Instructor:

Prof.  Sven Koenig
Email: skoenig@cc.gatech.edu
Office: 396 Centenial Research Building (CRB)
Office hours:  TBD
Phone: 404-894-5095 (email preferred)

Alexander Stoytchev
Email: saho@cc.gatech.edu
Office hours: After class or by appointment.
Office: Classroom.

http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2003/cs4612_spring/

git.cc.class.cs4612

Planning techniques allow intelligent systems to decide how they should act in order to achieve their goals. This is important for a variety of applications, such as mobile robots, real-time computer games, puzzle solving, autonomous space craft, decision-support systems for crisis situations, and production planning. The class will cover state-of-the-art symbolic and numerical planning techniques, including action and plan representation, plan synthesis and reasoning, analysis of planning algorithms, plan execution and monitoring, plan reuse and learning, and applications. If you want to learn more about planning prior to the first class, you can use the pointers on the class webpage.

The class is a joint graduate and undergraduate class. It will consist of some lectures, lots of presentations given by students, and discussions. You will learn about methods (tools) that allow you to build systems that plan. You will also learn to read and present scientific texts from the recent literature on artificial intelligence planning, use planning methods and systems to solve problems, and possibly program them.

There is no textbook. The class webpage contains a listing of the papers that we will read, together with pointers to the online versions of the papers, where available.

Note: This is an experimental class that is being offered for the first time. It is a joint graduate and undergraduate class that will likely be offered once every 2 years only.

The only formal pre-requisite is CS 4600. The most important prerequisite of all, however, is your interest in the course, motivation, and commitment to learning. If you are not sure whether this class is for you, please talk to us.

You are expected to do the readings (1-2 papers per lecture) and participate in the class discussions. Your active participation in class is crucial to making the course successful. Please also use your colleagues as a resource (they are working toward the same goal as you are), for example, by forming study groups or posting questions to the newsgroup. If you need additional help, please come by during our office hours and talk to us.

There will be three homeworks. Some of them will involve using planning software, others will be on paper only. There will also be one project, where you can choose a research topic related to the class. The homeworks have to be done individually. The projects can be done in groups of two. All solutions have to be the work of only the people listed on it. Do not copy from others or let others copy your work. In particular, you have to cite all of the resources you relied on for coming up with your answers. This includes webpages, people, publications, and so on, other than the instructor and teaching assistant. You need to abide by the academic honor code of Georgia Tech

http://www.gatech.edu/honor/

We will not accept late homeworks or projects and you will get zero credit for them. The only exceptions are late solutions that are accompanied with a NOTE from a doctor (or a similar note that verifies the problem), WE WERE TOLD ABOUT THE PROBLEM IMMEDIATELY WHEN IT AROSE, and your excuse is acceptable. There will be no exams.

A precondition for passing the class is to present the papers assigned to you. Your grade will be determined as follows:



Class participation: 10%
Paper presentation:  15%
Homeworks (3x 15%):  45%
Project:             30%


If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what we talked about, including the announcements we made in class.

At some point, you will have questions. For example, you might not be able to get code to run that we provided, there is something in the papers that you do not understand, and so on. In this case, we encourage you to first post the question to the newsgroup and see whether someone can help you. If this does not work, we are happy to help you in person. We do answer email but, unfortunately, will sometimes not manage to answer it on the same day.

It is very important to us that you voice your concerns about any aspect of the class as soon as they arise. Please send us e-mail, call us, or talk to us in person. We will accept anonymous notes and treat them seriously, as long as they are sincere and constructive. Your comments will have an effect on the class, so please do not be hesitant to provide them.

We will ask you to fill out a questionnaires at the end of class so that we can improve future classes. Filling out the questionnaires is voluntary and anonymous. We hope that you will make use of this opportunity and choose to provide us with feedback.

Jan  7: First class 
Feb 11: Homeworks 1 and 2 out
Feb 25: Homework 1 due
Mar  4: Spring break
Mar  6: Spring break
Mar 11: Project proposal due
Mar 17: Individual meetings with professor about the project proposals
Mar 18: Refined project proposal due
Mar 18: Homework 2 due
Mar 25: Homework 3 out
Apr  3: Midproject reports due
Apr  8: Homework 3 due
Apr 15: Final project reports due
Apr 22: Project Presentations
Apr 24: Project Presentations
Apr 24: Last class