CS440 or equivalent. Knowledge of fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence, search and logic.

Supplementary readings will be taken from three texts and possibly other papers:

- Holger Hoos, Thomas Stutzle, "Stochastic Local Search: Foundations and Applications" http://www.sls-book.net

- Franz Rothlauf, "Design of Modern Heuristics: Principles and Application";

- Ian Witten, Eibe Frank, Mark Hall, "Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques"

Only portions of these texts will be assigned to supplement the lectures. I have arranged for the readings to be made available electronically through the CSU library's e-reserve service, which can be accessed via https://reserve.colostate.edu/ares/ares.dll.

The course requires demonstration of student's grasp of the concepts through assignments and a project. The best way to learn the concepts is to apply them.

Grades will be determined by a combination of 5 assignments that include a programming and written part (~80%) and a project paper and short presentation (via skype) on a related topic of the student’s choice. Follow the link for "projects" to read more about the project.

Grading will be based on the following scale: 90% or above = A, 80-89% = B, 70-79% = C, 60-69% = D, below 60% = F.

Each assignment must be submitted via the checkin procedure by the given deadline for that assignment; late period for assignments will end 48 hours later and will incur a penalty of 8%. Assignments turned in after that time receive no credit.

If something radical happens in your life that makes it impossible to make the deadline (e.g., a family member is rushed to intensive care and you need to be there or better yet you win mega-millions and have to be holed up with lawyers for the next 4 days), contact the instructor ASAP. However, the assignments are expected to take some time, so the instructor will have little sympathy if you had not yet started it and you are within 48 hours of the deadline.

Generally, I have found that graduate students prefer arranging times at our mutual convenience. However, for the DL students, I will set a time each week that I will be available through the chat facility on RamCT. In any case, if you want to talk outside that time, send an email to arrange a time.

I encourage students to talk with each other about your assignments and questions, but make sure that what you turn in is your own!

You must be familiar with the department's policies regarding academic integrity and professional conduct.