More Lecture Notes posted
12/03/11 17:49
I’ve posted lecture notes for the two topics we didn’t discuss at length in class, “Semantic Web” and “Case Studies”. They are the same as last year, and available for your information; no questions about these topics will be on any of the quizzes.
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Class Feedback
11/03/11 10:59
Please use the Web form at https://spreadsheets1.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGR4NTJ0bl92TnF2bUJmWU5zdzdtdnc6MA for feedback on course content, lectures, tools like Blackboard and TRAC Wiki, and a few more aspects.
Class Participation
08/03/11 16:18
Since class participation contributes to the overall grade, and I’m not keeping explicit attendance, I’m using a Web form at https://spreadsheets2.google.com/viewform?formkey=dC1HR0RaTzlXa01NcjZWbGMwcFNlQXc6MA to give you an opportunity to remind me of your contributions to class.
Team Member Feedback
08/03/11 16:05
Similar to what we did a few weeks ago, I’m using a Web form at https://spreadsheets1.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGtVSkZMUXZfWnRldTZ0UVBkakZlNVE6MA to collect feedback on the collaboration and work distribution in your team. This time, however, the feedback will be taken into account for the grade on the project part of the class; it contributes 20% of the project grade. I normally take the average of the scores submitted by the team members (including your self-evaluation), although I reserve the right to adjust this if I have evidence that the score does not reflect the actual performance of the team member.
Final Project Presentations Feedback
08/03/11 16:00
Please use the Web form at https://spreadsheets0.google.com/viewform?formkey=dHNiTDhfZHczTHowRklfQmJXX2p4R2c6MA for feedback on the final project presentations
Project Final Presentation Dates
03/03/11 17:02
I’ve added the dates for the final project presentations to the table with the teams and topics.
Blackboard MyGrades Cleanup
24/02/11 22:15
Until someone pointed it out to me in class today, I didn’t realize that there were quite a few leftover grade columns visible in the students “My Grades” view. I had hidden those long ago in the instructors view, and had no idea that they were still there from the students’ view. So hopefully it’s easier to see now where you are in class.
A3 Due Date Extended until Tue, Mar 1
24/02/11 21:56
As I mentioned in class, the deadline for A3 is extended until Tue, Mar. 1, end of the day. Also, if you encounter problems with Protege/Jess, take Emily up on her offer to send her problematic files to test.
Quiz 6 Available Thu 4:30 - 11:55 pm
23/02/11 21:25
This week’s quiz on knowledge exchange will be available on Thursday, Feb. 24 from 4:30 until 11:55 pm, with the usual one-hour time limit.
Grades on Blackboard Updated
23/02/11 15:08
I’ve updated the grades on Blackboard, and they now contain the KB Nugget scores for those of you who have already done their presentations. If you did your presentation on Jan 20 or earlier, you can add 10% to that score; for Jan 25, add 5%; there’s no easy way to do this in Blackboard that I’m aware of, but I have it in my grading spreadsheet.
Also available are the A2 scores. I’m still working on the project documentation scores.
Also available are the A2 scores. I’m still working on the project documentation scores.
581-W11 - Project Theme, Permission Numbers
19/02/11 19:11
If you're interested in taking 581 next quarter, and don't have the prerequisite listed in PASS, send me an email. I'll forward it to Christy Zolla from our department office, and she'll send you a permission number.
For a preview of the format and content, check out last year's 581 class.
The class again incorporates elements of 486 (Human-Computer Interaction) since I'm on a reduced teaching schedule for next quarter.
There's also a good chance that we will use a common theme for the class projects, based on an idea by Anna Gold from Cal Poly's library to extend the Science Cafe towards an online marketplace for events, ideas, projects, etc. I'm also in contact with several people from industry (mostly Cal Poly alums) to get involved with this. Individual teams would still be able to select their own projects, but the projects would have to fit into the overall theme.
For a preview of the format and content, check out last year's 581 class.
The class again incorporates elements of 486 (Human-Computer Interaction) since I'm on a reduced teaching schedule for next quarter.
There's also a good chance that we will use a common theme for the class projects, based on an idea by Anna Gold from Cal Poly's library to extend the Science Cafe towards an online marketplace for events, ideas, projects, etc. I'm also in contact with several people from industry (mostly Cal Poly alums) to get involved with this. Individual teams would still be able to select their own projects, but the projects would have to fit into the overall theme.
Quiz 5 Available Thu 4:30 - 11:55 pm
16/02/11 17:26
This week’s quiz, Quiz 5, will be available on Thursday, Feb. 17, at the usual time from 4:30 until 11:55 pm, with the usual one-hour time limit. The topics will be Dempster-Shafer theory, approximate reasoning, and fuzzy logic.
Mid-quarter Team Member Feedback
15/02/11 13:17
Please give me some feedback on how the work on your team is going, including the performance of the team members. We’ll do the same thing again at the end, and then your answers will contribute to the score for the project. The main purpose of this one is to alert me about discrepancies within teams, such as imbalanced work loads, or members not contributing their share.
Missing A2 Link for Quiz/Feedback Added
10/02/11 12:28
At the end of A2 (ontology assignment), I’ve added the missing link to the quiz and feedback questionnaire.
Quiz Makeup Questions
08/02/11 22:35
I just realized that there’s no information on the policy about make-up questions for the quizzes that I’ve mentioned in class.
Here are the guidelines for these questions:
- each question adds up to five points to your exam score; if I need to revise the question or answers, you may get fewer points
- you can submit several questions for each quiz, 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 [Partial Credit: 10%] [Feedback: Why is it incorrect?]
[ ] Answer 2 [Partial Credit: 30%] [Feedback: Why is it incorrect?]
[X] Answer 3 [Feedback: Why is it correct?]
[ ] Answer 4 [Partial Credit: 0%] [Feedback: Why is it incorrect?]
Here are the guidelines for these questions:
- each question adds up to five points to your exam score; if I need to revise the question or answers, you may get fewer points
- you can submit several questions for each quiz, 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 [Partial Credit: 10%] [Feedback: Why is it incorrect?]
[ ] Answer 2 [Partial Credit: 30%] [Feedback: Why is it incorrect?]
[X] Answer 3 [Feedback: Why is it correct?]
[ ] Answer 4 [Partial Credit: 0%] [Feedback: Why is it incorrect?]
Mid-quarter Project Presentation Feedback
08/02/11 16:41
Cal Poly Ignite Conflict on Thu, Feb 3
02/02/11 17:16
There will be a conflict between the second part of our class on thursday, and the Cal Poly Ignite event. To minimize this, we’ll do the lecture part first, and the lab part second. If everybody decides to go to the Ignite event, we can also push back the mid-quarter project review by the one team that considered doing it tomorrow.
Slides Chapters 4 and 5 Revised
31/01/11 23:43
I’ve moved some of the slides from 4-Reasoning.ppt to 5-Rule-Based-Reasoning.ppt. The latter also contains an overview of the basic CLIPS/JESS aspects.
Hopefully this will also resolve the problems with the formatting that some students had.
Hopefully this will also resolve the problems with the formatting that some students had.
Mid-Quarter Project Review
31/01/11 17:08
The mid-quarter project review is scheduled for this week, and the target date for the beta prototype is next week. Next week Thursday is also the deadline for the second assignment (ontology).
For the project review, we can do conventional presentations, or displays with storyboards; either is fine with me. We can do the review on Thu, Feb. 3, or Tue, Feb. 8 during the lab time.
For the project review, we can do conventional presentations, or displays with storyboards; either is fine with me. We can do the review on Thu, Feb. 3, or Tue, Feb. 8 during the lab time.
Slides as PDF files
27/01/11 17:52
Starting with the slides for chapter 3, I’ve switched to a different scheme (white background instead of blue). This seems to cause problems with PowerPoint, so as a short-term fix I’m also putting PDF versions on the Web page. You can eiter copy and past the link to the .ppt file from the schedule and replace .ppt with .pdf, or go to the directory that contains the slides directly.
Deadline A1: Concept Maps Close
26/01/11 21:43
Quiz 2 Available on Jan 27, 4:30 -11:55
26/01/11 21:35
The second quiz will be available on Thursday from 4:30 until 11:55 pm. The topic is Knowledge Organization.
Scores Project Week 2 on Blackboard
25/01/11 12:50
I’ve uploaded the scores for the project Week 2 evaluations on Blackboard. I’ll discuss them with the teams in the lab today.
A2: Ontology now available
23/01/11 20:48
Research Paper instead of Quizzes
19/01/11 17:49
For those of you who prefer to do a research paper, please follow the instructions from last year’s 581 class. The formatting instructions can also be obtained from the International Joint Conference in Artificial Intelligence IJCAI 2011 site (instead of IJCAI 2009, as indicated in the 581 class). This might be especially interesting for those of you working on a thesis, and intending to submit the paper for publication. If you’re looking for a potential venue, there are about 30 workshops at IJCAI 2011, with deadlines typically in March or April. The conference will be July 16-22 in Barcelona, Spain, and it is the premier conference in AI. An alternative is the Twenty-Fifth Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-11) from August 7-11 in San Francisco. The deadline is Feb 3 for abstracts and Feb 8 for papers for the main conference, so this is a bit tight. Then there is a Student Abstract and Paper program, with a Feb 15 deadline. This student program is actually a great opportunity to get a chance to participate in such a conference. There are also workshops (there is no list available yet), with an April 22 deadline.
