CSCI4155/CSCS6505
Contents
Machine Learning with Robotics 2013
Instructors
Prof: Dr. Thomas Trappenberg
Office: Room 4216 in Mona Campbell Building on Coburg RD (main) and Room 313 in Goldberg building (office hour)
Email: tt@cs.dal.ca
TA: Farzaneh Sheikhnezhad Fard (farzaneh.shfard@gmail.com)
Office hours: TBA and after appointment (write email)
Course Description
This course is an introduction to machine learning where we will be using robots to practice some of the concepts.
Course manuscript
A course manuscript will be released on an ongoing basis. I try to post new chapters at least two days before the class and recommend that you will read the material in so that we can use the class time mainly for questions, discussions, and exercises.
Preliminaries (Sept 2)
Chapter 1 (Sept 2)
Chapter 2 (Sept 30)
Chapter 3 (Sept 10)
Chapter 4 (Sept 30)
Chapter 5a (Oct 15; without SLAM)
Chapter 6 (updated Nov 7)
Chapter 7 (Nov 21)
Chapter 8a (Oct 29; only A*)
Chapter 9 (Oct 29)
References (Sept 2)
Assignments
Late assignments are not excepted.
Assignment 1 (Due Sept 17, 4pm in class)
Assignment 2 (Due Sept 26, 4pm in class)
Assignment 3 (Due Oct 10, 4pm in class)
Assignment 4 (Due Oct 17, 4pm) Datasets
Assignment 5 (Due Oct 29, 4pm in class)
Assignment 6 (Due Oct 31, 4pm) Dataset for first question
Assignment 7 (4155) (Due Nov 28/Dec 8, 4pm)
Assignment 7 (6505) (Due Nov 28/Dec 8)
Lego NXT robot kits
The course requires to work in a team of three for some robotics exercises using the Lego NXT robot kit. This robot kit can be rented from the faculty following the procedure below. There are lockers in the building where the Robot kits could be kept.
Group placement
1. The instructor and/or TA of the course will place the students into groups, and will in turn notify the Receptionist within the Faculty of Computer Science of the group membership.
Issuance of robotics kits
2. Each group will be issued a complete robotics kit upon payment of a refundable lab fee ($20.00 per group member).
a. The refundable lab fee is payable by each member of the group, in cash, to the Receptionist who is located in the lobby of the Goldberg Computer Science Building.
b. A receipt is issued to each individual in the group. Should a group member drop the course before the course is over, the deposit will be refunded to the individual upon confirmation of deregistration from the course.
c. A kit will not be issued until all the group members have paid their refundable lab fee.
3. Lockers will be assigned at the time of the distribution of the kit to the group so that the group will have a place to store the kit. The group will be responsible for providing their own lock for their assigned locker.
Return of robotic kits
4. At the end of the term, the kits are returned to the Receptionist who will check the kits for completeness.
5. Should any parts be missing, each member of the assigned group will forfeit their deposit.
6. Should the kit be complete, each member of the assigned group will receive their refundable lab deposit.
Programming environment
We will be using the Matlab programming environment which is available on the lab computers (and on research computers; ask your supervisor). If you want to use your own computer I recommend to buy a student license which is very reasonably priced (around $100).
Resources
Additional resources will be posted here
Multilayer Perceptron example (XOR problem) mlp.m
A demonstration program of the A* search algorithm written by Bob Sturm.
A simplified Matlab function based on this demonstration is AstarPathPlanner.m.
A brief (biased) guide to writing scientific papers.
k-means demonstration: kmeansdemo.m
EM demonstration: EMdemo.m
RBM demonstration: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/digits.html
Grading Scheme
CSCI 4155: Quizzes 50%, Assignments & Projects 50%
CSCI 6505: Quizzes 40%, Assignments & Projects 40%, Paper 20%
You have to pass all individual components in order to pass the course.
Academic Integrity & Plagiarism
(Based on the sample statement provided at http://academicintegrity.dal.ca. Written by Dr. Alex Brodsky.)
Please familiarize yourself with the university policy on Intellectual Honesty. Every suspected case will be reported.
At Dalhousie University, we respect the values of academic integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, responsibility and respect. As a student, adherence to the values of academic integrity and related policies is a requirement of being part of the academic community at Dalhousie University.
What does academic integrity mean?
Academic integrity means being honest in the fulfillment of your academic responsibilities thus establishing mutual trust. Fairness is essential to the interactions of the academic community and is achieved through respect for the opinions and ideas of others. Violations of intellectual honesty are offensive to the entire academic community, not just to the individual faculty member and students in whose class an offence occurs. (see Intellectual Honesty section of University Calendar)
How can you achieve academic integrity?
• Make sure you understand Dalhousies policies on academic integrity.
• Give appropriate credit to the sources used in your assignment such as written or oral work, com- puter codes/programs, artistic or architectural works, scientific projects, performances, web page designs, graphical representations, diagrams, videos, and images. Use RefWorks to keep track of your research and edit and format bibliographies in the citation style required by the instructor (http://www.library.dal.ca/How/RefWorks)
• Do not download the work of another from the Internet and submit it as your own.
• Do not submit work that has been completed through collaboration or previously submitted for another assignment without permission from your instructor. • Do not write an examination or test for someone else.
• Do not falsify data or lab results.
These examples should be considered only as a guide and not an exhaustive list.
What will happen if an allegation of an academic offence is made against you?
I am required to report a suspected offence. The full process is outlined in the Discipline flow chart, which can be found at: http://academicintegrity.dal.ca/Files/AcademicDisciplineProcess.pdf and in- cludes the following:
1. Each Faculty has an Academic Integrity Officer (AIO) who receives allegations from instructors.
2. The AIO decides whether to proceed with the allegation and you will be notified of the process.
3. If the case proceeds, you will receive an INC (incomplete) grade until the matter is resolved.
4. If you are found guilty of an academic offence, a penalty will be assigned ranging from a warning to a suspension or expulsion from the University and can include a notation on your transcript, failure of the assignment or failure of the course. All penalties are academic in nature.
Where can you turn for help?
• If you are ever unsure about ANYTHING, contact myself.
• The Academic Integrity website (http://academicintegrity.dal.ca) has links to policies, defini tions, online tutorials, tips on citing and paraphrasing.
• The Writing Center provides assistance with proofreading, writing styles, citations.
• Dalhousie Libraries have workshops, online tutorials, citation guides, Assignment Calculator, Ref- Works, etc.
• The Dalhousie Student Advocacy Service assists students with academic appeals and student discipline procedures.
• The Senate Office provides links to a list of Academic Integrity Officers, discipline flow chart, and Senate Discipline Committee.
Request for special accommodation
Students may request accommodation as a result of barriers related to disability, religious obligation, or any characteristic under the Nova Scotia Human Rights Act. Students who require academic accommodation for either classroom participation or the writing of tests and exams should make their request to the Advising and Access Services Center (AASC) prior to or at the outset of the regular academic year. Please visit www.dal.ca/access for more information and to obtain the Request for Accommodation – Form A.
A note taker may be required as part of a student’s accommodation. There is an honorarium of $75/course/term (with some exceptions). If you are interested, please contact AASC at 494-2836 for more information.
Please note that your classroom may contain specialized accessible furniture and equipment. It is important that these items remain in the classroom, untouched, so that students who require their usage will be able to participate in the class.
