Saint Mary’s University

Department of Mathematics and Computing Science

CSC 482.1: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

FALL 1999-2000

The project constitutes 15% of your total marks. Half of the marks are for the content and half of the marks are for the form. That means written paper is worth 4% and oral presentation is worth 3.5%. Concise, easy to understand, and glitzy presentations are strongly encouraged. The topics can be broadly categorized as:

• Experimental
• Mathematical
• Philosophical

The experimental projects will include chossing a particular AI tool and use it to solve a problem. The examples include:

• Use of genetic algorithms in chess
• Use of neural networks for predicting TSE-300 or DJ-30
• Use of an expert system for inventory management
• Use of an expert system for time management
• Intelligent agents for information retrieval on the internet

You are not expected to find a viable solution to the problem, but conduct initial experiments and provide suggestions for future research. The student choosing this type of project will be spending a large amount of time learning the tool and as such would be expected to have narrower literature search. The mathematical projects will involve studying a particular mathematical theory in great detail and make some intelligent and meaningful comments on the practical relevance and limitations of the theory. The amount of literature survey will be expected to be more than an experimental project. The examples include:

• Belief networks
• Neo-fuzzy Neural Networks
• Reasoning using fuzzy logic
• Chaos theory and Genetic Algorithms
• Mathematical foundations of logic programming: Beyond Prolog

The philosophical projects will involve a large amount of literature review on a given topic. The topics will be of more general nature than before:

• Artificial life
• Intelligent Decision Support Systems
• AI in Business
• Information retrieval
• Agent oriented programming
• Heuristic search
• Ethical issues related to AI
• Data Mining
• Intelligent agents for information retrieval on the internet

The students are expected to provide mature treatment of these topics. A good comprehensive review of existing literature followed by a commentary based on your own philosophical view of the topic will be expected in the presentions.