07-180: Concepts of Artificial Intelligence

The course will introduce students to the main foundational concepts and techniques used in Artificial Intelligence (AI), including representation, heuristic search, decision making, and machine learning. Students will be introduced to the history of AI, as well a range of real-world applications in which AI is currently used. Programming-based assignments will enable students to get a feel for AI techniques.

 

Learning Objectives

AI is a large and rapidly growing field that combines insights from various fields, including computer science, statistics, psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. By the end of the course, students should:

• Be aware of the breadth and history of the field;
• Gain familiarity with some basic symbolic and numeric techniques used in AI;
• Understand how AI is incorporated into various commercial applications; and
• Understand some of the ethical and societal implications of the field.

Prerequisites: 15-112 or equivalent

Class Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:30-4:50pm in Hamburg B103

Instructor:Reid Simmons (rsimmons@andrew), NSH 3213

TAs

Ayush Shekar (head), Angela Chen, Rohit Dasanoor, Ryan Ding, Maxim Gluhovskoi, Glenda Tan, Maxim Yagnyatinskiy

Offic Hours

Use this calendar for times and places of office hours

Textbooks

We encourage the use of the textbook Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig.

Recitations

Recitation sections will be held on Wednesdays 6:00-6:50pm in GHC 6501. The sessions are optional, but they will cover technical details not covered in depth in class, many of which will be essential for doing the assignments. The recitation sessions will also be recorded, for later viewing.

Assignments

Homeworks: Due dates for all homework assignments are on the course schedule (see below, but subject to change). Assignments need to be uploaded to GradeScope by 11:59pm on the due date. Late assignments will be docked 10% for each 24-hour period that they are late, up to 3 days. For instance, if a homework is submitted 12 hours past the submission deadline and it scores 87%, its grade will be recorded as 77%. The only exception to this is in the case of emergency. If you experience an emergency and need to extend an assignment deadline, have your academic advisor contact me as early as possible. Further details (including grading rubrics) will be provided as the class progresses. In addition, students are given three grace days to use throughout the semester on any combination of assignments. At most two grace days will be allowed on a single assignment. Note that all parts of an assignment are considered together – that is, submitting both the written and programming parts one day late counts towards only a single grace day.

Checkpoints: There will be six multiple choice quizzes, designed to take 15-20 minutes to answer, with the lowest score dropped. The checkpoints will be available at the end of class on Tuesdays and due by 11:59 that evening. No make-ups will be granted!.

Participation: There will be five in-class group activities during the course. Three of them will involve hand-tracing some AI algorithm, and two where a reading will be assigned the week before and students get together to discuss the technical and societal issues raised by the reading. For the three hand-tracing activities, there will be a form to record the trace, and students will receive 1 point for filling out the form (with reasonable answers). For the two reading activities, students will get 1 point for filling out a Google form with questions about the paper and 1 point for participating in group discussion. Up to 5 points, out of the maximum of 7, will count towards the participation portion of the grade. Participation during lectures is also encouraged, but will not be graded.

Use of AI Tools: Use of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, is forbidden for the written assignments, unless specified otherwise. Use of tools, such as Co-Pilot, can be used for programming assignments, in the following way: you can use the tools to summarize the codebase and generate solution code, but you need to design the solution yourself. In particular, you need to develop your own prompts (not taken verbatim from the writeup) and you need submit a README with any and all prompts used.

Grading

• 60% 4 homework assignments (15% each)
• 25% Final Exam
• 10% 6 multiple-choice checkpoints (2% each, lowest score will be dropped)
• 5% Participation with in-class activites

Plagiarism

Cheating—and plagiarism specifically—is a very serious violation of both academic integrity and CMU policy. All content produced for this class must be original to the submitter unless otherwise stated. Plagiarism is a very serious offense, and will be treated as such. Any sources of information should be cited and acknowledged – if you get assistance from other students or CMU academic resources, you should acknowledge that assistance in the write-up to your assignment (who helped and in what way). In particular, if you use technologies to help with a writing or coding assignment, that must be explicitly acknowledged as part of your submission (see above). It is not a problem for someone to give you general assistance about the techniques used in assignments; it is a problem if they help provide solutions to the specific assignment. Do not take chances with plagiarism: if you are uncertain whether you are doing something acceptable, please just ask. We are happy to answer questions about whether something constitutes plagiarism.

Accommodations

If you have a disability and have an accommodations letter from the Disability Resources office, we encourage you to discuss your accommodations and needs with us as early in the semester as possible. We will work with you to ensure that accommodations are provided as appropriate. If you suspect that you may have a disability and would benefit from accommodations but are not yet registered with the Office of Disability Resources , then we encourage you to contact them at [email protected].

Health and Wellness

We, as a community, need to support one another. If you, or anyone you know, experiences stresses, difficult life events, or feelings of anxiety or depression, then we strongly encourage you to seek support. Take care of yourself. Do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep, and taking some time to relax. This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress. All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. There are many helpful resources available on campus and an important part of the college experience is learning how to ask for help. Asking for support sooner rather than later is almost always helpful. Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) can provide assistance at 412-268-2922 or http://www.cmu.edu/counseling/. Consider reaching out to a friend, faculty, or family member you trust for help getting connected to support that can help. The instructor is also available and dedicated to helping you at all times.

Commitment to Diversity

It is our intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course, that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength, and benefit. It is our intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity: gender, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, and culture. Your suggestions are encouraged and appreciated. Please let us know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups.