480
Various Feedback Forms Available
28/11/12 22:07
I’m using a few Web questionnaires to collect feedback about various aspects of the class; please check the Class Feedback page for the links.
0 Comments
Updated Grades on PolyLearn
28/11/12 22:07
I’ve updated PolyLearn with the scores for the following items
* Labs L1 through L8
I’ve graded all of them that were submitted via the respective Web forms; still need to do Lab 9 and Lab 10
* Assignments A1 and A2
If you’ve demoed your assignments A1 and A2, you should have a grade. If I’ll have to run them myself, this will have to wait until next week. There may be time on Thursday after the project displays to do more demos.
* AI Nugget presentations
I believe I’ve graded all the presentations given so far, but still need to do some of the presentation materials.
* Labs L1 through L8
I’ve graded all of them that were submitted via the respective Web forms; still need to do Lab 9 and Lab 10
* Assignments A1 and A2
If you’ve demoed your assignments A1 and A2, you should have a grade. If I’ll have to run them myself, this will have to wait until next week. There may be time on Thursday after the project displays to do more demos.
* AI Nugget presentations
I believe I’ve graded all the presentations given so far, but still need to do some of the presentation materials.
Quiz 9 Available
27/11/12 22:55
The quiz for this week is available on PolyLearn until the end of the day on Wed, Nov. 28. The topic is learning.
AI Nugget Grades Updated
17/11/12 19:43
I’ve done another round of grading for the AI Nugget materials, and I believe that I’ve caught up with the presentations given so far. However, quite a few students have not made their material available yet, although they’ve already given their presentation. If you don’t have a grade for your presentation material, and you’ve already done the presentation, please make sure that your material is available either through your page on the AI/KB/HCI Wiki (http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/AI_%26_HCI_Presentation_and_Project_Wiki), or on the PolyLearn forum for the AI Nuggets.
Quiz 8 Available now until Wed night
17/11/12 19:41
The quiz on predicate logic and knowledge-based systems is available now, and open until the end of the day on Wednesday.
Time Line for Lab 9 (Decision Tree Learning) and Lab 10 (AI and Humor)
13/11/12 07:56
Since we’re a little behind with the material, Lab 9 on Decision Tree Learning is pushed back one week, with the deadline of Tue, Nov. 27. If you want to, you can get a head start on Lab 10, which is independent of the topics discussed in class.
Quiz 7 on Reasoning and Inference Available on Tue, Nov. 13
12/11/12 20:29
The quiz will be available all day on Tue, Nov. 13.
No Quiz for Week 8
05/11/12 17:41
There will be no quiz this week since we only started discussing the reasoning topic on Thursday. I’ll adjust the weight of the other quizzes accordingly.
A3 Optional; Deadline Changed to Mon, Nov 28
05/11/12 17:37
I've changed Assignment 3 to be optional. This means that you can submit A1 and A2 only, and each of them counts for 50% of the assignment grade, or you can submit A1, A2, and A3 for 33% each. I'll calculate the maximum of the two, so by submitting A3, you have nothing to lose.
If you’re considering doing A3, let me know so I have an idea of how many students may take part in the competitions.
If you’re considering doing A3, let me know so I have an idea of how many students may take part in the competitions.
Lab 7 Submission Mode
30/10/12 10:51
I’ve modified the Lab 7 entry in PolyLearn to allow electronic submission. Otherwise drop off a printout in the lab. As usual, there's also a Web form associated with it.
A2 Deadlines Moved to Nov. 8, Nov. 15
30/10/12 10:48
Since we’re a little behind with the material, I’ve moved the deadlines for the two parts of A2 to Thu, Nov 8 (Part 1) and Nov. 15 (Part 2).
Quiz 6: Games
29/10/12 15:35
Quiz 6 will be available all day on Tue, Oct. 30, and on Wed, Oct. 31. Since we’re a bit behind and haven’t fully discussed the games chapter, I’m leaving the quiz open a bit longer.
Collected Feedback on Mid-quarter Project Displays
25/10/12 18:17
The feedback collected earlier today during the project displays is now available. I’ve added a PDF file as an attachment to the Wiki page on “Features” or to the entry page if a team uses only a single page. I’ve included the comments and the scores. However, these scores are not very important, and may simply reflect the partial completion of the implementation, which is not unexpected at this time of the quarter. I’m not brading the displays separately, although some information may make its way into the next couple of grades for project parts (“ Features, Requirements and Evaluation Criteria; Design and Implementation”).
Overall I’m fairly happy with the status of the projects, although the Wiki documentations for some are still a bit weak ;-)
Overall I’m fairly happy with the status of the projects, although the Wiki documentations for some are still a bit weak ;-)
480 Feedback on Mid-quarter Project Displays
25/10/12 08:03
The Web form for the feedback is at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHNXbENqUnVydnlHbVgyMlUxTVdxWEE6MA#gid=0 .
