Professor Wheeler Ruml
How does a robot decide what to do? How does UPS route its trucks? How do telcos configure their networks? Algorithms for problems like these are some of the most fun in computer science and lie at the core of artificial intelligence and operations research. By the end of this graduate seminar, not only will you have read some of the current literature in this area, you will have pushed forward the frontier of knowledge. Note: although this is a graduate course, advanced undergraduates are welcome to talk with me about enrolling.
Official description: General techniques for solving shortest-path, constraint satisfaction, and combinatorial optimization problems, and their application in areas such as planning, robotics, and bioinformatics. Students read the scientific literature and prepare an original research contribution. Prereq: introductory AI or permission of the instructor.
Meeting time and place: In spring 2012, we will meet in Kingsbury N233, Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-4:30pm. Until W236 is repaired from the water damage during winter break, we'll be meeting in W270 (the Dean's conference room).
Tue Apr 2: fast marching
Thu Mar 29: Dr. Fill
Tue Mar 27: Sokoban
Thu Mar 22: real-time search
Tue Mar 20: Wu et al (JAIR, 2011)
Thu Mar 8: EES
Tue Mar 6: bootstrap
Thu Mar 1: dovetailing
Tue Feb 28: TDS
Thu Feb 23: Standley (IJCAI, 2011)
Tue Feb 21: Wang and Botea (JAIR, 2011)
Thu Feb 16: push and swap (IJCAI, 2011)
Tue Feb 14: WHCA* (AIIDE, 2005)
Thu Feb 9: planning with PDBs (ECP, 2001)
Tue Feb 7: additive PDBs (JAIR, 2004)
Thu Feb 2: search-based planning (ICRA, 2010)
Tue Jan 31: RRT* (IJRR, 2011; `full text' link probably requires being on the UNH network for free access)
Thur Jan 26: ARA* (NIPS, 2003)
Wed Jan 25: Here's the spring 2011 general information handout. The one for spring 2012 will likely be similar. You should already have the Russell and Norvig textbook (ideally the 3rd edition). You might also want to review How to Read a Paper and The Task of the Referee.
The schedule from Fall 2009.
The schedule from Fall 2008.