News
Project 1 Deadline ExtensionWritten on 19.11.24 by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, since the current programming project is reaching to far ahead into the course material (hmax and hff will be covered in the next lecture), we will extend the deadline for project 1 to the 5th of December, 16:00. Project 2 will start at the same time, i.e., three days later than… Read more Dear students, since the current programming project is reaching to far ahead into the course material (hmax and hff will be covered in the next lecture), we will extend the deadline for project 1 to the 5th of December, 16:00. Project 2 will start at the same time, i.e., three days later than originally planned. Regards, Thorsten Klößner |
End of Project 0 & Start of Project 1Written on 18.11.24 by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, the deadline of project zero is today, 16:00. Please make sure that you push your final submission to the master / main branch of your repository before the deadline. Please also make sure that your project builds successfully. There will be one more daily test run scheduled before… Read more Dear students, the deadline of project zero is today, 16:00. Please make sure that you push your final submission to the master / main branch of your repository before the deadline. Please also make sure that your project builds successfully. There will be one more daily test run scheduled before the deadline. Project one will release via a description in the Materials section of the CMS at the same time the deadline for project zero ends. The duration for this project and all the future projects is two weeks. Regards, Thorsten Klößner |
Repositories for the upcoming Programming ProjectsWritten on 08.11.24 (last change on 11.11.24) by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, the project repositories for the upcoming programming projects have been created and you should have received access to them. As of now, the repositories only consist of a .gitignore file, but you should already be able to clone your Git1 repository to check if you have… Read more Dear students, the project repositories for the upcoming programming projects have been created and you should have received access to them. As of now, the repositories only consist of a .gitignore file, but you should already be able to clone your Git1 repository to check if you have access: # clone via https (requires password authentication) git clone https://gitlab.cs.uni-saarland.de/fai/teaching/AI/iterations/2024-winter/student-repos/<your username>.git <destination directory> # clone via ssh (requires ssh key added to your GitLab profile) git clone git@gitlab.cs.uni-saarland.de:fai/teaching/AI/iterations/2024-winter/student-repos/<your username>.git <destination directory> If you have issues cloning the project or you have not received a notification mail, please contact kloessner@cs.uni-saarland.de. The first project, the introductory project zero, will roll out next Monday, Nov 11, 16:00. All projects will be published via a project description posted in the Materials section of the CMS describing all relevant information. On Tuesday, Nov 12, 14:15, there will be a short presentation on project zero, where we will also give a short overview over the framework you will be programming in. If you have questions about the project or framework, this is the ideal time to ask them. If you experience technical issues with the project, there will be time to help you get these issues resolved after the presentation. Regards, Thorsten Klößner 1 Visit: https://git-scm.com/downloads for installation instructions if git is not installed on your system. |
Paper Exercise SheetsWritten on 31.10.24 by Daniel Höller Dear students, The paper exercise sheets for the Chapters 3 and 4 are now in CMS (in the Information/Materials section). As already discussed in the initial lecture, you are not obligated to do them (i.e., solutions are not handed in, your results will not be corrected/graded by us/the tutors).… Read more Dear students, The paper exercise sheets for the Chapters 3 and 4 are now in CMS (in the Information/Materials section). As already discussed in the initial lecture, you are not obligated to do them (i.e., solutions are not handed in, your results will not be corrected/graded by us/the tutors). However, we highly recommend you to solve them, it is the best practice for the exam that you can get! The solutions will be discussed in the tutorials next week. We will not hand out solutions, so please participate in the tutorials. Best regards, |
Wrong Location of today's DemonstrationWritten on 29.10.24 by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, this is to inform you that there has been a misconception regarding the room of today's demonstration (14:15). The demonstration will take place in E1 3, lecture hall 002 as noted in the timetable entry and not the Günter-Hotz lecture hall. Sorry for the confusion. Regards,… Read more Dear students, this is to inform you that there has been a misconception regarding the room of today's demonstration (14:15). The demonstration will take place in E1 3, lecture hall 002 as noted in the timetable entry and not the Günter-Hotz lecture hall. Sorry for the confusion. Regards, Thorsten Klößner |