Project Documentation
22/10/12 22:04
I’m a bit behind with the evaluation of the project documentation, but I've just completed my initial scoring of Project Difficulty, Relevance, and the Description and Context aspects. The first two are fine, and all projects got 9 or 10 out of 10 (I may revise this if the scope or focus of a project changes significantly). The Project Description and Context, however, are far weaker, with scores from 0 (nothing there) to 8 out of 10. Since I haven’t discussed this in class in detail, the teams will have an opportunity to revise their Wikis, and request a re-grade.
Here are the main parts that I’ll use for the grading of the projects, although for grading purposes I may split them up in smaller pieces:
For your reference, here are a few links to good examples of project documents from previous classes. The expectations are pretty much the same for the AI classes (480, 481, 580), and not that much different for the User-Centered Design and Human-Computer Interaction classes (484, 486).
Here are the main parts that I’ll use for the grading of the projects, although for grading purposes I may split them up in smaller pieces:
- Project Description and Context
- Features, Requirements and Evaluation Criteria
- Design and Implementation
- Experiments, Evaluation, and Conclusions
- Team Contributions and Mutual Team Member Feedback
For your reference, here are a few links to good examples of project documents from previous classes. The expectations are pretty much the same for the AI classes (480, 481, 580), and not that much different for the User-Centered Design and Human-Computer Interaction classes (484, 486).
- CSC 580-W12 Team 4 - Netflix Outage Detection Using Twitter Posts: https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-580-W12-04/wiki. Excellent documentation; this team had a major head start since the class project was part of an overall research project, and several of the team members did related thesis and senior project work.
- CSC 580-W12 Team 5 - Tree Detectives: https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-580-W12-05/wiki. Very good documentation, but everything is on one Wiki page, and somewhat difficult to navigate.
- CSC 481-W12 Team 3 - “Ice Cream Social”: https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-481-W12-03/wiki. Very good documentation.
- CSC 486-S12 Team 1 - Visualization of Mobile Cellular Data Usage: https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-486-S12-01/wiki. Very good documentation, with a slightly different emphasis since the class is about Human-Computer Interaction. No evaluation criteria given.
Project Displays
22/10/12 22:04
For the project team displays on Thursday, we’ll use the lecture and the lab times, unless there’s a backlog of AI Nuggets that we can catch up on. If that’s the case, we’ll do the AI Nuggets first, and then switch over to the project displays.
Your project displays should include the following (see also the “Project Documentation” entry on this “Class News” page):
You should set up your display in such a way that a small group of people standing around your display area is able to read your material. The most common way to achieve this is through poster boards, but you can also use large computer displays for that.
I’m also collecting feedback on other teams. You can either do this individually, or coordinate it within your team. Either way, make sure that your team has at least one person giving feedback for all the other teams. It’s also advisable to keep track of which teams already have visited your display so you don’t take it down before everybody (including myself) has had a chance to look at it.
Your project displays should include the following (see also the “Project Documentation” entry on this “Class News” page):
- Project Description and Context
- Features, Requirements and Evaluation Criteria
- some evidence of system design and implementation, ideally in the form of a prototype.
You should set up your display in such a way that a small group of people standing around your display area is able to read your material. The most common way to achieve this is through poster boards, but you can also use large computer displays for that.
I’m also collecting feedback on other teams. You can either do this individually, or coordinate it within your team. Either way, make sure that your team has at least one person giving feedback for all the other teams. It’s also advisable to keep track of which teams already have visited your display so you don’t take it down before everybody (including myself) has had a chance to look at it.
Lab 4 Grading
22/10/12 22:04
I’ve just completed the grading of the L4 submissions so far. This is one of my favorite labs to grade. It’s my impression that many of the students really get into this, and use the opportunity to apply issues relevant to AI to those entertainment characters. This makes it easy for me to give almost everybody a good grade ;-)
Of course I’m also learning a lot about movies, TV series, and games that I wasn’t aware of. There are the usual suspects that show up a lot (HAL, Sonny, Terminator, Davids from two movies, “Artificial Intelligence” and “Prometheus”, C-3PO and R2-D2, Bender, GladOS, Matrix), but even for those, there’s usually something interesting in the answers.
Right now, I'm essentially the only one getting to enjoy all of the interesting write-ups. I’ve thought about turning this into a more interactive and collaborative version, but didn’t get far enough to actually put it into practice. PolyLearn probably can do a much better job here than Blackboard, but I think it's still a bit limited. I tried out the Semantic Media Wiki that I'm using for the AI Nuggets, but it quickly became too involved for me to do it all by myself.
Here's what I tried to set up: A repository of such characters, with basic descriptions, accompanied buy potential criteria for evaluation purposes. Each student has to submit something that involves at least the following:
If anybody’s looking for an independent study or senior project idea, this might be an interesting one. Since there is some overlap with the chat bot lab, it might also be possible to combine the two, or at least use the same infrastructure. Another option is to use an existing system like Quora or Reddit, and make this available on the Web. This, of course, might be a nightmare from a grading perspective …
Of course I’m also learning a lot about movies, TV series, and games that I wasn’t aware of. There are the usual suspects that show up a lot (HAL, Sonny, Terminator, Davids from two movies, “Artificial Intelligence” and “Prometheus”, C-3PO and R2-D2, Bender, GladOS, Matrix), but even for those, there’s usually something interesting in the answers.
