Do you like movies? Science fiction? Did you watch the Matrix, Terminator, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Artificial Intelligence, Lara Croft? Then you probably think you know what artificial intelligence is. Ever since the creation of the first computers, heated scientific and philosophical debates are taking place whether it is possible to create an artificial system which will act intelligently.
Nowadays programs help physicians diagnose illnesses, discover insurance and stock exchange fraud and they even decide on which shelf to place items in the supermarket. Who (or better: which) is the world's strongest chess player? How the human genome analysis is taking place? An intelligent system is a capable and useful system, and many of today's programs are capable and useful, but they are highly specialised and capable to solve problems in limited domains.
There is no intelligence without learning, so we have to prepare computers to start learning, not just memorizing, because a true knowledge is the key to practical intelligence and efficient solving of problems. In Artificial Intelligence course you will learn enough of technology background to realize why there is such a big gap between public expectations and reality, what intelligence really is and how we simulate it with computers. You will get an overview of successful problem solving techniques based on artificial intelligence like machine learning. The contents includes knowledge representations, neural networks, natural language processing, and heuristic search. You will learn that artificial intelligence uses evolutionary methods and agents.
Practical part is in the form of programming assignments, solving problems, and web quizzes. Assistant is available for consultations. The grade of practical work is a joint grade of assignments, which have to be finished on time and graded with at least 50% of points. The precondition for passing practical work is achieving at least 50% of points in web quizzes.
The final course grade consists of practical work grade (50%) and written exam (50%), in both parts one has to achieve at least 50% of points. Oral exam is optional.
