| Course Code | COMP9414 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course Title | Artificial Intelligence | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Convenor | Francisco Cruz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Admin | Maryam Hashemi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Consultations | Thursday 1.00-2.00pm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Units of Credit | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course Website | https://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/course/view.php?id=84357 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Handbook Entry | https://www.handbook.unsw.edu.au/postgraduate/courses/2024/COMP9414 |
COMP9414 is an introductory course on Artificial Intelligence covering fundamental topics such as autonomous agents, problem solving, search, logic, knowledge representation, reasoning under uncertainty, vision, language processing, machine learning, neural networks and reinforcement learning. The course provides a foundation for further studies in AI such as COMP4418 Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, COMP9417 Machine Learning and Data Mining, COMP9517 Computer Vision, COMP9434 Robotic Software Architecture, COMP6713 Natural Language Processing, and COMP9444 Neural Networks and Deep Learning. Postgraduate students with more programming experience may consider enrolling in COMP9814, which is the same as the undergraduate AI course COMP3411 (offered in Term 1).
The course is taught with an orientation towards machine learning and with a view to practical applications of Artificial Intelligence using Python. Some AI applications that make use of foundational concepts will be demonstrated in lectures and tutorials.
Students are assumed to have completed an introductory course in Python programming, such as COMP9021 Principles of Programming. Students are also assumed to have some mathematical ability, though any necessary mathematical concepts will be introduced in the course. Background knowledge of discrete mathematics would be useful.
After completing this course, students will:
This course contributes to the development of the following graduate capabilities:
| Graduate Capability | Acquired in |
| Scholars capable of independent and collaborative enquiry, rigorous in their analysis, critique and reflection, and able to innovate by applying their knowledge and skills to the solution of novel as well as routine problems | 1–4 |
| Entrepreneurial leaders capable of initiating and embracing innovation and change, as well as engaging and enabling others to contribute to change | 1–4 |
| Professionals capable of ethical, self-directed practice and independent lifelong learning | 1–4 |
| Global citizens who are culturally adept and capable of respecting diversity and acting in a socially just and responsible way |
1–4
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The course has a 3-hour lecture and 2-hour tutorial for each of 9 topics (a week is lost due to either the King's Birthday Holiday or Flexibility Week). Lectures are essential for providing conceptual foundations for the course and for preparation and understanding of tutorial exercises. Tutorials are essential for understanding specific techniques, programming experience, individual feedback from tutors, and preparation for the exam.
The instruction mode of the course is fairly traditional, however, the style places a greater emphasis than usual on practical applications of AI technologies and existing tools (in Python) for AI. Lectures cover more conceptual material and give an overview of the main topics and their interconnections. Lectures also provide an essential foundation to apply in tutorials and assignments. Tutorials provide students with an opportunity for more in-depth analysis of particular topics and practical help on assignments. As part of tutorials, students will be given self-guided programming activities to aid in understanding core concepts. While not assessed, these lab-style exercises will help with exam preparation. Attendance is strongly encouraged to gain the maximum value from the course.
There will also be course forums where students can post course-related questions that can be answered by staff and other students and viewed by all students. The forum will be moderated by course staff and tutors. For matters of general interest, students should use the forum in preference to e-mailing their tutor; for personal matters please e-mail the course convenor. Note that while forum questions will endeavour to be answered in a timely fashion, tutors work on a casual basis and cannot be guaranteed to work outside normal working hours. So before posting to the forum, please check if your question has already been asked.
COMP9414 is an introductory course that provides fundamental knowledge and skills needed for further study in Artificial Intelligence and for the application of AI in research and industry. Where possible, concepts are augmented with practical applications of AI techniques and systems based on widely-used paradigms, tools and platforms.
The Python programming language has been chosen for several reasons: (i) this follows on from the introductory postgraduate programming course, (ii) Python is used in the machine learning and neural networks/deep learning courses, (iii) there are many practical AI toolkits built using Python, (iv) these toolkits are widely used in industry, (v) this enables the course to adopt an emphasis on data analytics/data science, a major growth area in business.
The course will use the textbook by Poole and Mackworth as a reference, however, additional books and chapters will be used for more specific topics. This book has been chosen because: (i) it is shorter and easier to read than other AI textbooks, (ii) it adopts an approach based on logical reasoning, (iii) the book is freely available online, (iv) the book has recently been updated, and (iv) the book comes with Python implementations of standard algorithms.
The Student Code of Conduct ( Information , Policy ) sets out what the University expects from students as members of the UNSW community. As well as the learning, teaching and research environment, the University aims to provide an environment that enables students to achieve their full potential and to provide an experience consistent with the University's values and guiding principles. A condition of enrolment is that students inform themselves of the University's rules and policies affecting them, and conduct themselves accordingly.
In particular, students have the responsibility to observe standards of equity and respect in dealing with every member of the University community. This applies to all activities on UNSW premises and all external activities related to study and research. This includes behaviour in person as well as behaviour on social media, for example, Facebook groups set up for the purpose of discussing UNSW courses or coursework. Behaviour that is considered in breach of the Student Code Policy as discriminatory, sexually inappropriate, bullying, harassing, invading another's privacy or causing any person to fear for their personal safety is serious misconduct and can lead to severe penalties, including suspension or exclusion from UNSW.
If you have any concerns, you may raise them with your lecturer, or approach the School Ethics Officer , Grievance Officer , or one of the student representatives.