Right now, I'm essentially the only one getting to enjoy all of the interesting write-ups. I’ve thought about turning this into a more interactive and collaborative version, but didn’t get far enough to actually put it into practice. PolyLearn probably can do a much better job here than Blackboard, but I think it's still a bit limited. I tried out the Semantic Media Wiki that I'm using for the AI Nuggets, but it quickly became too involved for me to do it all by myself.
Here's what I tried to set up: A repository of such characters, with basic descriptions, accompanied buy potential criteria for evaluation purposes. Each student has to submit something that involves at least the following:
- one or more characters
- mini-discussions for three or more criteria and how they relate to the selected character(s)
- two or more responses to previous discussions
If anybody’s looking for an independent study or senior project idea, this might be an interesting one. Since there is some overlap with the chat bot lab, it might also be possible to combine the two, or at least use the same infrastructure. Another option is to use an existing system like Quora or Reddit, and make this available on the Web. This, of course, might be a nightmare from a grading perspective …
Revised A1 Description: PolyLearn instead of Blackboard
17/10/12 15:00
The assignment description still contained a few references to Blackboard, which I’ve replaced with those for PolyLearn. In particular, I’ve changed the part for obtaining the environment.
[…]
The emphasis in this assignment lies on the search methods, and not on the programming of the environment. You will use the Bot Environment, a slightly revised version of the environment for this assignment that was also used in previous lab exercises. Alternatively, you can also use the WumpusEnvironment, which will be used again in the second assignment. Both of them are available from PolyLearn under “2 - Intelligent Agents.”
[…]
[…]
The emphasis in this assignment lies on the search methods, and not on the programming of the environment. You will use the Bot Environment, a slightly revised version of the environment for this assignment that was also used in previous lab exercises. Alternatively, you can also use the WumpusEnvironment, which will be used again in the second assignment. Both of them are available from PolyLearn under “2 - Intelligent Agents.”
[…]
Quiz Makeup Opportunity
16/10/12 11:59
If you want to improve your score in a quiz, you can submit alternative questions for the quiz, together with proposed answers.
Here are the guidelines for these questions:
- you need to indicate for which quiz (by week or by topic) the questions are intended
- each question adds up to five points to your quiz score; if I need to revise the question or answers, you may get fewer points
- you can submit several questions, but your overall score for that particular quiz won't be higher than 100 points
- please formulate the questions as plain text format according to one of the three templates below. Multiple-choice are my preferred option, but multiple-answers (where more than one answer is correct), fill-in-the-blank, calculated answers, and several others are also available.
Sample Question Name
This is a template for a multiple choice question. Which of the following options is the correct or most suitable answer?
[ ] Answer 1 [10%] [Why is it incorrect?]
[ ] Answer 2 [30%] [Why is it incorrect?]
[X] Answer 3 [100%] [Why is it correct?]
[ ] Answer 4 [0%] [Why is it incorrect?]
The first line is the question name (a short phrase that is used as identifier for the questions), followed by the actual question.
The next lines contain possible answers, the correct one marked by an X.
The two columns in square brackets indicate the amount of (partial) credit, and feedback to the student for the selected answer.
MC Question name Question text *Correct answer Other answer Other answer Other answer
MC indicates the question type (Multiple Choice in this case), and the correct answer has a * in front. The whole question must be in a single line, and individual parts of the question are separated by TAB characters (which aren’t presented well in some browsers).
To create questions in this format, it may be easiest to use a spreadsheet with a new row for each question, and columns for each question part.
Follow the link to a Web form for this. You’ll have to submit each question separately since the Web form doesn’t do loops.
Here are the guidelines for these questions:
- you need to indicate for which quiz (by week or by topic) the questions are intended
- each question adds up to five points to your quiz score; if I need to revise the question or answers, you may get fewer points
- you can submit several questions, but your overall score for that particular quiz won't be higher than 100 points
- please formulate the questions as plain text format according to one of the three templates below. Multiple-choice are my preferred option, but multiple-answers (where more than one answer is correct), fill-in-the-blank, calculated answers, and several others are also available.
Question Template 1 (Multiple Choice, NL-delimited)
Sample Question Name
This is a template for a multiple choice question. Which of the following options is the correct or most suitable answer?
[ ] Answer 1 [10%] [Why is it incorrect?]
[ ] Answer 2 [30%] [Why is it incorrect?]
[X] Answer 3 [100%] [Why is it correct?]
[ ] Answer 4 [0%] [Why is it incorrect?]
The first line is the question name (a short phrase that is used as identifier for the questions), followed by the actual question.
The next lines contain possible answers, the correct one marked by an X.
The two columns in square brackets indicate the amount of (partial) credit, and feedback to the student for the selected answer.
