CPSC 422 - Artificial Intelligence 2 - Intelligent Systems (Term2,  Winter 2020-T2)

Overview

Grades

Textbook

Schedule

Readings

 

Overview

Course Description:  This is an advanced AI course that builds on the foundations of CPSC 322 to show how to build intelligent agents that can observe the world, create appropriate representations, perform inference on those and act appropriately. Such agents include robots, intelligent tutoring systems, diagnostic agents, purchasing agents, and game agents.

We will begin by expanding on what we discussed in CPSC 322 about decision making under uncertainty, and spend some time on the issues that arise in multi-stage decision processes, including planning and learning for acting. We will then cover approximate inference in Bnets and more efficient temporal inferences in HMM. Other graphical models will be also covered, including Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) . We will then switch to Deterministic environments and expand the treatment of logics from  CPSC 322, considering First Order Logics (FOL), satisfiability and ontologies. Finally, we will study representations that attempt to combine Logics with Probabilities, like Markov Logics and Probabilistic Relational Models.  Throughout, we will pay special attention to the understanding the state of the art and we will discuss several applications and research papers.

• Meeting Times: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
• First Class: Mon, Jan 11, 2021
• Location: Zoom - see Canvas
• Instructor: Giuseppe Carenini  carenini@cs.ubc.ca
• Instructor's Office Location: zoom ; see on Canvas
• Instructor's Office Hours: Wed 11-12
• TAs and Office Hours:
  • Tootooni Mofrad Amirhossein tootooni@cs.ubc.ca   Fri 11:30-1 zoom ; see on Canvas
  • Ivanova Inna inna.ivanova@alumni.ubc.ca     Tue 1pm zoom ; see on Canvas or
    https://ubc.zoom.us/j/61216154294?pwd=RUlZR1FLWnhkZUduM01paFFNU3o4Zz09
    Meeting ID: 612 1615 4294
    Passcode: 831534
  • Deka Namrata dnamrata@cs.ubc.ca   Mon 10am zoom ; see on Canvas or
  • https://us04web.zoom.us/s/79190320632?pwd= UjhoZXlVWjVRWWs4UitTRlVkclM2QT09
  •  ID: 79190320632 Password: C22QR771Cr
• Course Discussion Board piazza (see link on Canvas) : the place to submit your questions and get answers, as well as see answers given to others
• iClickers in lectures
• AISpace: demo applets that illustrate some of the techniques covered in class
• Prerequisites: CPSC 322
• Final exam: TBA

Grades

Grading Scheme: Evaluation will be based on a set of  assignments, a midterm, and an exam. Important: you must pass the final in order to pass the course. The instructor reserves the right to adjust this grading scheme during the term, if necessary.

• Assignments -- 15%
• Readings: Questions and Summaries -- 10%
• Midterm -- 30%
• Final -- 45%

If your grade improves substantially from the midterm to the final, defined as a final exam grade that is at least 20% higher than the midterm grade, then the following grade breakdown will be used instead.

• Assignments -- 15%

• Readings: Questions and Summaries -- 10%

• Midterm -- 15%

• Final -- 60%

   

The assignment grade will be computed by adding up the number of points you get across all assignments, dividing this number by the number of possible points, and multiplying by 20.  Assignments will not be graded out of the same number of points; this means that they will not be weighted equally.

 

Assignments

Your overall assignment grade will be computed by adding up the number of points you get across all assignments, dividing this number by the number of possible points, and multiplying by 15. Assignments will not be graded out of the same number of points; this means that they will not be weighted equally.

Working with a partner on assignments is highly recommended. In order to promote this kind of collaboration, you will receive a 5% bonus to any assignment where you work with a partner. for example, if an assignment is out of 100 points, you will receive 5 bonus points on it if you work with a partner (for a maximum of 105/100, which can "spill over" onto other assignments but cannot be used to bring your overall assignment grade over 100%). Note: to optimize your learning, you should actively collaborate with your partner, rather than simply having each partner work on part of the assignment. Your partnership should only submit one copy of the assignment; if both members submit, then you will not receive the partnership bonus.

Assignments are to be typed (not handwritten) and submitted electronically on Canvas before the start of lecture on the due date. For each assignment, your submission must be formatted as a single PDF file. That means:

• No Word files (all modern word processors have the option to save as PDF)

• No zip/tar/rar/etc. files

• No submissions with multiple files

• Submissions failing to meet these formatting requirements will not be graded.

