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Course Overview

The design of automated systems capable of accomplishing complicated tasks is at the heart of computer science. Abstractly, automated systems can be viewed as taking inputs and producing outputs towards the realization of some objectives. In practice, the design of systems that produce the best possible outputs can be quite challenging when the choice of outputs is constrained, the consequences of the outputs are uncertain and/or dependent on other systems, the information provided by the inputs is incomplete and/or noisy, there are multiple (possibly competing) objectives to satisfy, the system must adapt to its environment over time, etc. This course provides an introduction to Artificial Intelligence, covering some of the core topics that underly automated reasoning. The modeling techniques that will be covered are quite versatile and can be used to tackle a wide range of problems in many fields including natural language processing (e.g., topic modeling, document clustering), robotics (e.g., mobile robot navigation), automated diagnosis (e.g., medical diagnosis, fault detection), data mining (e.g., fraud detection, information retrieval), operations research (e.g., resource allocation, maintenance scheduling), assistive technologies, etc.

Instructor

Teaching Assistants

Readings

The main text is A second useful reference is

Communication

We will be using the Piazza discussion board. Please sign up for Piazza and the course here.

Public Piazza posts (can be anonymous) are the prefererd method for questions about course material. Students can then help each other out and instructors can also read and reply so that everyone in class can see the responses. Private Piazza posts (to instructors only) can be used for any post that contains solution snippets or private questions. All lecture material is available on this site (under Schedule) as well as on Learn. Assignments will be posted on Learn.

Evaluation

For students registered in CS 486 For students registered in CS 686

Late Policy

Assignments are due when specified in the course schedule. Students are allowed to submit assignments up to 48 hours after the deadline. However, no questions about the assignment will be answered during this 48 hour grace period, and no assignment will be accepted after the 48 hours.

Academic Integrity

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. All members of the UW community are expected to hold to the highest standard of academic integrity in their studies, teaching, and research. The Office of Academic Integrity's website (www.uwaterloo.ca/academicintegrity) contains detailed information on UW policy for students and faculty. This site explains why academic integrity is important and how students can avoid academic misconduct. It also identifies resources available on campus for students and faculty to help achieve academic integrity in and out of the classroom.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offenses, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about rules for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm

Avoiding Academic Offenses: Most students are unaware of the line between acceptable and unacceptable academic behaviour, especially when discussing assignments with classmates and using the work of other students. For information on commonly misunderstood academic offenses and how to avoid them, students should refer to the Faculty of Mathematics Cheating and Student Academic Discipline Policy, http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/navigation/Current/cheating_policy.shtml

Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72

Note for students with disabilities

The Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD), located in Needles Hall, Room 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accomodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require accomodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the OPD at the beginning of each academic term.