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.
This course will be offered in Spring 2011. Due to a clerical error, it does not appear in the printed course schedule.
Meeting time and place: we will meet in Kingsbury N233 on Mondays and Wednesdays. The currently planned time is 10:40-noon, but this may change once we know all the participants' constraints. If you can't make this time and are interested in enrolling, please let me know.
Tue May 17, 2pm: Final papers (2 hardcopies) due at Wheeler's office
Wed May 11, 1-3pm: final paper presentations (20 min talk + 10 min discussion each)
Mon May 9: Discussion of final papers (20 min each). Bring 3 copies of each of your reviews to class.
Wed May 4: Review version of final papers due - bring 5 hardcopies. No reading due. Status updates from those not in the class (12 min talk + 4 min discussion each).
Mon May 2: potential search, see email for link. Paper writing tips, LaTeX tips, how to give a talk, how to review a paper. See notes under `writing' on this page. The AAAI formatting templates and macros are here.
Wed Apr 27: temporally-extended goals and uncontrollable events, ECAI-08
Mon Apr 25: bootstrap, see email for link
Wed Apr 20: learning finite-state controllers, ICAPS-09
Mon Apr 18: DTA*, Do the Right Thing, 1991
Wed Apr 13: LPG, JAIR 2003
Mon Apr 11: SAPA, JAIR, 2003
Wed Apr 6: the FF heuristic, JAIR, 2005
Mon Apr 4: FF, JAIR, 2001
Wed Mar 30: status updates (12 min talk + 8 min discussion each)
Mon Mar 28: learning during search, ICAPS-11
Wed Mar 23: algorithm simulation, INFORMS J on Computing, 1996. For AI, see Paul Cohen's tutorial slides,
Mon Mar 21: testing heuristics, Journal of Heuristics, 1996
[ Mon Mar 14 and Wed Mar 16: spring break ]
Wed Mar 9: routing vs scheduling, ICAPS 2003
Mon Mar 7: VRPTW, Transportation Science 2005. if you want, here's part two.
Wed Mar 2: iterative accelerated A*, CDC 2010
Mon Feb 28: time-bounded lattice, ICRA 2009
Wed Feb 23: Long Dynamically Feasible Maneuvers, Int'l Journal of Robotics Research 2009
Mon Feb 21: D* lite, AAAI 2002
Wed Feb 16: common misconceptions, SoCS-09
Mon Feb 14: KRE, AIJ 2001
Wed Feb 9: switchback, AAAI 2010
Mon Feb 7: perimeter search, Computers and Games 2002
[ Wed Feb 2: snow day, no class ]
Mon Jan 31: Anytime Heuristic Search, JAIR 2007
Wed Jan 26: The general information handout. 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.