Question Template 2 (Multiple Choice, TAB-delimited)
MC Question name Question text *Correct answer Other answer Other answer Other answer
MC indicates the question type (Multiple Choice in this case), and the correct answer has a * in front. The whole question must be in a single line, and individual parts of the question are separated by TAB characters (which aren’t presented well in some browsers).
To create questions in this format, it may be easiest to use a spreadsheet with a new row for each question, and columns for each question part.
Question Template 3 (Multiple Choice, Web form)
Follow the link to a Web form for this. You’ll have to submit each question separately since the Web form doesn’t do loops.
Deadlines for A1 and A2
09/10/12 13:12
Since I officially announced the availability of the first assignment only today, I’ve moved the deadline for A1 from Thu, Oct. 18, to Tue, Oct. 23.
When I did this, I also noticed that the deadline for A2 Part 1 wasn’t displayed; it is Thu, Nov. 11.
When I did this, I also noticed that the deadline for A2 Part 1 wasn’t displayed; it is Thu, Nov. 11.
Disappearing AI Nugget Entries
08/10/12 15:44
If your AI Nugget doesn’t show up in the 480-F12 AI Nugget presentations list, there’s a good chance that you inadvertently deleted the field entries, which are hidden behind a green blob at the very beginning of the entry in the “visual” editing mode.
You can edit your entries by clicking on it in the 480-F12 AI Nugget presentations list. It's best to do any simple editing by clicking on "edit with form", not the triangle next to it, which pops up a few options with "Edit" being one of them. If you select "Edit", you'll be in "visual" mode, and you should see a green puzzle piece shape at the very beginning of the entry. Don't delete that - it includes important fields for your entry. You can see those in "source" mode. If you delete them, your entry won’t be shown in the list of presentations.
A list of all pages on the Wiki is at http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/Special:AllPages, and you can also go through http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/Special:WikiActivity, which shows the most recent edits.
You can edit your entries by clicking on it in the 480-F12 AI Nugget presentations list. It's best to do any simple editing by clicking on "edit with form", not the triangle next to it, which pops up a few options with "Edit" being one of them. If you select "Edit", you'll be in "visual" mode, and you should see a green puzzle piece shape at the very beginning of the entry. Don't delete that - it includes important fields for your entry. You can see those in "source" mode. If you delete them, your entry won’t be shown in the list of presentations.
A list of all pages on the Wiki is at http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/Special:AllPages, and you can also go through http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/Special:WikiActivity, which shows the most recent edits.
AI Nugget Wiki Editing Hints
08/10/12 15:44
There are different editing modes for the Wiki we’re using as AI Nugget repository. If you go to your entry through the list at http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/AI_%26_HCI_Presentation_and_Project_Wiki, you’ll see an “Edit with Form” button, and a downward triangle next to it, which takes you to the editing pane, where you can use a tab to toggle between “Source” and “Visual” mode. That triangle also lets you go back to previous versions (“History”), and do things like renaming and deleting entries.
Here are a few observations:
From: http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Edittools
Below are some commonly used wiki markup codes. Simply click on what you want to use and it will appear in the edit box above.
Insert: – — … ° ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Sign your username: ~~~~
Wiki markup: {{}} | [] [[]] [[Category:]] #REDIRECT [[]]
Here are a few observations:
- “Edit with Forms:” Best if you need to make minor changes, such as your presentation title or date. If you’re editing the “Free Text” box, you can use the typical Wiki shortcuts (see also below).
- “Source:” Wiki editing mode; clicking on the “more / +” button in the editing toolbar brings up an overview of the common Wiki shortcuts; I’ve copied them at the bottom of this note). You may need to use this mode if your entry somehow got messed up.
- “Visual:” Allows the use of a toolbar for formatting functions, instead of the Wiki shortcuts. However, do not delete the green blob at the very beginning! It contains the field values for your entry, and if you delete it, your entry won’t appear in the list of presentations. To fix that, you can use the browser’s back button to o to the formatted version of your entry, and from the triangle next to the “Edit” button select “History”. There you can go back to a prior version, and recover the lost field entries.
Common Wiki Shortcuts
From: http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Edittools
Below are some commonly used wiki markup codes. Simply click on what you want to use and it will appear in the edit box above.
Insert: – — … ° ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ± − × ÷ ← → · § Sign your username: ~~~~
Wiki markup: {{}} | [] [[]] [[Category:]] #REDIRECT [[]]
Lab 3 BotEnvironment Questions
07/10/12 17:16
Please post questions about the BotEnvironment on the PolyLearn forum “BotEnvironment Issues”; it’s under “2 - Intelligent Agents” on the course overview page on PolyLearn.
This has several advantages over just sending it to me via email:
- somebody else may have similar issues, and possibly a solution
- you may get an answer faster than from me
- you may get a better answer
- there is a team working on a revision or re-implementation of the environment, and it’s helpful for them to know where the typical problems are
- I’m counting this as evidence towards class participation
I have the subscription mode set to “auto subscription”, which means that everybody in class who doesn’t opt out received a notification of new postings. So posting it there will reach me just as fast as a direct email.
