480
Quiz 11 Available
06/12/11 12:39
This is the last quiz for the 480-F10 class. It is optional, and intended as a make-up opportunity in case you performed less than optimal during one of the earlier ones. The quiz is be available until Thu, Dec. 8, 7:00 pm, and has a time limit of one hour. As with the other quizzes, you may consult the textbook, lecture notes or other relevant material, but not other students or human agents. The use of computer-based agents for help with the answers is only permitted if you developed those agents yourself.
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Various Feedback Forms Available
28/11/11 22:01
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.
Final Exam/Quiz
21/11/11 18:02
We discussed the final exam/quiz issue in class a few times, but here’s the gist of it:
Since there should be some final exam activity during finals week, we’ll do a final quiz, which you can use to replace the score on another quiz you may have missed or not done so well in. So in total, there will be nine quizzes, and only the eight highest scores will be counted. This quiz will be cumulative, covering all the topics discussed throughout the quarter. If you’re not happy with your quiz score, you can also submit additional quiz questions; for details, see the earlier entry on Quiz Makeup Opportunity (Oct. 10, Tag “Quiz”).
The final exam time slots are Thu, Dec. 8, 7:10 - 10:00 AM for 480-01 and Thu, Dec. 8, 4:10 - 7:00 PM for 480-03. My plan is to make the quiz available from the beginning of the first slot until the end of the second slot, so from 7:10 AM until 7:00 PM. You don’t need to be on campus to take the quiz, all you need is access to Blackboard. The modus is the same as for the other quizzes: Notes, books, Web lookup is allowed, but collaboration with others and calculation of answers by computer programs are not.
Since there should be some final exam activity during finals week, we’ll do a final quiz, which you can use to replace the score on another quiz you may have missed or not done so well in. So in total, there will be nine quizzes, and only the eight highest scores will be counted. This quiz will be cumulative, covering all the topics discussed throughout the quarter. If you’re not happy with your quiz score, you can also submit additional quiz questions; for details, see the earlier entry on Quiz Makeup Opportunity (Oct. 10, Tag “Quiz”).
The final exam time slots are Thu, Dec. 8, 7:10 - 10:00 AM for 480-01 and Thu, Dec. 8, 4:10 - 7:00 PM for 480-03. My plan is to make the quiz available from the beginning of the first slot until the end of the second slot, so from 7:10 AM until 7:00 PM. You don’t need to be on campus to take the quiz, all you need is access to Blackboard. The modus is the same as for the other quizzes: Notes, books, Web lookup is allowed, but collaboration with others and calculation of answers by computer programs are not.
Quiz Week 10
18/11/11 17:51
The quiz for week 10 will be available on Blackboard all day on Tue, Nov. 22. You can take it from anywhere - no need to be in the lab. There is a time limit of one hour.
The topic is learning.
The topic is learning.
A2 and other Grades on Blackboard
18/11/11 17:45
The grades for A2 for those of you who demonstrated their Wumpus agent to me are now available on Blackboard. There are a few cases where I still need to grade the first part, especially if it was submitted late. I still need to grade Lab 8, and the project Week 8 milestone documents.
Lab 9 Available: Decision Tree Learning
15/11/11 09:52
The lab for this week is available. Since we haven’t’ discussed the topic “Learning” yet, I’m moving the deadline to Tue, Nov. 22, end of the day.
A3 Optional; Deadline Changed to Mon, Nov 28
14/11/11 17:09
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.
I'm also changing the deadline for A3 to midnight, Mon, Nov. 28. This way we can have the competition during the lecture or lab period on Tue, Nov. 29, time permitting.
I'm also changing the deadline for A3 to midnight, Mon, Nov. 28. This way we can have the competition during the lecture or lab period on Tue, Nov. 29, time permitting.
Please Re-submit A2 on Blackboard
14/11/11 16:47
Apparently I had an unintended naming conflict between my spreadsheet and Blackboard, which caused all of the A2 submission to be overwritten when I uploaded the grades for part 1 of the assignment.
Please re-submit your assignment under “A2 Resubmit” on Blackboard. Unfortunately there is no way to recover the already submitted material, according to the Blackboard admins.
Please re-submit your assignment under “A2 Resubmit” on Blackboard. Unfortunately there is no way to recover the already submitted material, according to the Blackboard admins.
Updated Grades on Blackboard
09/11/11 20:38
I’ve updated Blackboard with the scores for the following items
* Labs L1 through L7
I just noticed that some of you submitted non-programming labs via Blackboard; I still have to evaluate those.
* Assignments A1 and A2
If you have a score of around 10 for A2, it is only for the first part.
The scores reflect only the programs shown in the lab. I haven’t graded the rest yet.
I changed the maximum score on Blackboard from 33 to 25.
