CPSC 453, Fall 2003         Information About Test 1 and the Term Project
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Test Info:

   The third and final test in CPSC 453 will be given in class on Friday,
April 25.  The material covered on the test includes everything that we
have done since the second test.  The reading from the textbook includes:
Chapter 9, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 6; Chapter 10, Sections 1, 2, and 3 (but
not including the math); and Chapter 11, Sections 1 and 2.  In addition,
there was a handout on LISP and readings from "The Man Who Mistook His
Wife for a Hat" and from "Emergence".  Topics for the test include:

   machine learning
   induction
   inductive bias
   concept learning
   version space
   decision trees
   the ID3 algorithm
   supervised and unsupervised learning
   conceptual clustering
   neurons, dendrites, axons, and synapses
   artificial neural nets
   training and learning in artificial neural nets
   weights
   threshold functions
   sigmoid threshold function
   perceptron
   delta rule
   hidden layer
   backpropagation
   evolution and the genetic algorithm
   fitness
   reproduction with modification
   genetic operators; mutation and recombination
   genetic algorithm for bit strings
   genetic algorithm for finite automata
   genetic algorithm for LISP programs; evolutionary programming
   genetic algorithm for the traveling salesman problem
   classifier systems
   the bucket brigade
   artificial life
   LISP (basic concepts, including:  lists, symbols, strings, quote, NIL,
      CAR, CDR, CONS, IF, COND, DEFUN, SETF, GET, NULL, ATOM, LISTP, RANDOM)
   the man who mistook his wife for a hat
   effects of brain damage on behavior and perception
   evidence for physical basis of mental processes
   emergence
   the myth of the ant queen and pacemaker cells in slime molds
   morphogenesis
   bottom-up behavior versus top-down planning
   cities as self-organized systems
   Pandemonium
   neural nets and genetic algorithm as emergent approaches to AI

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About the Term Project:

   The scheduled final exam period for this course --  Saturday, May 3, at
1:30 PM -- will be used for presentations on term projects.  Each person in
the class will make an eight-to-ten minute presentation on his term
project, followed by a short question-and-answer period.  The order in which
the presentations will be chosen at random at the beginning of the exam
period.  There will be a short break after the fourth and after the eighth
presentations.  Attendance for all presentations is mandatory for everyone
in the class, and everyone is expected to participate in the questioning.
In addition to the presentation, each person will turn in the portfolio of
material he has put together for the project.  See the course handout for
more information about the project and portfolio.  Your grade will be based
on your portfolio and presentation and, to some extent, on the questions that
you ask other people after their presentations.