Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives Students completing this subject should be able to explain the fundamental concepts of artificial intelligence, describe some AI techniques and applications, and use Prolog to solve problems and build expert systems.
Synopsis Can machines think? the physical symbol system hypothesis; history of AI; the Turing test; languages of AI; the structure of Prolog; facts, rules, queries; instantiation and backtracking; list processing; depth-first and breadth-first searches; directed searches and the A* algorithm; knowledge representation; frames, scripts; expert systems; learning; genetic algorithms; neural networks; backpropagation. Access to the university's computer systems via modem is compulsory for distance education students.
Assessment Examination (3 hours): 70% + Other assessment modes: 30%