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CSC 580
Intelligent Agents
Winter 2004
CSC 580 Intelligent Agents
Syllabus
General Information
Course Description
This course explores the topic of intelligent agents.
It discusses the differences between agents and conventional
computer programs, investigates different types of agent architectures,
and examines various important aspects and applications of
intelligent agents in more detail.
Prerequisites:
CPE/CSC 481 (Knowledge-Based Systems) and graduate standing,
or consent of the instructor. CPE/CSC 481 can be taken
concurrently with this course.
Students should be familiar with programming at a level
consistent with CSC 345. Knowledge of Java is expected
for homework assignments and term projects.
The goal of the course is to understand important problems, challenges,
concepts and techniques dealing with the use of intelligent agents
for computational tasks.
Upon satisfactory completion of this course, the student will:
Understand the fundamental concepts in the study
intelligent agents.
Be familiar with the basic concepts, methods, techniques, and tools
for the use of intelligent agents in computer-based systems.
Understand the components and functions of intelligent agents.
Apply the principles and methods of intelligent agents to
a small-scale practical problem within the framework
of a term project.
Be prepared for further study in the design, implementation,
and application of agent-based systems.
Critically evaluate current trends in intelligent agents
and their manifestation in business and industry.
In order to achieve these goals, students learn how to analyse, design, implement
and evaluate intelligent agent programs and systems of varying complexities.
The core aspect of these systems is to offer support to human users,
in particular with relatively tedious or possibly dangerous tasks
that are difficult or impossible to solve with conventional technology.
Textbooks
To the best of my knowledge, there are no suitable textbooks
available for this course. Most of the books and articles
on "intelligent agents" are research monographs, or
collections of research papers.
Textbooks on Knowledge-based Systems
and Artificial Intelligence mostly concentrate on
questions related to the representation and manipulation of knowledge
through computers and various techniques used for that purpose,
but not so much on aspects that distinguish intelligent agents from
traditional artificial intelligence approaches.
The following books contain some interesting chapters, and may
be suitable for specific topics:
The table gives an overview of the calculation
of the grades. I reserve the right, however, to change
the formula used. Please note that the project consists
of several parts which will be evaluated separately. The project
will also be done in teams, and the performance of the team
as a whole will be graded unless there is a clear disparity
in the contribution of the individual team members.
Should this be the case, I might ask for additional
documentation like work sheets, email messages,
or draft copies of documentation to evaluate
individual contributions.
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