* Project Week 4 and 6 Milestones
I believe this includes all requests for re-evaluation. Let me know if you’ve asked for one, but your score hasn’t changed.
* AI Nugget presentations
I believe I’ve graded all the presentations given so far.
If you’ve given your presentation, but your score is around 60, you probably haven’t submitted your presentation material (slides, Prezi) on the Blackboard Wiki.
* Labs L1 through L7
I just noticed that some of you submitted non-programming labs via Blackboard; I still have to evaluate those.
* Assignments A1 and A2
If you have a score of around 10 for A2, it is only for the first part.
The scores reflect only the programs shown in the lab. I haven’t graded the rest yet.
I changed the maximum score on Blackboard from 33 to 25.
* Project Week 4 and 6 Milestones
I believe this includes all requests for re-evaluation. Let me know if you’ve asked for one, but your score hasn’t changed.
* AI Nugget presentations
I believe I’ve graded all the presentations given so far.
If you’ve given your presentation, but your score is around 60, you probably haven’t submitted your presentation material (slides, Prezi) on the Blackboard Wiki.
Lab Week 8 Available: Agents and Reasoning
07/11/11 14:05
Quiz Week 7
31/10/11 21:12
The quiz for this week will be available on Tuesday from 9:30 to 11:00 for the first section, and from 4:30 - 6:00 pm for the afternoon section.
It will cover “Games”; see the schedule for mappings to the text book and the slides.
It will cover “Games”; see the schedule for mappings to the text book and the slides.
A2 Deadline pushed back to Tue, Nov. 9
31/10/11 21:10
Since we're about a week behind with the lecture schedule, there's only a very short time for you to do the Wumpus World assignment after we discussed the respective material in class. So I'm pushing back the deadline for A2 from Thu, Nov. 3, to Thu, Nov. 10, end of the day.
Milestone Week 6 Feedback
31/10/11 21:09
The feedback for the Week 6 Milestone documents is now on the TRAC wikis for the respective projects. The scope, as with the previous ones, ranges from non-existent to excellent. You can revise your document, but you need to let me know if you’ve made changes relevant to this milestone, and would like a re-evaluation.
Milestone Week 4 Feedback
31/10/11 21:08
I’ve posted the feedback for the Week 4 Milestone documents on the TRAC wikis for the respective projects. As with the previous one, quite a few teams have significant gaps in their documentation, and received a low score. You can revise your document, but you need to let me know if you’ve made changes relevant to this milestone, and would like me to re-evaluate the document.
Week 6 - Beta Prototype Demos
26/10/11 16:27
During the lab on Thursday this week and Tuesday next week, I’d like to see demonstrations of your team’s beta prototype. If you want to, you can put together a brief presentation and do it in front of the whole class; otherwise I’ll visit the teams and go over their demo with them.
Lab Week 7 Available: Hexagonal Wumpus World Exploration
26/10/11 16:17
Feedback on Team Work
26/10/11 16:15
Around the midpoint of the quarter, I’d like to check if all the teams are doing well in terms of collaboration and work distribution. Please go to the Team Feedback form for this.
The mid-quarter version mostly helps me to determine if there are problems with teams. We’ll do another one at the end of the quarter, and the collective feedback from that one will also affect your team score, albeit to a moderate degree (most students usually get scores around 16-18 out of 20 for this).
The mid-quarter version mostly helps me to determine if there are problems with teams. We’ll do another one at the end of the quarter, and the collective feedback from that one will also affect your team score, albeit to a moderate degree (most students usually get scores around 16-18 out of 20 for this).
Quiz Week 6 on Tue, Oct. 25
24/10/11 14:55
We will have the usual quiz on Tue this week, on the topic “Local Search and Constraint Satisfaction.” As usual, it will be available from 9:30 - 11:00 for the morning section, and 4:30 - 6:00 in the afternoon, with a 1 hour time limit.
Clarification of Milestone Due Dates and Peer Team Evaluations
24/10/11 14:29
I’ve labeled the milestones by the week when they are due, and I expect them to be completed by the end of the day on Thursday of that week. So Milestone Week 6 is due this week, on Thursday, by 23:59:59. If your team is a few days behind, you can request an extension for the milestone, which I usually grant. The extension is usually over the weekend, and needs to be requested via email.
The evaluation process involves at a minimum the review of the documentation produced by the development team. If possible, the evaluation team should download and install prototypes and try out the system, preferably on the basis of the evaluation plan put together by the development team in Milestone Week 4. At the discretion of the evaluation team, they can also meet with the development team to discuss the project, or to see the current status of the system under development. This is especially advisable if the prototype or final system requires special software or hardware not available to the development team
The evaluation is due one week after the respective milestone. However, I won’t penalize the evaluation team if the development team delivers the milestone late. So as of today (Mon, Week 6) you should have the evaluation of Milestone Week 4 completed.
