Course syllabus
Course memo
TME285 / FIM762 Intelligent agents lp3 VT20 (7.5 hp)
The course is offered by the department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences
Contact details
During the course, we strive to be available as much as possible. You are welcome to ask questions at any time, either in class or at other times, and you may also ask questions via e-mail or telephone. You are always welcome at our offices, and personal visits are preferred to e-mails.
Lecturer and examiner:
Professor Mattias Wahde, Tel: 772 3727, e-mail: mattias.wahde@chalmers.se
Course assistant:
Sina Torabi, e-mail: sina.torabi@chalmers.se
Finding our offices: Go to Hörsalsvägen 7, enter the building (nya M-huset), so that you have Café Bulten on your right as you enter. Then go up one flight of stairs, and enter the corridor (Vehicle Engineering and Autonomous Systems). Mattias' office is to the right, Sina's to the left (near the coffee room). If the door is locked, please dial the appropriate extension, as shown in the list beside the door (e.g. 3727 for Mattias).
Course purpose
The aim of the course is for the students to gain knowledge regarding human-machine interaction, in general, and intelligent (software) agents, in particular. Such systems are relevant in many different fields, such as health and elderly care, driver assistance systems in vehicles, finance etc.
Schedule
The course schedule is given below, and the same information can also be found in TimeEdit The chapter numbers refer to the compendium (see Course Literature below).
| Date | Time | Room | Content |
| 20200121 | 08.00-09.45 | MC | Course introduction and motivation; brief description of the topics covered in the course. Introduction to interactive partner agents (IPAs) (Chapter 1). Handout of assignment |
| 20200122 | 13.15-17.00 | MB | Background on C# .NET programming (Appendix A) (2 hours). Distributed programming (ii) (Chapter 2) (1 hour). Brief description of the C# .NET libraries used in the course, (iii) Decision-making, memory, and dialogue in IPAs (Chapter 3), part 1 (1 hour). |
| 20200128 | 08.00-09.45 | KA | Decision-making, memory, and dialogue in IPAs (Chapter 3), part 2 |
| 20200129 | 13.15-17.00 | HA2 | Decision-making, memory, and dialogue in IPAs (Chapter 3), part 3 (2 hours); Three-dimensional visualization and animation for IPAs (Chapter 5). |
| 20200204 | 08.00-09.45 | KB | Advanced topics in C# .NET programming (2 hours). |
| 20200205 | 13.15-17.00 | --- | No lecture |
| 20200211 | 08.00-09.45 | KB | Image processing for IPAs (Chapter 4) (2 hours). |
| 20200212 | 13.15-17.00 | HA2 | Speech synthesis (Chapter 6) (2 hours). Work session (2 hours). |
| 20200218 | 08.00-09.45 | KB | Speech recognition (Chapter 7) |
| 20200219 | 13.15-17.00 | HA3 | Internet data acquisition (Chapter 8) (1 hour). Work session (3 hours) |
| 20200225 | 08.00-09.45 | --- | No lecture |
| 20200226 | 13.15-17.00 | HA3 | Applications and examples of IPAs (1 hour). Work session (3 hours) |
| 20200303 | 08.00-09.45 | KB | Work session |
| 20200304 | 13.15-17.00 | HA2 | Work session |
| 20200310 | 08.00-09.45 | KB | Assignment demonstrations, first session (2 hours). [Mandatory attendance!] |
| 20200311 | 13.15-17.00 | HA3 | Assignment demonstrations, second session (4 hours). [Mandatory attendance!]; Hand-in of assignment and report (final deadline) |
Course literature
Wahde, M. Interactive partner agents – A practical Introduction, Compendium (CTH), 2020.
The compendium is provided free of charge and will be available on the Modules page (under Course material) when the course starts.
Course design
The course consists of a sequence of lectures, usually two per week (but note that there are some exceptions; see below or in TimeEdit). Several lectures, especially towards the end of the course, are work sessions, during which the students will work with the implementation of their respective agents. The students are required to hand in the source code for their respective agents, along with a report in PDF format, as described in detail in the Assignment document.
Changes made since the last occasion (2019)
Both the source code and the compendium have been thoroughly revised and updated. In particular, for this version of the course, the concept of human-machine dialogue has been emphasised more strongly.
Learning outcomes
After completion of the course the student should be able to...
- Implement (i C# .NET) and use various methods for image and video processing, speech synthesis, speech recognition, three-dimensional visualization, automatic data downloading, and human-machine dialogue, with particular emphasis on human-machine dialogue.
- Put together different components (e.g. image processing, speech synthesis, dialogue etc.) to generate distributed and fully functional interactive partner agents.
- Describe and compare various different (applications of) intelligent agents.
Examination
Examination: There will be a single, large assignment (100 p in total) that should be solved individually. In this assignment, the students will develop an intelligent partner agent (IPA), starting from the code provided by the lecturer. The assignment will be handed out on 20200121. The final code for the agent (and the report) should be handed in no later than 20200311.
For a passing grade, students must (i) generate and hand in C# code (based on the IPASrc libraries, and running under Windows) for an agent capable of solving several selected tasks, as specified in the Assignment document, (ii) hand in a satisfactory report describing the agent, and (iii) participate in at least one of the two presentation sessions in the last week of the course. Once these conditions have been fulfilled, grades will be set as described in detail in the Assignment document.
Note: Students should make sure to hand in the source code, and the final report on time and in the appropriate format. All deadlines are at 23.59.59 on the specified dates, and it is the time when the submission is received that counts. The possibility of submitting assignments will be closed at midnight on 20200311.
Re-examination, grade improvement etc.: It is possible for students to improve their grade by improving their agent (and, where applicable, the report). However, after the final submission deadline during the course (20200311) resubmission is only allowed in connection with the re-exam periods in August (20200820-20200901) and January (20210107-20210111). Note: All submissions must be handed in via the Canvas page. E-mailed submissions will not be considered.
Course summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|