Course Description

• Summary of Content: There are cognitive tasks that people can do relatively easy, but that can be difficult to program on a computer. There are other cognitive tasks that can be difficult for people, but that can be easily implemented on a computer. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the science of discovering the principles how both easy and difficult tasks can be approached, and subsequently developing computer systems that can carry out these tasks.


• Educational Objectives: enable students to learn some of the fundamental topics that underly several areas of modern AI and to get programming skills of developing AI applications. Basic logic and resolution-style reasoning are briefly introduced and applied to solving problems such as combinatorial puzzles (e.g., scheduling). Other basic notions from discrete structures are briefly reinforced as well, such as basic modular arithmetic, functions and relations, set cardinality and counting. The course introduces basic deductive databases, and declarative conjunctive queries for information retrieval. In addition, part of the course introduces and reinforces techniques of developing recursive programs over general recursive data structures (e.g., such as lists, trees, but other recursive discrete structures are discussed as well). Several types of search techniques are introduced (and/or reinforced) including brute-force search, recursive backtracking, heuristics, depth- and breadth-first traversals. The course introduces PROLOG, the programming language based on logic programming. The students get a working knowledge of writing basic PROLOG programs. The course introduces syntax and semantics of natural languages (such as English), syntactic analysis, parsing, and context-free grammars. The final part of the course reinforces conditional probability, Bayes Theorem, independence and introduces reasoning in Bayesian Networks.


• Calendar description: This course provides introduction to several important AI problems and techniques, including knowledge representation and reasoning, constraints satisfaction, search, natural language understanding, planning, uncertainty, belief networks, learning. Lectures: 3 hrs.   Tutorials/Labs (including quizzes): 1 hr. Prerequisites: (CPS 305, MTH210, MTH 304 or CPS 305 and CPS 420).


• Compulsory Text Book: 
  Thinking as Computation: A First Course, written by Hector Levesque. Published by the MIT Press, paperback, 328 pp, August 2017, ISBN: 9780262534741. ( online content). This textbook is available from the Ryerson university bookstore.
• Recommended Reference Books: 
  Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig   Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach, 4th edition, Copyright 2020, Publisher: Pearson, ISBN-13: 9780134671932, 1136p, online price $70US. The students can either buy, or rent.

  Computational Intelligence: A Logical Approach by David Poole, Alan Mackworth and Randy Goebel, ISBN-13: 9780195102703, Publisher: Oxford University Press, 576 pages, 1998.

  Common Sense, the Turing Test, and the Quest for Real AI by Hector Levesque. Published by the MIT Press, paperback, $17(US), 192pp, March 2018, ISBN: 9780262535205.

• Topics (tentative sequence): This course will provide undergraduate-level introduction to several important AI problems and techniques, including deductive reasoning, writing recurive programs over recursive data structures, finding solutions that satisfy a given set of constraints (e.g., computing a schedule or solving a puzzle), understanding natural language (e.g., parsing noun phrases), problem solving and planning, pruning of search space, Bayesian networks. Each topic takes about 2 weeks. A moderate amount of Prolog programming will be required as part of the course.

Course Policies

• The students are strongly encouraged to take notes in class, and study their notes after class. Learning can be a gradual process that requires time and efforts. The students benefit from attending lectures and labs since some important details will be discussed only there. For this reason, attending lectures and tutorials/labs is mandatory.
• All course materials posted on D2L are copyrighted and protected by law. You cannot share them with anyone. You cannot repost them anywhere on the Web. Please review the Ryerson University policy about copyrights. Moreover, you cannot post any of your solutions to the labs or to assignments, since doing this would violate the cps721 policy on collaboration, and the Ryerson University Academic Policy 60. You can read parts of this policy online related to "Academic misconduct".
• Electronic devices: turn off your mobile phones and all other electronic devices in class. You can keep your laptop or tablet open only if you use it to take notes in class.
• Examinations: The quizzes, a midterm exam, and the final exam may include problem solving, short essay questions as well as writing Prolog code. The duration of these examinations will be 15-45 min, 1h40min, and 2h30min, respectively. Quizzes can be given at any time without prior warning. The final exam will be cumulative and will include all the material covered throughout the term. There will be no supplemental examination. Grades are earned for the demonstration of knowledge. If you miss a midterm test, or a final exam for medical reasons, you have to submit an academic consideration request through the Online Submission Form   and   hand in a hard copy of a completed official Health Certificate to the department of Computer Science within 3 working days. You have to bring your documents yourself to the CS front reception desk. Once the Program Department has verified the student’s health documentation, the instructor will be notified of the verification. Similarly, all documentation related to special accomodation or academic consideration should be submitted to the CS program office within the specified time limits.


