Instructors:
Adele Howe
Office: 446 CS Building
Office Hours: by appointment
Email: howe@cs.colostate.edu

Darrell Whitley
Office: 270 CS Building
Office Hours: TBD
Email: whitley@cs.colostate.edu

Lecture Time and Place:
10:00-11:00, MW, CSB Room 425

This course is intended to be a two semester "practicum'' in conducting research in AI. In the first semester, we will be discussing current papers as well as research methodology. The idea is to practice many of the skills necessary to doing research in AI: reading research papers critically, writing reviews of papers, identifying opportunities for followup research, and writing research proposals. The second semester focuses on how to conduct a research project: evaluation/experimentation and presenting results.

At the start of the semester, we will focus on areas that match the expertise of professors Whitley and Howe, e.g., stochastic local search, evolutionary computation and AI planning.

News:

  • Pre-proposal due: September 17 The pre-proposal should be 2-4 pages in length. Its primary purpose is to sketch out an idea so it can be evaluated for its viability as a project. The considerations are: is it about the right size for a 1.5 semester project? does it require some innovation in AI? can we support and advise on the topic (i.e., is it compatible with the research topics in the department and something the instructors are knowledgeable about)? does it build on existing work? can it be evaluated, either theoretically or empirically?

    Your pre-proposal should 1) describe the problem/topic/question being addressed by the project, 2) briefly mention any background material on which you will be building, 3) sketch what you plan to do. Thus, a short bibliography is required; you must reference at least two articles that you think might be pertinent. Keep in mind you have about 8 weeks to turn your pre-proposal into a proposal so you should have a good idea of what you need to read and do in that period.

  • Critique to be exchanged is due 10/1. See schedule for paper information. Critique should be a little longer than usual (at least 2 pages with decent formatting) and should reflect a depth of understanding and analyze the content. You are free to use and cite background material as needed to substantiate your points about the contribution, the strengths and weaknesses of this paper. Bring 7 copies to class: one with your name and six without any author information. You will get a copy of all of the critiques, but will be asked to grade just one. You will then have 1 week (October 8) to review the critique, which will be returned to the instructors for grading. You will need to hand in two copies of your review: one with your name and one without. We will grade your critique and return a copy to the original author as feedback.
  • Mini-research exam proposal is due October 3; mini-research exam paper is due October 17.. Follow the guidelines available here, with a few exceptions as follows:
    1. You will turn in a mini-research exam proposal which will include a title, a paragraph describing the topic and 2 core papers (one of them can be the paper you have chosen to present in class).
    2. You will be required to find 2 more papers on your own to supplement.
    3. The exam committee will be the instructors plus 1 member of the class. Each person will take the part of committee member for one other member of the class. This means you should have read the written report for the exam and come prepared with at least 1 question to ask.
    4. Your written report should be approximately one-third the size of a real research exam, 3-5 pages. It should identify commonalities of the papers and analyze how they relate to one another. This should form the core of your research proposal's background section.
    5. Your oral exam will be much shorter. We will schedule three students for each class period, which allows approximately 15 minutes per person. Please come with about 5-7 minutes of presentation to be followed by about 8-10 minutes of questions. The primary purpose of the questions is to clarify points made in the written version and to probe understanding of the papers.
  • Your proposal is to be presented as a poster and as a written report. Guidelines describe what you need to know to prepare your written report.