The evaluation process involves at a minimum the review of the documentation produced by the development team. If possible, the evaluation team should download and install prototypes and try out the system, preferably on the basis of the evaluation plan put together by the development team in Milestone Week 4. At the discretion of the evaluation team, they can also meet with the development team to discuss the project, or to see the current status of the system under development. This is especially advisable if the prototype or final system requires special software or hardware not available to the development team
The evaluation is due one week after the respective milestone. However, I won’t penalize the evaluation team if the development team delivers the milestone late. So as of today (Mon, Week 6) you should have the evaluation of Milestone Week 4 completed.
Lab Week 6 Available
24/10/11 14:27
I just published the lab for this week. I changed the topic from “local search methods” to “Games and AI”.
Evaluation Teams Assigned
19/10/11 20:41
I’ve completed the assignment of an evaluation team for each project. Go to the page with the project teams, look for your team number in the column on the right, and then do the evaluation of the team that is listed on the left. If you want to, you can use the template that I’m using for the milestone evaluations, but you can also select your own scheme.
For me, there are two important aspects to this peer evaluation: First, I’d like to have an extra set of eyes take a look at the project under evaluation. Second, I want the team under evaluation to get additional feedback from someone doing similar work, even if the nature and domain of their project is different.
Put the evaluation on the wiki for your own project by creating a new Wiki page called “Evaluations”. An easy way to do this is to put a link to the new page on one of the existing pages via
For me, there are two important aspects to this peer evaluation: First, I’d like to have an extra set of eyes take a look at the project under evaluation. Second, I want the team under evaluation to get additional feedback from someone doing similar work, even if the nature and domain of their project is different.
Put the evaluation on the wiki for your own project by creating a new Wiki page called “Evaluations”. An easy way to do this is to put a link to the new page on one of the existing pages via
[wiki:Evaluations Evaluations]. From there, you can link to the individual evaluations of the milestones. The deadline for the evaluations is one week after the milestones are due. However, evaluation teams won’t be penalized if documents by the development team are not made available on time. Grades Updated on Blackboard
19/10/11 20:31
I’ve uploaded the following grades on Blackboard:
- Project Week 2 and 4 Milestones,
- partial AI Nugget grades (proposal, presentation, presentation material)
- Labs 2 and 3,
- modified Quiz 5 scores (I added 10 points to everybody’s score to adjust for the missing question) .
I may be a bit behind with grading of the Week 4 milestone and presentation material, but I wanted to get the grades up before going on my trip tomorrow.
If you see a 0 as a score, it usually means that I haven’t graded that part yet. When I transfer grades from my spreadsheet to Blackboard, Blackboard replaces cells that have no values with zeroes.
- Project Week 2 and 4 Milestones,
- partial AI Nugget grades (proposal, presentation, presentation material)
- Labs 2 and 3,
- modified Quiz 5 scores (I added 10 points to everybody’s score to adjust for the missing question) .
I may be a bit behind with grading of the Week 4 milestone and presentation material, but I wanted to get the grades up before going on my trip tomorrow.
If you see a 0 as a score, it usually means that I haven’t graded that part yet. When I transfer grades from my spreadsheet to Blackboard, Blackboard replaces cells that have no values with zeroes.
Quiz Makeup Opportunity
10/10/11 17:34
If you're unhappy about your score in a quiz, you can increase it buy submitting 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 overall quiz score; if I need to revise the question or answers, you may get fewer points
- you can submit several questions, but your overall quiz score won't be higher than 100 points
- please formulate the questions as plain text format according to the template 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. I've tried free-form text answers as well, but grading those in Blackboard is really tedious - far worse than the paper equivalent.
Question Template:
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 two columns in square brackets indicate the amount of (partial) credit, and feedback to the student for the selected answer.
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 overall quiz score; if I need to revise the question or answers, you may get fewer points
- you can submit several questions, but your overall quiz score won't be higher than 100 points
- please formulate the questions as plain text format according to the template 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. I've tried free-form text answers as well, but grading those in Blackboard is really tedious - far worse than the paper equivalent.
Question Template:
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 two columns in square brackets indicate the amount of (partial) credit, and feedback to the student for the selected answer.
Quiz Week 4
10/10/11 17:32
The quiz for this week will be available on Tuesday from 9:30 to 11 for the first section, and from 4:30 - 6 pm for the afternoon section.
It will cover “Uninformed Search Methods,” the material for Week 3; see the schedule for mappings to the text book and the slides.
It will cover “Uninformed Search Methods,” the material for Week 3; see the schedule for mappings to the text book and the slides.
Milestone Week 2 Feedback Posted
07/10/11 18:14
I’ve posted the feedback for the Week 2 Milestone documents on the TRAC wikis for the respective projects. I’ve added a PDF file as an attachment to the Milestone Week 2 document (or whichever document contains the respective information). Most teams should revise their documents.