This has several advantages over just sending it to me via email:
- somebody else may have similar issues, and possibly a solution
- you may get an answer faster than from me
- you may get a better answer
- there is a team working on a revision or re-implementation of the environment, and it’s helpful for them to know where the typical problems are
- I’m counting this as evidence towards class participation
I have the subscription mode set to “auto subscription”, which means that everybody in class who doesn’t opt out received a notification of new postings. So posting it there will reach me just as fast as a direct email.
AI Nugget Proposal Grades
05/10/12 15:48
I’ve just completed the grading of the AI Nugget proposals; please check PolyLearn for your score. I will still accept late submissions and revisions, but they may be subject to late penalties. My usual late penalty is 10% per business day.
AI Nugget Presentation Material
04/10/12 11:14
If you have problems uploading or are reluctant to make your content (e.g. presentation slides) available through Semantic Media Wiki at http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/AI_%26_HCI_Presentation_and_Project_Wiki, you can also post material on the PolyLearn “AI Nugget Forum” now. It is under “Course Material and Use of PolyLearn.”
Lab 3 Available
02/10/12 11:07
Lab 2 Grading Process
02/10/12 11:03
The way I’ve set up the grades on PolyLearn requires me to enter a score for all components of Lab 2, including the answers students submitted via a Webform. For this and a few other labs and assignments, I’ll do much of the grading via demos during the lab. To record the scores for the demos, with my current setup I also need to submit scores for the Web form and the README.txt file. In situations where I can’t do this right away, I’ll enter a score of 0 for those components for now, which I’ll change when I grade the Web form submissions.
Lab 2 PolyLearn File Limit Extended
30/09/12 11:46
While I selected “multiple files” for submissions of Lab 2 via PolyLearn, I didn’t realize that the default was set to 3; I extended it to 20. You can also put multiple files into a .zip archive.
Quiz 1 Re-grade and Results
27/09/12 12:33
I re-graded the questions about human vs. artificial intelligence, and gave significantly higher partial credit for those answers that have a healthy degree of truth to them (usually 70-80%). This brought up the average score for these questions in line with the other ones, for a range of 6.86 to 10, and an overall average of 85.34 for all the students who took the quiz.
Lab 1 Deadline Extended to Thu, Sep. 27
26/09/12 14:20
Since I announced the first lab in at least one of the two sections last week on Thursday only, I'm extending the deadline until Thursday, end of the day (23:59).
Lab 2 Submission
26/09/12 12:26
I’ve just enabled the PolyLearn "Lab 2 Submission" link under Chapter 2 “Intelligent Agents”. Please submit the following files for Lab 2 there:
- a plain text file (not a MS Word document) named README.txt with your name, a brief explanation of your program, and instructions for running your program
- the Java source code for your agents
- the Java executable (class file) for your agents
Lab 2: Auto-Step Solution for BotEnvironment
26/09/12 12:25
Here’s a solution for the missing Auto-Step behavior in the environment for Lab2; thanks, Alan!
Author: Alan Phu Truong.
Solution:
Instead of using the following to start your environment in Linux/Mac:
java -classpath .:WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
Use:
java -Xint -classpath .:WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
On Windows, replace the colon with a semicolon:
java -Xint -classpath .;WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
AutoStep seems to work under more circumstances with this flag.
I’ve also added a pointer to additional material on Blackboard (under BotEnvironment JavaDocs, BotEnvironment Tutorial, and BotEnvironment FAQ) to the Lab 2 description.
If you want to be updated about postings to the Blackboard Discussion forum, click on the forum title, and then on the “Subscribe” button at the top. Subscriptions can be enabled or disabled for a specific forum, so not all of them will have the “Subscribe” button.
Author: Alan Phu Truong.
Solution:
Instead of using the following to start your environment in Linux/Mac:
java -classpath .:WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
Use:
java -Xint -classpath .:WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
On Windows, replace the colon with a semicolon:
java -Xint -classpath .;WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
AutoStep seems to work under more circumstances with this flag.
-Xint: Operate in interpreted-only mode. Compilation to native code is disabled, and all bytecodes are executed by the interpreter. The performance benefits offered by the Java HotSpot VMs' adaptive compiler will not be present in this mode.See http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.3/docs/tooldocs/linux/java.html
I’ve also added a pointer to additional material on Blackboard (under BotEnvironment JavaDocs, BotEnvironment Tutorial, and BotEnvironment FAQ) to the Lab 2 description.
If you want to be updated about postings to the Blackboard Discussion forum, click on the forum title, and then on the “Subscribe” button at the top. Subscriptions can be enabled or disabled for a specific forum, so not all of them will have the “Subscribe” button.
TRAC Wiki Login Problems
25/09/12 13:31
Apparently the transition of our CSL servers to the use of current ITS credentials (username/password) isn’t quite complete. The system that hosts the wiki still uses last quarter’s credentials from vogon. So if you have problems logging in, try your old password. If you don’t remember it, or it still doesn’t work, you should see one of our sysadmins.