Quiz 1 Available on Jan 20
19/01/11 17:47
The first quiz will be available from 4:30 until 11:55 on Thu, Jan 20, with a 1 hour time limit.
The topics will be Chapters 1 and 2 (KBS Intro, Knowledge Representation).
The topics will be Chapters 1 and 2 (KBS Intro, Knowledge Representation).
Blackboard Available: KB Nugget Signup, Survey
14/01/11 13:06
Blackboard is now available for the 481 course. We will use it for the following:
- scheduling and repository for KB Nugget presentations (see AI-KB-Wiki on Blackboard),
- assignment submission,
- quizzes,
- possibly some course materials that I can’t put on my public course Web site.
Please take the survey under “Surveys and Quizzes”. It is not graded; I use it to get a better impression about the background of the students, and also to get you familiarized with the way the quizzes will be done.
If you’ve already selected a topic for your KB Nugget presentation, you can sign up on Blackboard. Throughout next week (Week 3), those students with topics selected will be able to sign up; if you haven’t made up your mind yet, you’ll have to wait until Week 4.
- scheduling and repository for KB Nugget presentations (see AI-KB-Wiki on Blackboard),
- assignment submission,
- quizzes,
- possibly some course materials that I can’t put on my public course Web site.
Please take the survey under “Surveys and Quizzes”. It is not graded; I use it to get a better impression about the background of the students, and also to get you familiarized with the way the quizzes will be done.
If you’ve already selected a topic for your KB Nugget presentation, you can sign up on Blackboard. Throughout next week (Week 3), those students with topics selected will be able to sign up; if you haven’t made up your mind yet, you’ll have to wait until Week 4.
Assignment Distribution and Due Dates added to the Schedule
13/01/11 12:33
I’ve added the distribution and due dates for the assignments, and shifted the target date for the Week 8 milestone to Week 9; Week 8 has a Tue with a Monday schedule, and keeping the milestone date in that week would have resulted in the same due date for the milestone and an assignment.
A1: Concept Map Available
13/01/11 12:20
Project Description and TRAC Wikis Available
11/01/11 12:03
You can find the project description on the class Web page now. We also have a number of TRAC Wikis available; if your team already has decided on a topic, let me know and I’ll give you access to the Wiki.
KB Nugget Description Available
11/01/11 11:58
You can find the KB Nugget description on the course Web page now. There may be some modifications (such as the length of the presentation) depending on the decision about doing a term paper vs. quizzes.
A table where you can sign up for time slots will be available on Blackboard soon. If you already have a topic in mind, and would like to present early, let me know. If you do your presentation during Week 2, you’ll get a 10% bonus, and 5% during Week 3.
A table where you can sign up for time slots will be available on Blackboard soon. If you already have a topic in mind, and would like to present early, let me know. If you do your presentation during Week 2, you’ll get a 10% bonus, and 5% during Week 3.
CLIPS/JESS Tutorials
07/01/11 11:22
JESS and CLIPS use essentially the same language, so either one is fine for the tutorial. CLIPS' home has moved around a bit, it looks like http://sourceforge.net/projects/clipsrules/files/CLIPS/6.30/ is the most recent one.
JESS can be downloaded as a 30-day trial version, but you can extend that if you have the code word from “Jess in Action” (the book written by Ernest Friedman-Hill, the developer of Jess).
JESS can be downloaded as a 30-day trial version, but you can extend that if you have the code word from “Jess in Action” (the book written by Ernest Friedman-Hill, the developer of Jess).
Additional Project Topic Proposals
05/01/11 12:24
If you have additional project ideas, please post them here as comments. If possible, they should
- involve outside customers
- incorporate knowledge-centric activities.
- involve outside customers
- incorporate knowledge-centric activities.
Project Topic Proposal: Knowledge management system for operator's understanding of robot movements
05/01/11 12:21
The goal of this project will be to produce a knowledge management system to support the operator's understanding of the movement of a team of robots through a building layout. This system will account for the ability of (1) the robot team to make decisions about the level of control it exhibits; and (2) decisions the team of robots make about when and what needs to be communicated to the human operator of the team.
