Office hours
Instructor:
Time: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:30, or by
appointment
Office: GDC 3.418
Email:
matteo--AT--cs--DOT--utexas--DOT--edu
Teaching assistant and Mentors:
The TA and the mentors can meet you in the lab, GDC 3.414b.
TA
| Priyanka Khante | priyanka.khante@ut | MW | 3.45 to 4.45pm |
Mentors
| Oliver Croomes | olive.croomes@ut | MW | 5:30 to 7:00pm |
| F | 2:00 to 3:00pm | ||
| 4:00 to 6:00pm | |||
| Yuqian Jiang | jiangyuqian@ut | MW | 2:00 to 3:30pm |
| TTh | 5:00 to 6:30pm | ||
| F | 2:00 to 4:00pm | ||
| Patricio Lankenau | pato@cs.ut | MW | 10:00 to 12:00pm |
| TTh | 1:30 to 3:30pm | ||
| F | 11:00 to 1:00pm | ||
| Maxwell Svetlik | maxsvetlik@ut | T | 11:00 to 3:00pm |
| Th | 2:00 to 6:00pm | ||
| F | 11:00 to 1:00pm |
Course Requirements
Grades will be based on
- class participation (10%);
- written responses to the readings; (10%)
- preliminary assignments; (60%)
- a final programming project. (20%)
Students should post responses to the readings on Canvas. Credit will be based on evidence that you have done the readings carefully. The response should include a summary of the reading along with any of the following:
- Insightful questions;
- Clarification questions about ambiguities;
- Comments about the relation of the reading to previous readings;
- Critiques on the research;
- Critiques on the writing style or clarity;
- Thoughts on what you would like to learn about in more detail;
- Possible extensions or related studies;
- Thoughts on the paper's importance; and
- Summaries of the most important things you learned.
Prerequisites
A brain*.
Text and Website
There is no textbook for this course. Instead, relevant research papers will be initially assigned, and later chosen by the students following their interests.
Philosophy and Goal
The foremost goal of this course is to expose the student to the full range of activities required of a real-life computer science researcher. It turns out that computer scientists rarely read textbooks, sit silently in lectures, work on programming assignments with correct and complete answers, or take exams. Rather, they
- read about and critically assess original research;
- speak in public;
- collaborate effectively with peers;
- devise solutions and/or approaches to open-ended problems; and
- write about these solutions and/or approaches.
This course presents an opportunity for students to help decide whether they would enjoy going on to graduate school and an eventual career as a computer science researcher. In particular, students will be required to read published research papers, write brief reactions to them, participate in class discussions, propose and execute a solution to a challenging open-ended problem, and write about their work. They will be given an opportunity to collaborate with other students on the final project.
Content Overview
This course is focused on developing a building wide intelligence (BWI) for the new computer science building. The idea is to have a pervasive intelligence throughout the building, in the form of robots, kiosks, display screens, and cameras. These robots will perform a variety of tasks, such as leading people to their destinations or locating a person in the building.
The main goal of this course is to complete a small research project, advancing the abilities of the current BWI system.
Participation in the class discussions will also form a significant part of the grade. Class meetings will consist of discussions based on assigned readings and updates on project progress.
Class Diary
- 1/20 - Introduction
- 1/22 - Robot Behaviors
- Petri Net Plans
- official website
- a publication which introduces and describes the formalism (download from UT's network)
- Petri Net Plans
- 1/27
- More on Petri Net Plans
- Types of scientific publications and how to find them with google scholar
- 1/29 - Linux and important shell comands
- 2/5 - git (simple, and less so)
- 2/7 - CMake
- 2/10 - C++
- 2/12 - more on C++. An interesting tutorial on it.
- 2/17 - Introduction to ROS
- 2/19 - Introduction to ROS topics
- 2/24 - Topics in code: publishers and subscribers
- 2/26 - Wrote a node to control the turtle in turtlesim.
- 3/3 - ROS services.
- 3/5 - Discussion of past assignment, announcement of new assignment (instructions on Canvas). Introduction to Reinforcement Learning (we'll get back to that after Spring break).
Academic Dishonesty Policy
All work ideas, quotes, and code fragments that originate from elsewhere must be cited according to standard academic practice. Students caught cheating will automatically fail the course. If in doubt, look at the departmental guidelines and/or ask.
Notice about students with disabilities
The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. To determine if you qualify, please contact the Dean of Students at 471-6529; 471-4641 TTY. If they certify your needs, I will work with you to make appropriate arrangements.
Notice about missed work due to religious holy days
A student who misses an examination, work assignment, or other project due to the observance of a religious holy day will be given an opportunity to complete the work missed within a reasonable time after the absence, provided that he or she has properly notified the instructor. It is the policy of the University of Texas at Austin that the student must notify the instructor at least fourteen days prior to the classes scheduled on dates he or she will be absent to observe a religious holy day. For religious holy days that fall within the first two weeks of the semester, the notice should be given on the first day of the semester. The student will not be penalized for these excused absences, but the instructor may appropriately respond if the student fails to complete satisfactorily the missed assignment or examination within a reasonable time after the excused absence.
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* I have to admit that CS312 would help a lot.