| This page last modified on 2011 November 16. |
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This is the promise of the Semantic Web — it will improve all the areas of your life where you currently use syllogisms.
Which is to say, almost nowhere.
Introduces methods and algorithms used to incorporate intelligence into computer programs. Topics include search techniques, representation and reasoning, and machine learning. Applications of these methods are stressed. The course also covers implementation of some of the fundamental algorithms. Prerequisites: Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (CS 502), and Data Structures and Algorithms (CS 503).
The course is divided into seven sections. See the schedule for details.
Classes meet twice on Wednesdays for an hour and 40 minutes each, first from 11 a.m. to 12:40 p.m., and then from 1 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. Class starts on Wednesday, 7 September 2011 and ends on Wednesday, 14 December. Tuesday, 8 November is the last day to withdraw from class with a W on your transcript. Classes will met on Wednesday, 23 November, the day before Thanksgiving.
All grades are kept with one digit of precision to the right of the decimal point and 0.05 rounded up. No grades are adjusted to a curve; that means, for example, that 89.9 is always a B+, never an A-.
95 ≤ A 90 ≤ A- < 95 86.6 ≤ B+ < 90 83.3 ≤ B < 86.6 80 ≤ B- < 83.3 76.6 ≤ C+ < 80 73.3 ≤ C < 76.6 70 ≤ C- < 73.3 F < 70
There are three tests, one test at the end of evey other section starting with the first section; see the schedule for the schedule. Tests are given in class, and are open book; you may use any materials you think helpful. The tests are cumulative, covering everything taught up to and including the class before the test. Tests will take the full class period. Test answers will be available on the schedule.
There are no midterms, but there is a final exam. See the schedule or WebAdvisor for the final exam schedule.
There are many intelligent systems textbooks, all more or less the same. There’s no assigned textbook for this course; instead, pick a textbook or two you’re comfortable with. As a first cut, compare the book’s table of contents with the schedule to make sure the topics mentioned in the schedule appear in the table of contents. You can glean further advice from a small annotated bibliography of intelligent systems books.
Please do not interpret “There’s no assigned textbook for this course” to mean “Great! I don’t need a textbook.” Absorbing everything you need to know from lectures won’t be possible, not the least because there won’t be time to cover everything in lectures. Working it out over a textbook or two will give you the time and space to learn what you need to know. In addition, the tests are written assuming knowledge found in basic intelligent systems textbooks.
This is a programming course, and you’ll be programming in Java. You should have at hand at least one Java programming language book to help you recover the old details persue futher the new details. The book from CS 175 and 176 should be fine. Also recommended are Core Java 2, Vol. 1 — Fundamentals by Cay Horstmann and Gary Cornell, Sun Microsystems Press, 2008. and Java in a Nutshell by David Flanagan, O’Reilly Media, 2005.
Mail relevant to the class are stored in a hyper-mail archive. If your message is of general interest to the class, I’ll store it, suitably stripped of identification and along with my answer, in the archive.
www.monmouth.edu/rclayton/web-pages/f11-520/index.html
( tinyurl.com/mucs520f11h ). I’ll make the class notes, assignments, and quizzes
available off the schedule
www.monmouth.edu/rclayton/web-pages/f11-520/schedule.html (
tinyurl.com/mucs520f11s ); you should get in the habit of checking the schedule regularly.
vimeo.com . There's an
rss feed for new screencasts.
Screencasting is experimental, and lecture availability will most likely be
unreliable.
identi.ca/mucs520 ) or twitter (
twitter.com/mucs520 ). The same messages appear on both services.
My attendance policy applies only to lecture attendance; it does not apply to other kinds of attendance which may be required for the course. Repeated failures to meet the attendance expectations set for tests, meetings, projects, labs or other forms of course work will have a bad influence on your grade.
First, the only complaint that matters is that something got marked wrong when it was actually right. When you come to complain, be prepared to present, in explicit detail, what it is you did and why you think it’s right.
Second, complaints about a particular test or assignment are only valid until the next test or assignment is due; after that point the book is permanently closed on all previous test or assignment grades.
A late assignment is penalized ten points a day for each day it’s late. I use a 24-hour clock running from midnight to midnight to measure days; note this means that an assignment handed in the day after it’s due is penalized ten points: five for the day it was due and five for the next day.
A make-up test must be scheduled to be taken by the date of the test following the missed test (or the final exam if you miss the last test). If a missed test is not made up by the time of the next test, you get a zero for the missed test.
There will be only one make up given per missed test. If more than one person misses the same test, those people will have to coordinate among themselves to pick a mutually agreeable date for the make up.
| This page last modified on 2011 November 16. |
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