CS 188: Artificial Intelligence, Spring 2006

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Course Information

Course Staff:

Times and Locations:

Description:

This course will introduce basic ideas and techniques underlying the design of intelligent computer systems. A specific emphasis on the statistical modeling paradigm will be presented, with applications to problems involving naturally-generated human data (such as language). See the lecture schedule for a tentative syllabus.

Prerequisites:

Given the interdisciplinary nature of the field, we understand that students in this course come from diverse backgrounds. The prerequisite material will be briefly reviewed, and additional assistance will be made available in sections, office hours, and optional tutorial sessions.  Course programming assignments will be in Python.  We do not assume that students have previous experience with the language, but we do expect you to learn the basics fairly rapidly, see the programming page for details.

Textbook:

The required course textbook is Russell and Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, Second Edition.

Coursework:

Coursework will consist of written problem sets and programming assignments. Programming assignments will be in Python; see the programming page for details.

Grading:

Overall grades will be determined from:

Problems sets must be turned into the drop box in 283 Soda Hall before midnight on the due date. Late homework will not be accepted, but the lowest score will be dropped from the overall grade calculation. Students may discuss solutions with classmates, but each must prepare an individual write-up that clearly acknowledges any collaborators and sources consulted. We're trusting each of you not to cheat -- we will enforce the EECS Policy on academic dishonesty (see Kris Pister's policy as well).

Programming projects will also be assigned, and may be completed in groups of no more than two students. Each student is allowed five late days, used to extend project deadlines. Days end at midnight. If working in a group, the number of late days available is the minimum of the group members' remaining allowances.

Final letter grades will be curved according to the professor's assessment of where the letter cutoffs should fall.  However, there is no prior quota of final letter grades, so in this sense you are not in direct competition with each other.

Enrollment:

You can find out about enrollment limits from the online schedule of classes. I expect that all qualified students will be able to take the course.

Please remember that the instructor and TAs have no control over who gets in. If you are not yet enrolled as of the first day of lecture and still want to be considered for participation in the course, you should attend class and file an appeal form by the end of the first week of classes. Appeal forms are available from the CS office on the 3rd floor of Soda Hall. (Michael-David Sasson, 379 Soda, msasson AT cs, might be able to advise you on the status of your appeal, but remember that he's quite busy.)

Here are the policies that govern admission into classes, and here are some answers to frequently asked questions about admission.

Communication:

There will be several routes of communication for this course.  Announcements will be posted to this web page.  There is a course newsgroup, ucb.class.cs188, which is appropriate for general questions about the course, clarifications about assignments, and so on.  The course staff will monitor the newsgroup, and you should send questions there whenever possible, since then everyone else will be able to benefit from the answer.  If you need to contact the course staff privately, you should email cs188-staff AT lists.berkeley.edu.  You may also contact the professor or GSIs directly, but the staff list will produce the fastest response.