Quiz 1 - Partial Credit
25/09/12 13:23
It looks like the transition from Blackboard to PolyLearn caused some problems with multiple choice questions and partial credit by setting the percentage values for partial credit to zero. If you suspect that this is the case, let me know.
480 Article Review Opportunity: "Chaotic exploration and learning of locomotion behaviors" Shim Y., Husbands P., in Neural Computation 24(8): 2185-2222,2012
24/09/12 21:18
I have received a request to review an article for the ACM Computing Reviews. It's of moderate interest for me, but if anybody from this class is interested, let me know. This could be the basis for your AI nugget presentation, or use it as extra credit, or for replacing a lab, (partial) assignment or quiz.
F.K.
===================================================================
Review of an already published article for ACM Computing Reviews and ComputingReviews.com (http://www.computingreviews.com)
(This review will be published on the ComputingReviews.com Web site, and is not about acceptance or rejection. It is intended to provide feedback on already published work. )
"Chaotic exploration and learning of locomotion behaviors" Shim Y., Husbands P.
Neural Computation 24(8): 2185-2222,2012
CCS Classification:
Abstract:
We present a general and fully dynamic neural system, which exploits intrinsic chaotic dynamics, for the real-time goal-directed exploration and learning of the possible locomotion patterns of an articulated robot of an arbitrary morphology in an unknown environment. The controller is modeled as a network of neural oscillators that are initially coupled only through physical embodiment, and goal-directed exploration of coordinated motor patterns is achieved by chaotic search using adaptive bifurcation. The phase space of the indirectly coupled neural-body-environment system contains multiple transient or permanent self-organized dynamics, each of which is a candidate for a locomotion behavior. The adaptive bifurcation enables the system orbit to wander through various phase-coordinated states, using its intrinsic chaotic dynamics as a driving force, and stabilizes on to one of the states matching the given goal criteria. In order to improve the sustainability of useful transient patterns, sensory homeostasis has been introduced, which results in an increased diversity of motor outputs, thus achieving multiscale exploration. A rhythmic pattern discovered by this process is memorized and sustained by changing the wiring between initially disconnected oscillators using an adaptive synchronization method. Our results show that the novel neurorobotic system is able to create and learn multiple locomotion behaviors for a wide range of body configurations and physical environments and can readapt in realtime after sustaining damage.
===================================================
Article Review
The article has already been published, and the review is intended for additional feedback; if accepted, the review will appear in the ACM Computing Reviews (deadline is probably around Oct. 18).
My expectations for a review are:
- you read the article (which I will send you); usually I read such articles at least twice
- you will check the Internet for related articles (the ones mentioned in the bibliography section, and possibly others the authors may have omitted); typically I won't read all of those, but I'll look at the abstracts, skim the most relevant ones, and read those that help me understand the one under review
- use your best judgement to evaluate the quality of the article, based on a review form provided by the journal editors
- write a review for people interested in the topic; this one is usually short (about 250 words)
Overall, such a review typically takes me 5-10 hours; count on spending maybe a little more if you're not familiar with the topic. In both cases, I will act as the main reviewer, and reserve the right to use or omit your contributions. I will acknowledge your assistance to the editors. If I use any of your contributions for the ACM Computing Reviews, your name will also be forwarded as a co-author of the review. In that case, you need to sign a copyright release form.
F.K.
===================================================================
Review of an already published article for ACM Computing Reviews and ComputingReviews.com (http://www.computingreviews.com)
(This review will be published on the ComputingReviews.com Web site, and is not about acceptance or rejection. It is intended to provide feedback on already published work. )
"Chaotic exploration and learning of locomotion behaviors" Shim Y., Husbands P.
Neural Computation 24(8): 2185-2222,2012
CCS Classification:
Abstract:
===================================================
Article Review
The article has already been published, and the review is intended for additional feedback; if accepted, the review will appear in the ACM Computing Reviews (deadline is probably around Oct. 18).
My expectations for a review are:
- you read the article (which I will send you); usually I read such articles at least twice
- you will check the Internet for related articles (the ones mentioned in the bibliography section, and possibly others the authors may have omitted); typically I won't read all of those, but I'll look at the abstracts, skim the most relevant ones, and read those that help me understand the one under review
- use your best judgement to evaluate the quality of the article, based on a review form provided by the journal editors
- write a review for people interested in the topic; this one is usually short (about 250 words)
Overall, such a review typically takes me 5-10 hours; count on spending maybe a little more if you're not familiar with the topic. In both cases, I will act as the main reviewer, and reserve the right to use or omit your contributions. I will acknowledge your assistance to the editors. If I use any of your contributions for the ACM Computing Reviews, your name will also be forwarded as a co-author of the review. In that case, you need to sign a copyright release form.
Joining Teams on PolyLearn
24/09/12 19:47
It looks like the method of using “enrollment keys” doesn’t work in PolyLearn; maybe it needs to be set up before students can join the class. The only pointer I could find in the documentation is
“Enrolment keys will cause the user to be automatically added to the group when they enroll in the course using the key.”