 

Late Assignments: Assignments are to be handed in BEFORE the start of lecture on the due date. However, every student is allotted four "late days", which allow assignments to be handed in late without penalty on three days or parts of days during the term.  The purpose of late days is to allow students the flexibility to manage unexpected obstacles to coursework that arise during the course of the term, such as travel, moderate illness, conflicts with other courses, extracurricular obligations, job interviews, etc.  Thus, additional late days will NOT be granted except under truly exceptional circumstances.  If an assignment is submitted late and a student has used up all of her/his late days, 20% will be deducted for every day the assignment is late. (E.g., an assignment 2 days late and graded out of 100 points will be awarded a maximum of 60 points.)

How late does something have to be to use up a late day? A day is defined as a 24-hour block of time beginning at 1PM on the day an assignment is due.  To use a late day, write the number of late days claimed on the first page of your assignment

 Examples:

• Handing in an assignment at the end of lecture on the day it is due consumes one late day. 
• Handing in an assignment at 12:15PM the afternoon after it is due consumes one late day.
• Handing in an assignment at 1:30PM the day after an assignment is due consumes two late days.

Assignments can be handed in electronically using ....Canvas.....; this is the only way to hand in late assignments over a weekend. Written work can also be put in Giuseppe's mailbox in the main CS office (room 201); ask the secretary to time-stamp it.

Missing Deadlines or Exams: In truly exceptional circumstances, when accompanied by a note from Student Health Services or a Department Advisor, the following arrangements will be made.

• If an assignment cannot be completed, the assignment grade will be computed based on the remaining assignments. Note that such an arrangement is extremely unusual--the late day system is intended to allow students to accommodate disruptions from moderate illness without contacting the instructor.
• If the midterm is missed, its grades will be shifted to the final. This means the final will count for 75% of the final grade, and assignments + readings will count for the remaining 25%.
• If the final is missed, a make-up final will be scheduled. This make-up final will be held as soon as possible after the regularly scheduled final.

Academic Conduct

Submitting the work of another person as your own (i.e. plagiarism) constitutes academic misconduct, as does communication with others (either as donor or recipient) in ways other than those permitted for homework and exams. Such actions will not be tolerated.

• You may ask questions about assignment questions on discussion boards. However, you may not publicly post your work or solutions (whether complete or partial).

• You may fully collaborate with your partner. You may also discuss the assignments with other students; however:

  • You may not show your work to other students or look at other students' work (the same applies to sharing answers or checking whether you got the same answers as other students)

  • You may not take away any written record of your discussions with other students

  • After discussions with other students, you must wait at least half an hour before working on the assignment, to help ensure that you are working from your own understanding of the material.

  • On the first page of each assignment submission, you must acknowledge any students outside your partnership with whom you discussed the assignment.

• All work for this course is required to be new work and cannot be submitted as part of an assignment in another course without the approval of all instructors involved.

Violations of the rules constitute very serious academic misconduct, and they are subject to penalties ranging from a grade of zero on the current and *all* the previous assignments to indefinite suspension from the University. More information on procedures and penalties can be found in the Department's Policy on Plagiarism and collaboration. If you are in any doubt about the interpretation of any of these rules, consult the instructor or a TA!

Student Well-being

For information on department policies related to student well-being, please visit 
https://www.cs.ubc.ca/students/undergrad/resources/equity-inclusion-wellness.

 

Readings: what to do (Please check if email mentioned in the link is still valid)

Textbook

Selected Chapters of Artificial Intelligence: foundations of computational agents by David Poole and Alan Mackworth, Cambridge University Press, 2010 - Complete book available online and possibly from Russell and Norvig's Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (fourth edition) [webpage]. Although these texts will be our main reference for the class, it must be stressed that you will need to know all the material covered in class, whether or not it is included in the readings or available on-line.  Likewise, you are responsible for all the material in assigned readings, whether or not it is covered in class. 

Schedule

Here is where you can find the course schedule and the PPT and PDF files from lectures. These dates will change throughout the term, but this schedule will be kept up to date.  Assignment due dates are provided to give you a rough sense; however, they are also subject to change. I will try to always post the slides in advance (by 3PM). After class, I will post the same slides inked with the notes I have added in class.