News Flash:  Rutgers Camden is open today, September 17 (even though New Brunswick is flooded out.)

This class will focus on Artificial Intelligence.  We will review the fundamental approaches in this field.
 

Part One - Topics to be Covered in Class.  These are things you should review if you should have to miss class.  They are not reading assignments.
 

• Neural Net and Rule-Based Artificial Intelligence.   For a technical presentation on neural nets, and how they differ from rule based or Von Neumann AI programs, we will to Kevin Gurney's class at the University of Sheffield.  His summary of the differences between Neural Net and traditional Von Neumann machine computers is helpful.  (The photo is a view of the Psychology Department at the University of Sheffield).  For more information, consult Kevin Guerney's book An Introduction to Neural Networks

• The graph at the left is from a site which is helpful if you happen to read French.  The caption says:  Formation de 3 proto-concepts composes d'un , de 5 et 7 neurones. On peut remarquer toutes les neurones d'un proto-concept sont reliees entre elles par au moins une synapse.  (Formation of three proto-concepts composed of one, five and seven neurons.  One can remark that all the neurons of a proto-concept are linked (?) to each other by at least one synapse).  A proto-concept is a group of neurons stimulated by a particular stimulus such as a color or a geometric symbol.

• We will also review the "Pseudo-Code" from three Artificial Intelligence algorithms (from The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil}.  His book is interesting, and gives a lot of future visions.  It also has a n interesting holographic (I think) cover.  This will give you an idea of what an algorithm looks like.  An algorithm is a set of detailed instructions for a computation which can be done by a computer.
•  Recursive Algorithm
•  Neural Net Algorithm
•  Evolutionary Algorithm

We will try out some interesting  Artificial Intelligence sites. mostly Chatterboxes.

Assigned reading on this week's lecture topic:
 
• Read Chapter Two of the Webmind Book (abridged).
• Read Digital organisms mimic real life in another world from the Philadelphia Inquirer.


Homework assignments to be completed by September 24:

• write 250 to 500 words in your WEB Diary, with links to 3 to 5 WEB sites you visited.  You should do this every week.  By next week, September 24, you should have two weekly entries completed.
• Post your Home Page (index.html) and your Internet Diary (webdiary.htm) on your own WEB site, which should be your html directory on clam. Instructions for doing this are available online.  It is easiest to publish from a computer at Rutgers, although you can do it from home if you know.  Doing it from home requires finding out the address of your html directory - if you publish your page at Rutgers, this information is filled in automatically.  Computer Center staff will provide help as they do to all students working on assignments. Special help is available to groups of 10 or more students who make an appointment with Ron Thornton at the computer center.
• An important point:  use the Publish command to publish your files to your directory.  Do not use the Save command, this messes up the file permissions.  If you try to access your WEB page and get a message saying Forbidden in nasty type, do not despair.  What you need to do is run the setup_web program to redefine your files.  To do this, you must telnet to clam (using the telnet program in the Communications folder, or by typing telnet://clam.rutgers.edu in the Netscape netsite box).  Log onto your account with your account name and password.  Using the lush menu system, go to communications/www/setup_web.  Ask the program to redefine your files.  Computer center personnel can help with this problem too.
• The final step is to make sure you can read your files using Netscape Composer.  Just type your own address into the browser.  If your account name is jstudent you would type http://clam.rutgers.edu/~jstudent. If you published your home page as index.html it should appear, just as mine does when yo type http://crab.rutgers.edu/~goertzel. If you did the link from your home page to your Web Diary page correctly, you should be able to click on the link and go to that page.  Print out both of these pages, and hand them in to Andrew Toy at the beginning of class next week, September 24.


You may, of course, find it useful to study the readings for next week's class in advance.