- multi-robot coordination
- phase 2 of a research project
- visualization of the status of the robots
- tradeoff between autonomy and
- very open
- open source environment ROS, Willow garage; http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2010/07/22/urbi-open-source-now-integrated-ros
- possibly involve 484 students, Tracy Davies
- Xbox Kinect
- also Brown University, iRobot
Contact persons
- Jeanine Ayers, Nathan Schurr; Aptima
Background required
- basic robotics
- multi-robot coordination
- phase 2 of a research project
- visualization of the status of the robots
- tradeoff between autonomy and
- very open
- open source environment ROS, Willow garage; http://www.willowgarage.com/blog/2010/07/22/urbi-open-source-now-integrated-ros
- possibly involve 484 students, Tracy Davies
- Xbox Kinect
- also Brown University, iRobot
Contact persons
- Jeanine Ayers, Nathan Schurr; Aptima
Background required
- basic robotics
Project Topic Proposal: Decision Maker Modeling
05/01/11 12:20
The goal of this project will be to more accurately model decision makers and the allocation of their tasks across the domain of air traffic control. The decision makers have a profile (current task load, task of focus, capability matrix) and the system must make decisions to meet merging and changing goals within the environment such as optimizing humans, systems, safety, etc.
- general resource allocation problem
- modeling of decision makers, e.g. situational awareness, task switching
- data gathering to populate the model (more flexible, but possibly more challenging)
- ontology (possibly integration with existing agent code)
Contact persons
- Nathan Schurr; Aptima
Background required
- ontology, JADE
- general resource allocation problem
- modeling of decision makers, e.g. situational awareness, task switching
- data gathering to populate the model (more flexible, but possibly more challenging)
- ontology (possibly integration with existing agent code)
Contact persons
- Nathan Schurr; Aptima
Background required
- ontology, JADE
Project Topic Proposal: Knowledge management system for topic analysis in office environments
05/01/11 12:20
The goal of this project will be to produce a knowledge management system to support the mining of data in typical office communication environments to answer questions about what people are working on and what deliverables they are producing. For example, who worked on robot coordination algorithms in a given month?
- social networking
- latent semantical indexing
- query communications analysis data
- Python script to generate test dat from Wikpedia
- plugin architecture for visualization
- framework of entities and relations
- fits into several projects
- emphasis could be on visualization or analysis
Contact persons
- Jeanine Ayers, Nathan Schurr; Aptima
Background required
- statistics, model checking, machine learning
- at least one of {Flex, REST/SOAP, Web-based development}
- social networking
- latent semantical indexing
- query communications analysis data
- Python script to generate test dat from Wikpedia
- plugin architecture for visualization
- framework of entities and relations
- fits into several projects
- emphasis could be on visualization or analysis
Contact persons
- Jeanine Ayers, Nathan Schurr; Aptima
Background required
- statistics, model checking, machine learning
- at least one of {Flex, REST/SOAP, Web-based development}
Project Topic Proposal: iFixit Recommender System
05/01/11 12:19
The ifixit Web site offers instructions for repairs of all kinds of devices, and has recently been expanded to allow the submission of user-generated instructions. The company, co-funded by a CSC alumnus, is interested in adding a recommendation facility that would offer user suggestions such as other devices or repairs they may be interested in, or parts and tools that are suitable for the repair. They currently have recommendations for the latter, but they are not very sophisticated.
Project Topic Proposal: Computers and Knowledge Educational Resources
05/01/11 12:19
The goal of this project is to provide educational resources for a course similar to this one, but intended for participants without a strong computer background.
Project Topic Proposal: Visualization of Ontologies and RDF Graphs
05/01/11 12:18
The underlying data structures for ontologies and RDF (Resource Data Framework) structures are graphs. While graphs in principle are well suited for visualization purposes, there are several challenges for these particular structures. Ontologies frequently have a multitude of relationships (links in the graph), and it is impractical to display all of them simultaneously. RDF graphs frequently are huge, and can’t be displayed in their entirety. In both cases, however, there are underlying principles that humans intuitively utilize to arrange the nodes in both a visually pleasing and easy to comprehend manner (although it may be very difficult or impossible to achieve both). The objective of this project is to examine existing visualization methods for ontologies and RDF graph, and identify their advantages and shortcomings. On the other side, there are packages available for displaying generic graphs. Our hope is that a combination of insights from the existing visualization tools with advanced graph display packages, together with heuristics that reflect organizational principles for ontologies and RDF graphs will result in better visualization tools. Ideally, a prototype of such an ontology visualization tool would be integrated with the Protégé ontology development environment.
Project Topic Discussions
05/01/11 12:17
I just realized that we could use the Comments feature of these pages for additional project proposals and discussions of the topic I mentioned yesterday. So I’m going to create a new entry for each topic. Please add a comment if the topic sounds interesting to you (this does not constitute a commitment to actually select it), or if you have questions.
I’ll also create another entry for additional project ideas. If you have one, add it there as a comment.
I’ll also create another entry for additional project ideas. If you have one, add it there as a comment.
Welcome to 481-W11!
30/12/10 18:35
Welcome to the Web site for the CPE/CSC 481 Knowledge-Based Systems class in Winter 2011! I’ll be using this page to post news relevant for the class. The page is also available as an RSS feed. To subscribe, copy and past the link from the sidebar on the right to your favorite RSS reader.