Plagiarism is defined as using the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own. UNSW and CSE treat plagiarism as academic misconduct, which means that it carries penalties as severe as being excluded from further study at UNSW. There are several online resources to help you understand what plagiarism is and how it is dealt with at UNSW:
Make sure that you read and understand these. Ignorance is not accepted as an excuse for plagiarism. In particular, you are also responsible that your assignment files are not accessible by anyone but you by setting the correct permissions in your CSE directory and code repository. Note also that plagiarism includes paying or asking another person to do a piece of work for you and then submitting it as your own work. Copying (taking ideas and/or text from other students or the Internet and presenting them as your own) and collusion (working together on an assignment, or sharing parts of assignment solutions) are forms of plagiarism. In COMP9414, this applies particularly to the programming assignments, which must be all your own work. Communication with other students and with external "tutoring" agencies during the exam is strictly prohibited.
UNSW has an ongoing commitment to fostering a culture of learning informed by academic integrity. All UNSW staff and students have a responsibility to adhere to this principle of academic integrity. Plagiarism undermines academic integrity and is not tolerated at UNSW. Note that in 2020, over 60 students were caught for plagiarism through sharing assignment solution code via a contract cheating "academy", and of these, there were over 20 cases of serious misconduct and some students were given a penalty of 00FL (automatic failure of the course) by the Student Conduct and Integrity Unit.
If you haven't done so yet, please take the time to read the full text of
The pages below describe the policies and procedures in more detail:
As applied to COMP9414, copying or sharing program code for assignments counts as plagiarism and is unacceptable. Copying or sharing code from the Internet is unacceptable in any circumstances. Assignment submissions are checked for similarity, both with one other and with code on the Internet. The school maintains a register of students with confirmed plagiarism offences. The penalties for plagiarism range from receiving 0 or negative marks for an assignment, through receiving a mark of 00 FL for the course, to expulsion from UNSW (for repeat offenders). Students should be aware that the school takes plagiarism very seriously, and that these penalties are applied routinely. Note that allowing someone else to copy your work counts as plagiarism, and makes you liable to a penalty, even if you can prove that the work was yours originally.
| Item | Topics | Due | Marks | Contributes to |
| Assignment 1 | Results and discussion | Week 5 | 25% | 1–4 |
| Assignment 2 | Results and discussion | Week 9 | 25% | 1–4 |
| Final Exam | All topics | Exam period | 50% | 1–3 |
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The two programming assignments are both marked based on the results and on programming style
and critical analysis. For assignments, the work must be performed individually as well as the discussion. For correct marking, it is the student's responsibility to ensure that
the submitted code runs on the school environment using the version of Python installed in the labs.
The final exam is a 2-hour examination worth 50% covering the major aspects of the course.
The final mark for the course is determined by adding together these component marks according to the
above weighting to give a result out of 100.
Important: There is a hurdle of 40% on the exam, i.e. a mark of at least 20/50 is required in order to pass the course, otherwise a grade of UF is returned.
Late submission policy:
For Assignments 1 and 2, late submissions are subject to the penalty that your mark will be reduced by 5% from the obtained results per day or part-day late, for up
to 5 calendar days, after which a mark of 0 is given.
There are 9 topics in the course, with a lecture and tutorial on each topic.
| Topic | Lecture | Tutorial |
| 1 | Introduction, agents, and knowledge representation | Introduction to Python and rule-based systems |
| 2 | Neural networks | Backpropagation |
| 3 | Problem solving and search | Search |
| 4 | Reward instead of goals |
Reinforcement learning
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| 5 | Metaheuristics | Simulated annealing |
| 6 | Computer vision | Image processing |
| 7 | Language processing | Grammars |
| 8 | Reasoning with uncertain information | Reasoning under uncertainty |
| 9 | Human-aligned intelligent robotics | Discussion session |
The textbook for this course is freely available online. We will also draw on material from the COMP3411 textbook (Russell & Norvig), which provides much more detail than is needed in this course, but covers some topics especially well, particularly search. It is recommended as a comprehensive reference.
Computer Science and Engineering courses are evaluated by student surveys each time they are taught. The survey includes standard questions asked of all comparable courses so that it is possible to compare a course with other relevant UNSW courses, and also includes space for free-form comments. Survey responses are anonymous. The completed survey forms are analysed statistically by someone independent of the course staff, and the results, including free-form comments, are made available to the lecturer in charge after grades have been reported and released.
From 2013–2018, Artificial Intelligence was offered as a combined course for undergraduate and postgraduate
students. However, the two cohorts have very different backgrounds, leading to difficulty in setting
suitable assessments. The combined course also grew extremely large. Thus the course has now been split into
courses tailored for the two cohorts, COMP3411 for undergraduates and COMP9414 for postgraduates (COMP9814
students take COMP3411, which assumes a background in programming equivalent to CSE undergraduate students).
With the introduction of Python in COMP9021 Principles of Programming, and the use of Python in COMP9417 Machine
Learning and Data Mining, the new COMP9414 course is consistent with the postgraduate coursework programme. The
COMP9414 course was highly regarded in 2019 when offered to postgraduate students only. A change for 2020 was
to shorten the second assignment. Changes for 2021 included returning to live lectures, synchronous face-to-face
and online, and offering face-to-face tutorials. More code was given out to help students to start the assignments. Again the course was well-regarded.
Accordingly, all the previous changes will be retained. An important change introduced in 2023 was the extension of tutorials from 1 hour to 2 hours sessions. The students were able to further analyse code to better understand the different topics and improve assignment results.
Last modified: May 22, 2024
Resource created Tuesday 21 May 2024, 12:29:10 PM, last modified Tuesday 03 September 2024, 10:09:28 PM.