Syllabus for CMSC 421, Fall 2008

Last update: September 2, 2008

Location and time: CSI 2107, Tuesday/Thursday, 3:30pm-4:45pm 

Web page: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~nau/cmsc421

Instructor: Dana S. Nau
Office: Room 3241 AVW
Office hours: after class until about 5:30pm
Telephone: 301-405-2684
Email: nau & cs.umd.edu     change & to @
Web: http://www.cs.umd.edu/~nau
TA: John Guerra
Office hours: Monday 1:30-3:00pm and Thursday 2:00-3:30pm
Where: the TA Room on the first floor
Email: john.guerra & gmail.com     change & to @

Required textbooks:

  • S. Russell and P. Norvig, Artificial Intelligence, A Modern Approach, 2nd edition.
  • Paul Graham, ANSI Common Lisp.

Computer accounts. If you don't already have a Glue account, please get one at http://www.oit.umd.edu/new. You'll need this in order to use Lisp.

Discussion forum. There is a web-based discussion forum. Unless you have something you need to discuss in private, don't email questions to me or the TA. Please post them to the discussion forum instead.

Topics to be covered. "AMAI" and "ACL" refer to the textbooks.

  • intelligent agents (AMAI chapter 2)
  • search and game-playing (AMAI chapters 3–6)
  • logical systems (AMAI chapters 7–9)
  • planning systems (AMAI chapters 11–12)
  • reasoning about uncertainty (AMAI chapters 13–14)
  • learning (AMAI chapter 18 & 20)
  • language (AMAI chapter 22)
  • perception (AMAI chapter 24)
  • Lisp: 2 or 3 programming projects (ACL chapters 1–9)

Homework assignments. There will be about half a dozen written homework assignments, consisting of about 5 homework problems apiece. I will usually give you a week to complete them. Submit your homeworks in class (not in my office, not in my mail box, not by email). You'll get:

  • Full credit if you submit them on the due date
  • 10% penalty if you submit them the next time the class meets
  • after that time, no credit

Programming projects. There will be several (two or three) programming projects. They will all be in Common Lisp. Your code will need to run correctly in Allegro Common Lisp on the machines in the OIT Unix cluster, because that's what we will use to test your programs. You'll get:

  • Full credit if you submit them by the deadline
  • 10% penalty if you submit them by the "late deadline"
  • after that time, no credit

Exams. There will be a midterm exam and a cumulative final exam. I've tentatively scheduled the midterm for October 16. According to the university schedule, the final exam will be on Saturday, Dec 20, 10:30-12:30. Both of these exams will be open book, open notes. To help you prepare, I'll review what we've covered during the last class session before each exam.

Missed exams. If you miss an exam and you have both a valid reason (e.g., a medical emergency) and convincing evidence, I'll give you credit for the missed exam based on your performance on the other exam.

Grading. Homeworks and projects will be graded by the TA - so if you have a question about how your homework or project were graded, please talk to the TA. If you are still not satisfied, then see me about it. Exams will be graded by both the TA and me. To get an exam regraded, please give me a written note saying what you want regraded and why; otherwise I'm likely to forget what you wanted me to look at.

Letter grades. At the end of the semester, I'll assign letter grades on a curve based on your total numeric score, which will be the sum of

  • your midterm exam score: 100 points possible
  • your final exam score: 130 to 140 points possible
  • 1/2 of your total score on the programming projects: 100 to 150 points possible, depending on how many projects
  • 1/5 of your total score on the homeworks: about 60 points possible

To give you a rough indication of how well you are doing, I can also give you a tentative letter grade after the midterm exam, but I won't use that letter grade to assign your final letter grade for the semester.

Honor pledge. I expect you to adhere to the intent of the student honor pledge (see http://www.shc.umd.edu). I'll require you to sign the pledge on the exams, and I'll require you to include the pledge with your programming projects. I won't require it on the homework assignments.