I wasn’t able to find instructions for students to join groups, however. I guess then I’ll just have to manually populate the groups. To make this easier for me, please put your team member information on the team TRAC Wiki.
I’ve removed the enrollment keys, and added a leading zero to Teams 1-9 to list them in their intuitive order, rather than Team 1, Team 10, Team 11, …, Team 2, Team 3, ...
“Enrolment keys will cause the user to be automatically added to the group when they enroll in the course using the key.”
I wasn’t able to find instructions for students to join groups, however. I guess then I’ll just have to manually populate the groups. To make this easier for me, please put your team member information on the team TRAC Wiki.
I’ve removed the enrollment keys, and added a leading zero to Teams 1-9 to list them in their intuitive order, rather than Team 1, Team 10, Team 11, …, Team 2, Team 3, ...
480 Teams on PolyLearn
24/09/12 16:06
Using the “groups” feature in PolyLearn, I’ve created entries for 16 teams. Most likely we’ll use them just for grading purposes, but maybe there are other uses for this as well.
To join the group for your team, please use the enrollment key “Team X”, consisting of the word “Team” followed by a space character and your team number without leading zero. So for Team 1, this is “Team 1”.
To join the group for your team, please use the enrollment key “Team X”, consisting of the word “Team” followed by a space character and your team number without leading zero. So for Team 1, this is “Team 1”.
480 Section 03 Merged into Section 01 on PolyLearn
24/09/12 16:04
If you’re in Section 03 of 480, you should now see an entry for 480-01 in your PolyLearn course list. I’ve asked the PolyLearn admins to merge the two sections.
Quiz 1 Availability and Visibility
24/09/12 10:28
Quiz 1 will be available all day on Tue, Sep. 25. In contrast to Blackboard, where quizzes became visible to students only when they can actually take the quiz, PolyLearn seems to show a link on the course overview with more details after the link (e.g., “The quiz will not be available until Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 12:00 AM”). Students who added the class later may not be on the access list for this class in PolyLearn; I believe that this is done overnight, leading to a one-day delay in most cases.
PolyLearn Access and Background Questionnaire
21/09/12 18:28
I’ve enabled PolyLearn access for the CPE-480-01-2128 students (morning section), and requested a merge of the students enrolled in the afternoon section into the same PolyLearn course. This will probably take a few days. If you’ve added the course only recently, you may also not see it yet in your list of courses.
At the moment, there’s not much on PolyLearn anyway; the only item of interest is probably the background questionnaire, Quiz 0. If you have access to the course, please take it so I get a better picture of what I can expect students to know (or remember) from previous courses. You’ll see a score, but it will not be included in the grade calculation. Please let me know if you have problems or notice something unusual. For me, this is also a test case to see if the transition from my Blackboard question pool went without glitches.
At the moment, there’s not much on PolyLearn anyway; the only item of interest is probably the background questionnaire, Quiz 0. If you have access to the course, please take it so I get a better picture of what I can expect students to know (or remember) from previous courses. You’ll see a score, but it will not be included in the grade calculation. Please let me know if you have problems or notice something unusual. For me, this is also a test case to see if the transition from my Blackboard question pool went without glitches.
Project TRAC Wikis Available
20/09/12 14:34
Our sysadmins created a number of TRAC wikis for us, to be used for the team projects. I want you to use them mostly for the project documentation, but you can also use their SVN functionality as a code repository. Once we assign the team numbers, I’ll add one team member to the wiki. This person then can add the rest of the team. If you want to, send me an email with whoever wants to be the first team member, and I’ll add that person.
My strong preference is for all teams to use the TRAC Wiki, at least for the documentation. This is mainly for two reasons: Persistence (documents on your personal Cal Poly Web page, for example, will disappear when you graduate), and consistency, which makes it easier for me to find a particular piece of documentation. If you have a good argument for using something else, I’m open to it, but please discuss it with me first.
For each team wiki, I've created a group "Members" with SVN_READ, SVN_WRITE and TRAC_ADMIN privileges.
To add your team members to the wiki, do the following:
When you create new pages in your wiki, you can select templates from a pull-down menu. Those templates are intended for my courses with team projects, and they contain information on what to put in the respective pages.
If you want to exercise tighter controls, you can also create different groups with restricted privileges, and assign them to those groups.
To access the SVN repository of the TRAC Wiki, add /svn either before or after the name of your wiki in the URL. So for team 11, this would be
https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/svn/CSC-480-F12-11/ or
https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-480-F12-11/svn/
See more information at https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/labs/wiki/WikiGettingStarted, the “Repository Browser” entry of the “Help/Guide” tab on your Wiki(https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-480-F12-11/wiki/TracBrowser), or http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracSubversion for the technical details.
My strong preference is for all teams to use the TRAC Wiki, at least for the documentation. This is mainly for two reasons: Persistence (documents on your personal Cal Poly Web page, for example, will disappear when you graduate), and consistency, which makes it easier for me to find a particular piece of documentation. If you have a good argument for using something else, I’m open to it, but please discuss it with me first.