Let me know if you want me to re-evaluate your document, and point out the main changes you’ve made. Of course we can also discuss this during the lab time.
Let me know if you want me to re-evaluate your document, and point out the main changes you’ve made. Of course we can also discuss this during the lab time.
Lab 4 Available
06/10/11 14:19
Lab 4 (AI Characters in movies or TV) is now available. After the more coding-intensive work on Lab 3, this one is more along the lines of the Chatbot assignment from the first week.
A 1 Available
06/10/11 14:12
I’ve made the first assignment available; it is a continuation of the lab with the search algorithms, expanding it to the uniform-cost, greedy, and A* algorithms.
A 3 Available
06/10/11 14:12
Although it’s not due for a while, I’ve also published the description of the third assignment. The assignment offers several options, including competitions (Robocode, Prisoner’s Dilemma, investigation of alternative environments). If you want to design an agent that does well in a competition, it is advisable to start development early. But especially with Robocode, there is also a danger of getting carried away, and I recommend to keep in mind the ratio between the effort you invest and the benefits you may get from it.
Quiz Week 3
02/10/11 19:20
The Week 3 quiz will be available on Tuesday from 9:30 to 11:00 for the first section, and from 4:30 - 6:00 pm for the afternoon section.
It will cover “Intelligent Agents,” the material for Week 2; see the schedule for mappings to the text book and the slides.
It will cover “Intelligent Agents,” the material for Week 2; see the schedule for mappings to the text book and the slides.
Project Template Available on your Team Wiki
02/10/11 19:06
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.
Lab 2: Auto-Step Solution for BotEnvironment
27/09/11 10:39
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:
java -classpath .:WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
Use:
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:
java -classpath .:WumpusEnvironment.jar BotEnvironment.WumpusEnvironment
Use:
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.
Slides Week 1 Available
08/09/11 12:14
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 other 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.
Blackboard Access Set Up
08/09/11 12:14
Blackboard should be available now to most of the 480 students. It’s usually about a day behind with enrollment information, so if you’ve added this class only today, your name may not be on Blackboard’s class roster.
We'll use it mostly for the following:
* Submission of assignments (there's a menu entry "Assignment Submission") and possibly some of the labs,
* AI Nugget presentation (under “AI Wiki”). If you already have a topic, pick a date, and enter your name and topic in the table with the presentation schedule. You'll also add a Wiki page there with your topic proposal, and later the draft and final versions of your presentation material.
* Grades; I’m keeping the grades in a spreadsheet (after losing all the grades in a Blackboard mishap a few years ago, I’ve learned my lesson), but I’m copying them to Blackboard on a regular basis.
Please note that the Wiki and the Discussion Board are part of a different, permanent course ( CSC-0480 ALL RELATED COURSES (CSC-0480-FKURFESS)), and linked to the 480 menu entry. I’ve copied the enrollment to that course, so it will appear in your list of Blackboard courses as well.
Those of you who have added the course later may encounter broken link or access permission problems. If those persist for more than a day, let me know, and I’ll check into it.
Depending on how you navigate, you may also see the menu for that course, which has a darker shade of green as background, and different entries in the list of options on the left.
We'll use it mostly for the following:
* Submission of assignments (there's a menu entry "Assignment Submission") and possibly some of the labs,
* AI Nugget presentation (under “AI Wiki”). If you already have a topic, pick a date, and enter your name and topic in the table with the presentation schedule. You'll also add a Wiki page there with your topic proposal, and later the draft and final versions of your presentation material.
* Grades; I’m keeping the grades in a spreadsheet (after losing all the grades in a Blackboard mishap a few years ago, I’ve learned my lesson), but I’m copying them to Blackboard on a regular basis.
Please note that the Wiki and the Discussion Board are part of a different, permanent course ( CSC-0480 ALL RELATED COURSES (CSC-0480-FKURFESS)), and linked to the 480 menu entry. I’ve copied the enrollment to that course, so it will appear in your list of Blackboard courses as well.
Those of you who have added the course later may encounter broken link or access permission problems. If those persist for more than a day, let me know, and I’ll check into it.
Depending on how you navigate, you may also see the menu for that course, which has a darker shade of green as background, and different entries in the list of options on the left.
AI Nuggets Presentations
08/09/11 12:14
If you have a topic for your AI Nugget presentation, you can sign up for it on Blackboard. Go to the “AI Wiki”, and follow the link to the presentation schedule for your section. Instructions are on the Wiki. I will publish the Web pages with more information on the AI Nuggets task soon. 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.
Class News as RSS Feed
08/09/11 12:14
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.
Consolidated Links to Feedback Forms
03/12/10 10:11
I’ve put all the links to the feedback forms for the end of the quarter on one Class Feedback page