Tutorial AssignmentWritten on 28.10.24 by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, the tutorials have been assigned. You can see which tutorial you have been assigned to on your personal status page in the CMS. If you are unhappy with your assignment, you need to find an exchange partner to switch tutorials. We have added a "Tutorial Exchange" category to the forum… Read more Dear students, the tutorials have been assigned. You can see which tutorial you have been assigned to on your personal status page in the CMS. If you are unhappy with your assignment, you need to find an exchange partner to switch tutorials. We have added a "Tutorial Exchange" category to the forum for this purpose. If you have found an exchange partner, please send a mail to Daniel Höller with the Subject: [AI 24] Tutorial Exchange. Regards, Thorsten Klößner |
Setup for the upcoming Programming ProjectsWritten on 28.10.24 by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, for the upcoming programming projects, we have uploaded a manual to the CMS Materials section which goes through the setup procedure of a basic C++ development environment. Please go through the setup to make sure you are prepared for the upcoming programming projects, which will… Read more Dear students, for the upcoming programming projects, we have uploaded a manual to the CMS Materials section which goes through the setup procedure of a basic C++ development environment. Please go through the setup to make sure you are prepared for the upcoming programming projects, which will kick off in about two weeks. If you have trouble with the setup, you are invited to come to the demonstration tomorrow, Tuesday 14:15, in the Günter-Hotz lecture hall. Here, I will briefly go through the setup procedure and demonstrate how to work on an example project. Besides, I will give a small overview to the C++ programming language for beginners. Slides will be uploaded afterwards with code examples, so you can also have a look at this if you cannot attend. See also the description of the CMS timetable entry for more details. Please remember that for technical questions of any kind, you may also use the forum. Regards, Thorsten Klößner |
Tutorial AssignmentWritten on 23.10.24 by Thorsten Klößner Dear students, You can now select your tutorial preferences on your personal status page of the CMS. The possible dates are as follows:
Please choose your preferences until Sunday, 23:59. Regards, Thorsten Klößner |
The first lecture will be on October 17th, 10:15 in E1 3, Lecture Hall 002. See also the Timetable.
Course Description
This course offers an introduction to the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). This course puts focus on the theory and practice of sequential decision making where the AI agent needs to decide about actions in a complex environment so as to achieve a long-term objective such as reaching a goal, maximizing expected reward, or winning a game. For example, games like Go and Chess are sequential decision making problems. The course includes aspects of both, symbolic and sub-symbolic (aka data-driven) AI, as well as combinations thereof, and therewith provides students with a glimpse of one of the most prominent challenges in AI today -- combining symbolic and sub-symbolic AI. A prominent example of an AI system leveraging such a combination is the AlphaGo/Zero system series, which changed the world of computer game-playing, and whose ingredients and architecture we will understand as part of the course.
Students learn to master techniques developed in the fields of search algorithms, classical planning, Markov decision processes, and game playing. The lecture is accompanied by programming projects in which students implement some of the concepts and algorithms encountered in the lecture. With the knowledge acquired in this course, students are knowledgeable in crucial aspects of AI, and are well-prepared for student assistants jobs as well as BSc and MSc theses at FAI and other AI-related research groups in Saarbrücken.
For more information, please check our organization page.
Prerequisites. Solid knowledge in algorithms and data structures is necessary to follow this course. Solid knowledge in imperative programming, in particular basic knowledge about C / C++ and Python is also necessary to work on the projects. We offer additional help to those not familiar or accustomed to C++ programming in lecture-like demos, but to this end at least basic knowledge of C is assumed. Basic knowledge in machine learning will help, but is not strictly required; the same goes for basic knowledge in complexity theory.
Note. Students who have passed the Artificial Intelligence course in previous years are not allowed to retake the exam.
The first lecture will primarily address organizational matters. We aim to answer any remaining questions there. If for some reason you cannot wait until then, you may contact one of the teaching assistants directly or visit the forum.