For each team wiki, I've created a group "Members" with SVN_READ, SVN_WRITE and TRAC_ADMIN privileges.
To add your team members to the wiki, do the following:
- go to the Wiki
- login with your CSC login information (login name, password)
- go the the "Admin" page by clicking on the "Admin" tab , and then "Permissions" in the list on the left.
- enter their login names one by one in the "Add Subject to Group" area to add them to the "Members" group
When you create new pages in your wiki, you can select templates from a pull-down menu. Those templates are intended for my courses with team projects, and they contain information on what to put in the respective pages.
If you want to exercise tighter controls, you can also create different groups with restricted privileges, and assign them to those groups.
To access the SVN repository of the TRAC Wiki, add /svn either before or after the name of your wiki in the URL. So for team 11, this would be
https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/svn/CSC-480-F12-11/ or
https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-480-F12-11/svn/
See more information at https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/labs/wiki/WikiGettingStarted, the “Repository Browser” entry of the “Help/Guide” tab on your Wiki(https://wiki.csc.calpoly.edu/CSC-480-F12-11/wiki/TracBrowser), or http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracSubversion for the technical details.
Lab 1 Available
19/09/12 16:52
The first lab activity is available now. You can choose between three alternatives: An evaluation of chatbots, an exploration of Hunch.com, or an examination of educational modules related to AI.
The first one on chatbots is the most developed one, the other two are somewhat experimental.
Each alternative is worth 10 points for a total of 100 in the labs.
The deadline is Tue of Week 2, end of lab period.
The first one on chatbots is the most developed one, the other two are somewhat experimental.
Each alternative is worth 10 points for a total of 100 in the labs.
The deadline is Tue of Week 2, end of lab period.
AI Nuggets Presentations - Web Page Updated
19/09/12 13:50
I’ve updated the AI Nugget page with the information below, to make it easier to find the signup form and list of scheduled presentations.
If you have a topic for your AI Nugget presentation, you can sign up for it on the Semantic Media Wiki page at the AI KM KB Wiki. To create an entry for your presentation, go to the 480-F12 Nugget Creation Form. You can also view the presentations scheduled so far at
http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/480-F12_Nuggets_Page. At the moment, the page still contains some entries from the 481-W12 quarter. Once I figure out how to use the filter feature of the wiki, they won't be shown …
If you’re looking for topic ideas, try my collection of Web snippets in the AI Nuggets Evernote Notebook. You may also find some ideas in a related notebook, KM Nuggets, with an emphasis on knowledge management.
If you have a topic for your AI Nugget presentation, you can sign up for it on the Semantic Media Wiki page at the AI KM KB Wiki. To create an entry for your presentation, go to the 480-F12 Nugget Creation Form. You can also view the presentations scheduled so far at
http://kurfess.wikia.com/wiki/480-F12_Nuggets_Page. At the moment, the page still contains some entries from the 481-W12 quarter. Once I figure out how to use the filter feature of the wiki, they won't be shown …
If you’re looking for topic ideas, try my collection of Web snippets in the AI Nuggets Evernote Notebook. You may also find some ideas in a related notebook, KM Nuggets, with an emphasis on knowledge management.
Project Topic Suggestions
19/09/12 13:49
The documentation for the term project is available; in addition to the page with project topic ideas, you can find information on possible project topics at the Wikia Semantic Media Wiki under 480-F12 Project Proposal Listing.
Grading of Programming Labs and Assignments
11/09/12 16:41
Most likely I won’t have a grader this quarter, so I'll try to do most of the grading of the programming labs and assignments during the labs. If time permits, I'll start on Tuesday, and I'll have a quick look at your implementation. To make this go smoothly, it is helpful if you have your program running and the README file visible. To be efficient, please open multiple instances of the BotEnvironment with the different agents so you can easily switch from one part to the next.
Slides Week 1 Available
11/09/12 16:35
You can download the slides for Week 1 now, either through the schedule by clicking on the link for the topic, or by going to the directory http://users.csc.calpoly.edu/~fkurfess/Courses/480/F11/Slides/. The latter is preferable if you want the Keynote version instead of a .ppt file.
You can also find last year’s version of the slides for the upcoming chapters. Most likely I’ll make minor changes before I use them in class, but the overall arrangement for a chapter will not change too much.
You can also find last year’s version of the slides for the upcoming chapters. Most likely I’ll make minor changes before I use them in class, but the overall arrangement for a chapter will not change too much.
Class News as RSS Feed
11/09/12 16:35
If you want to, you can follow theses class updates through an RSS feed. Since this is unlikely to be of interest to anybody outside this class, I’m not planning on making it available through one of the popular RSS channels. Let me know if you think that there would be any benefits in doing so.
Welcome to CSC 480-F12!
11/09/12 16:33
I’ll use this page for updates on the CSC/CPE 480 class in F12. There are two sections, 480-01 and 480-03, and unless specifically indicated, all entries here refer to both sections.