 Feb	Discussion	Review, questions, optional HW #3
5	Tue 6 Feb	Lecture Quiz #2 (quiz; key)	Propositional Logic A (Slides)	R&N 7.1-7.4 Cultural Interest
	Thu 8 Feb	Lecture	Propositional Logic B (Slides)	R&N 7.5 (optional: 7.6-7.8)
	Fri 9 Feb	Discussion	Review, questions, optional HW #4
6	Tue 13 Feb	Lecture	Mid-term Exam Review (Slides)	All of above Cultural Interest
	Thu 15 Feb	Mid-term Exam (exam; key)	Mid-term Exam	All of above
	Fri 16 Feb	Discussion	Review, questions, optional HW #5
7	Tue 20 Feb	Lecture	Predicate Logic Syntax (Slides)	R&N 8.1-8.5 Cultural Interest
	Thu 22 Feb	Lecture	Predicate Logic Semantics/Inference (Slides) Predicate Logic Knowledge Engineering (Slides)	Review R&N 8.3-8.5, Read 9.1-9.2 (optional: 9.5)
	Fri 23 Feb	Discussion	Review, questions
8	Tue 27 Feb	Lecture Quiz #3 (quiz; key)	Probability, Uncertainty (Slides)	R&N Ch 13
	Thu 1 Mar	Lecture	Bayesian Networks (Slides)	R&N Ch. 14.1-14.5
	Fri 2 Mar	Discussion	Review, questions
9	Tue 6 Mar	Lecture	Intro Machine Learning (Slides)	R&N Ch 18.1-18.4 Cultural Interest
	Thu 8 Mar	Lecture	Optional: Machine Learning Classifiers (Slides)	R&N Ch. 18.5-18.12
	Fri 9 Mar	Discussion	Review, questions,
10	Tue 13 Mar	Lecture Quiz #4 (quiz; key)	Special Topics Lecture: (1) Special topics request from students; (2) TA or Prof present their own research; (3) Catch-up lecture if needed; (4) Any other use desired	TBA Cultural Interest
	Wed 14 Mar	Happy Pi Day, 3/14
	Thu 15 Mar	Lecture	AI Club at UCI (Slides) Final Exam Review (Slides)	All of the above
	Fri 16 Mar	Discussion	Review, questions Instruction ends
11	Tue 20 Mar	Final Exam (exam; key)	10:30am-12:30pm --- NOTE DIFFERENT TIME	All of the above