• Dates are subject to change, all changes will be announced in class and on the course Web pages.
• Assignments should be submitted on or before the deadline specified in the assignment (you are encouraged to submit assignments earlier). Your assignment is considered late if any part of the assignment is late (even if it is just 1 minute late). The penalty for a late assignment is 10% off. No assignments will be accepted if more than 24 hours late. Start solving your assignment on the same day when it is posted. Do not procrastinate. No make-up assignments. Late assignments: if a hard copy is required, then to hand in the printout you can give it in person to a secretary at the CS reception desk and ask her to put a stamp on your assignment to confirm that you handed in your assignment in time. Send email to the TA who is responsible for marking this assignment: inform that a hard copy of your assignments is available from the front desk.
• All assignments have to be submitted electronically on D2L into the specified folder.
• From time to time, I will hand out exercises. The students are expected to solve the exercises, but they will not be graded. However, working on exercises will improve your understanding of this course (and will help you to get better marks on tests).
• Up to 5% (or less) extra credit may be assigned for active class participation throughout the term, e.g., a student attends most of the classes, participates actively by asking/answering questions, solves exercises in class. Class participation marks are earned for active course participation and given at discretion of the course instructor; they cannot be requested by the students.
• Tutorials/Labs are mandatory. Each student must attend only the section where s/he is assigned. No transfers between sections are possible. Usually, each tutorial includes a mini-lecture and a quiz. Solve quizzes in a small group: 2 or 3 students at most. Larger groups are not allowed. Each student must write by his/her hand the first name, the last name and the student number on the top of the page with a solution to the quiz. Lab Marks: are given for solving correctly lab exercises, as specified by T.A. The lab mark will be given only if
  1. the student attends the entire lab in the section where s/he is enrolled,
  2. the T.A. observed the student actively participating in discussion, solving questions in the quiz with partners, and
  3. the student signed up the page with a quiz solution, provided family name and a student number.
  4. The lab mark will be given primarily for solution correctness.
  5. Late labs will not be accepted.
  6. There will be no make-up labs. The student who missed a lab should try to solve independently the exercises given during the lab time and verify the solutions with the T.A., or with lab partners.
  7. Lab groups can be different from assignment groups (see the policy on collaboration below).
• Handouts and assignments will be made available on the Web only. More specifically, they will be linked from the cps721 online course shell on my.ryerson.ca Also, you are responsible for visiting the Homework Assignments Web pages regularly and reading all information that is provided or linked from these Web pages. In particular, Frequently Answered Questions (FAQs) related to cps721 home work will be linked from this Web page. These FAQs are considered to be an integral part of the assignment. Before sending your questions by e-mail to the instructor, check these Web pages whether similar questions have been already answered.
• Email communication: you can send email from local Ryerson's email addresses only: you can use either your departmental account (preferred) or your university account to send email. Email sent from Yahoo, Hotmail and other external domains can be filtered out as spam and might not reach me. Email messages will be normally answered within 24 hours; however, messages sent on weekend (starting from Friday evening) will be usually answered on Monday.
• Grades for tests and assignments will be posted on my.ryerson.ca Web site no later than two weeks after the due date (test date). Marking guides, the assignments and some other course related documents will be posted on my.ryerson.ca only. Graded work will be usually returned to students within two weeks. The students can email the TA who was marking the assignment (see the top of this page) if they have questions about marking, or attend the office hour. If an electronic copy of the assignment was marked by a TA using a script, and it was additionally required to hand in a hard copy, then in this case hard copies will not be normally returned. Marked quizzes will be returned at the next tutorial. Missing marks for quizzes cannot be requested since only those students who attended a lab are eligible to get a mark for a quiz.

ACADEMIC CONDUCT
In order to create an environment conducive to learning and respectful of others rights, phones and pagers must be silenced during lectures, labs and evaluations. Students should refrain from disrupting the lectures and labs by arriving late and/or leaving the classroom before the lecture is finished.

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT
Committing academic misconduct, such as plagiarism and cheating, will trigger academic penalties including failing grades, suspension and possibly expulsion from the University. As a Ryerson student, you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with the Student Code of Academic Conduct.

Policy on Non-Academic Conduct
No disruption of instructional activities is allowed. In particular, taking video/photos in class is strictly prohibited since this violates the copyright and privacy policies. Among many other infractions, the Code specifically refers to the following as a violation: ``Disruption of Learning and Teaching - Students shall not behave in disruptive ways that obstruct the learning and teaching environment." In particular, the students can use the laptops (and similar electronic devices) in class only for taking notes. In difficult cases, penalties can be imposed by the Student Conduct Officer.

Remarking / Recalculation Policy

1. Grades are earned for the demonstration of knowledge.
2. Read carefully the marking guide for the assignment or test you'd like to be remarked. Your grade may go up, down, or remain the same.
3. Fill in this remarking form (available online). Attach this form to the hard copy of your assignment, if you handed in a hard copy. Otherwise, if a hard copy was not required, fill in the form and email it to the TA who marked your assignment. Same rules apply if you request recalculation to correct an arithmetical error in calculating your total score.
4. Forward/Email your remarking request form to the TA/GA who marked your assignment. If you handed in a printout for marking, then you can hand in your remarking request and the marked hard copy of your assignment to the TA at the Lab time or leave it in the front CS office. Normally, the marking guide posted on my.ryerson.ca includes the name of the TA/GA who was responsible for marking the assignment (see also the top of this page). It is your responsibility to forward your remarking request to the right contact person.
5. Remarking request can be only submitted within 10 days of the date when the assignment/test marks were posted. It is your responsibility to check your CPS721 marks as soon as possible. Late regrading and recalculation requests will not be accepted. Also, if a student failed to attend a lab and sign up a quiz, the missing marks for quizzes cannot be requested. There are no make-up quizzes in cps721.
6. Mark can decrease if TA finds something that was incorrectly awarded too high a mark.

Tentative Course Calendar (all changes of dates will be announced)

Course Work	Due Date	Grade Value (%)
Assignment  1	September 26, Thursday	4
Assignment 2	October 10, Thursday	4
Assignment 3	October 24, Thursday	4
Midterm	Saturday, October 26, 11am-1pm; by the 1st letter in the family name: A-F in KHE121, G-M in KHE125, N-Z in KHE129	20
Assignment 4	November 11, Monday	4
Assignment 5	November 25, Monday	4
Tutorials/Labs	As per timetable above, from Mon, Sept 9	10
Final Exam	Exam period	50
Total		100

The total mark is the sum of marks for assignments, quizzes, midterm and the final exam.