The University of Western Ontario
London, Canada

CS4442B/9542B: Artificial Intellignece II, Course Outline -- Winter 2010

Course Description


This course is a continuation of CS3346, Artificial Intelligence I. A broad range of areas falls into the field of Artificial Intelligence. In this course we give a brief introduction to three very active areas of Artificial Intellegence: machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision. The programming assignments will be done in Matlab (short intro to Matlab will be given), and the empthasis of the assignments will be on developing practical applications, such as SPAM detector in email, text categorization, object tracking in videos.
Planned topics (subject to change) are:

Prerequisites


Instructor

Olga Veksler
Office: MC361
Email: my_first_name@csd.uwo.ca
Lectures: Mo 9:30-11:30 Th 9:30-10:30
Lecture Room: MC 320
Office Hours: TBD.

Main Textbook

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach
, second edition
S. Russell and P. Norvig
Prentice Hall, 2002.

Other Textbooks:

Machine Learning: Pattern Classification
, second edition, R. Duda, P. Hart, D. Stork, Wiley Interscience
Computer Vision: Computer Vision: a modern approach
, second edition, D. Forsyth, J. Ponce, Prentice Hall
Natural Language Processing: Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing
C. Manning, H. Schutze, MIT Press. You can read (but not print out) this book online:

Course Website

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/faculty/olga/Courses//Winter2010//CS4442_9542b/index.html. Lecture notes, assignments, labs, and other class information will be posted at this site. You are responsible for reading this information frequently.

Student Evaluation

Grades will be based on:

If for any reason the assignment schedules given below cannot be adhered to,  the assignment  marks will be pro-rated. The 3 assignments are worth 46% of the overall mark for the course. If an assignment has to be cancelled for any reason, the remaining assignment weights will be prorated to add up to 46%.

If for any reason any of the short exams have to be cancelled, the remaining exams will be worth 54% of the final mark.

Calculators will be allowed during the exams, but no other electronic devices will be allowed.

Every effort will be made to have assignments and exams marked and handed back within 3 weeks of the hand in date.

 Assignment Schedule Tentative, some of these dates might change

All assignments are due at midnight on the date indicated. The hard copy is to be placed in the locker no. 107, and the soft copy is to be submitted via electronic submission. The assignments are to be programmed in Matlab. The instructor will give a short introduction to Matlab.

 Short Exam Schedule Tentative, some of these dates might change

Late Policy

For each assignment it is indicated above when it is due, and for each assignment we will give details on how to hand in the work.

The late penalty for assignments is 5% for each day. You cannot be more than 4 days late. For computing the late penalty, Saturday and Sunday count as one day.

Extensions will be granted only by the course instructor. If you have serious medical or compassionate grounds for an extension, you should take supporting documentation to the office of the Dean of your faculty, who will contact the instructor.

Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness

If you are unable to meet a course requirement due to illness or other serious circumstances, you must provide valid medical or other supporting documentation to your Dean's office as soon as possible and contact your instructor immediately. It is the student's responsibility to make alternative arrangements with their instructor once the accommodation has been approved and the instructor has been informed. In the event of a missed final exam, a "Recommendation of Special Examination" form must be obtained from the Dean's Office immediately. For further information please see this .

A student requiring academic accommodation due to illness should use the Student Medical Certificate when visiting an off-campus medical facility or request a Record's Release Form (located in the Dean's Office) for visits to Student Health Services. The form can be found here

Ethical Conduct

All assignments are individual assignments. You may  discuss approaches to problems among yourselves; however, the actual details of the work (assignment coding, answers to concept questions, etc.) must be an individual effort. Assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty will, for the student's first offence, be given a mark of zero with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on  Scholastic Offences  and Rules of Ethical Conduct .

The University of Western Ontario uses software for plagiarism checking. Students may be required to submit their written work and programs in electronic form for plagiarism checking.

For computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams, use may be made of software to check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.

Plagiarism: Students must write their essays and assignments in their own words. Whenever students take an idea, or a passage from another author, they must acknowledge their debt both by using quotation marks where appropriate and by proper referencing such as footnotes or citations. Plagiarism is a major academic offence (see Scholastic Offence Policy in the Western Academic Calendar).

Computing Facilities

Each student will be given an account on the Computer Science Department senior undergraduate computing facility, GAUL .  In accepting the GAUL account, a student agrees to abide by the department's  Rules of Ethical Conduct .

Note:  After-hours access to certain Computer Science lab rooms is by student card. If a student card is lost,  a replacement card will no longer open these lab rooms, and the student must bring the new card to a member of the Systems Group in Middlesex College Room 346.