1 Learning Agents Laboratory Computer Science Department George Mason University Prof. Gheorghe Tecuci 2. Projects and assignments

2 Individual or group projects Research report Overview of a special machine learning and/or inference topic Development of a learning and reasoning agent Other Journal paper

3 Cristina Boicu Exception-driven knowledge base refinement Prerequisites - significant part of the research already done (e.g. system development); - potential of theoretical and/or experimental results. Approach - start with selecting the journal; - develop preliminary table of context during the first two weeks; - schedule section writing during each week; - have paper ready for review two weeks prior to project deadline; - paper ready for submission by the project deadline. Example project: Journal paper

4 An overview of interactive learning methods Prerequisites - desire to perform an extensive literature search; - interest in detailed reading and comparison of several papers. Approach - start with selecting an appropriate journal; - perform literature search; - develop comparison criteria and preliminary table of context; - schedule paper reading and summarization during each week; - have paper ready for review two weeks prior to project deadline. Example project: Research report (journal potential)

5 An assistant for selecting a PhD advisor (could be a single person or a group project) Approach - start from the assistant developed in IT803/Spring 2002; - develop a consistent object ontology; - develop elicitation scripts for students, advisors, PhD coordinator; - train the agent; - write a report/paper. (to be detailed based on the number of student participants) Ex. project: Development of a learning and reasoning agent

6 Sample assignments Literature search on the applications of a specific learning method (e.g. decision tree learning) and class presentation Develop an interesting exercise based on some learning algorithm (suitable for the closed book part of the final exam) and class presentation Read an interesting paper on learning and inference and present it to the class Others Review a project journal paper or report and present the review in class Approach - each assignment has a different number of points (based on the work required) - accumulate 100 points in assignments.

7 There will be several assignments, a final exam and an optional project. The final exam will contain two parts: - a closed book one containing theoretical questions, - an open book one containing problems. The open book part of the exam may be substituted by a project. The final grade will be computed as follows: Class participation and assignments: 20% Closed book part of the final exam: 30% Open book part of the final exam or the project: 50% Grading policy discussion