University of Toronto - Fall 2006
Department of Computer Science

CSC 486/2502: Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

Course announcements and changes to the CSC486/2502 web pages will be logged on this page.




Jan 12: Welcome back! Your final tests are available for pick up from Wah-Ming, the AI admin, in Pratt 283. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. You were a great class. Thanks!
Dec 16: A4 is also ready for pick up at the same place as A3. (See instructions from my Dec 15 message that follows.)
Dec 15: A3 is ready for pick up from the AI admin, Wah-Ming Wong in Pratt 283 (6 King's College Rd, 2nd floor). He is normally in Mon-Fri 9-4pm, with a break for lunch. Feel free to email him if necessary wahming _aT- cs -Dot toronto DOT edu. Please look over your assignments and if you have any questions or concerns, email me about them at my cs account (not my cdf account).
Dec 14: Several students have asked about handing in A4 on Saturday December 16 (using an extra grace day, or taking the 20% late penalty if they have no grace days left). It's fine with me if you do this. If you decide to do this, please slip your assignment under the door of Pratt 283 (6 King's College Road, 2nd floor). Note that the Pratt building will likely be locked. Nevertheless, you can gain access to Pratt through the Sandford Fleming building (which should be open since there is an engineering library on the 2nd floor). There is an above-ground walkway from the 2nd floor of SF (south side) to the 3rd floor of Pratt. Please make sure your assignment is in an envelope and clearly states your name, my name and that it is A4 for CSC2502/486.
Dec 8: As mentioned in class, if you'd like to try out your Golog code with a simple Golog interpreter, one can be found at http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~cogrobo/ and click on systems. The simple interpreter runs in SWI Prolog.
Dec 8: I'll have limited email contact Dec 9-13. If you have questions about A4, please direct them to Christian Fritz -- fritz AT cs -dot- toronto -dot- edu. He is very well versed with the material covered in A4 and is acting as TA in Jorge's absence.
Dec 5: If you did come to tutorial today, please let me know so that I can arrange to get you a copy of the A3 solutions.
Dec 5: Posted slides from today's tutorial.
Dec 5: I will be holding office hours Thursday December 7, 4-5:20pm in my office, Pratt 398D (6 King's College Road, 3rd floor).
Dec 5: There is a small error in the A3-Question 1 solution handed out today. The corrected solution for A3, Question 1 is here. The error in the original solution was that it claimed KB' did not entail Flies(c) V Flies(d), whereas KB' entails Flies(c) and Flies(d) and is thus inconsistent.
Dec 3: At the tutorial on Tuesday, I will also go over the solutions to A3. I will hand out the basic solutions that you can take with you. I willl not be posting solutions, and will likely not be returning your A3 before the test on Friday. However, you will be receiving your grade for A3 before Friday.
Dec 1: There will be a tutorial on Tuesday December 5.
Dec 1: Just a reminder that test 2 will be held on Friday December 8 in the first hour of class. We'll be doing review in tutorial on Tuesday December 5. See also the "Test 2" web page, linked from the course home page.
Dec 1: A4 is posted.
Nov 28: In case you missed today's tutorial, Jorge went over the solutions to A2, and handed out a printed version of the files used to test the code for Q4.
Nov 28: I posted information about the 2nd test, to be held Friday December 8, in class.
Nov 28: There will be a tutorial on Tues Dec 5. We will spend much of the hour reviewing material for the final test.
Nov 25: There will be a tutorial on Tues Nov 28.
Nov 20: There will be an optional/informal tutorial on Tues Nov 21. I'll answer any questions associated with material we've gone over in the last few weeks.
Nov 18: Assignment 3 is posted.
Nov 10: I made an error when I wrote down the chain rule on the board! Thanks to Richard Z. for pointing it out. The chain rule is as follows:
Pr(A, B, C) = Pr(A | B, C) * Pr(B | C) * Pr(C)
Observe that
Pr(A, B, C) = Pr(A, B, C)/Pr(B,C) * Pr(B, C)/Pr(C) * Pr(C)
See that each terms numerator cancels the previous terms denominator, leaving us with a simple expression that Pr(A, B, C) equals itself.
If this isn't clear, please see the text book.
Nov 8: If you would like to meet with me on Friday November 10, after class, please email me so that we can set up a time to meet. Remember to put CSC2502/486 in the subject header.
Nov 7: Although I mentioned on Friday that there would be a tutorial today, I'm afraid I forgot to post it to the Web page. I apologize! For anyone who missed the tutorial, Jorge handed back midterms, went over solutions to parts of the midterm, and answered questions about A2. If you have questions about A2, please email Jorge. I'll be back on Friday and am happy to discuss midterm and midterm solutions with anyone (especially if you missed the tutorial).
Oct 31: There was at least one student in the class who did not pick up their first assignment. If you'd like to confirm your mark in the course so far, feel free to email me. Midterms will be available on Friday.
Oct 31: An interesting talk on Monday November 6 by CS professor, Geoff Hinton:
Oct 30: There will be no tutorial on October 31. If you have any questions, feel free to email me to see me in my office. Otherwise, I'll see you on Friday.
Oct 30 Assignment 2 is now posted in its entirety.
Oct 28 Sheila will be away November 6-9. There *may* be a tutorial. There will *definitely* be a lecture on November 10. Oct 28 The preliminary version of A2 is posted. The final version (the same as this but including the programming question) will be posted in a few days.
Oct 24 Posted slides from tutorial today on "Test 1" web page.
Oct 23 I put a "Test 1" link from th main course web page. It simply lists the start time, duration, etc.
Oct 21 My CDF e-mail is not working reliably. Please email me at sheila - at - cs -dot- toronto -dot- edu, if you need to reach me. Please put CSC486/2502 in the subject header.
Oct 21 Tutorial/Office/Help hours this week: Oct 21 Reminder the Midterm Test will be held in the first hour of our regularly scheduled class lecture Friday October 27. Please try to arrive by noon so that we can commence the test promptly at 12:10.
Oct 19 CDF will apparently be down until at least Friday Oct 20 morning.
Oct 16 Apologies for the change in plan. There will be no tutorial tomorrow, Tuesday October 17.
Oct 13 If you want to hand in your assignment on Saturday, please put it in an envelope and slip it under the door of Pratt 283 (6 King's College Rd). The doors to Pratt will likely be locked but you should be able to gain access through the Sanford Fleming Building 2nd floor, which has an above-ground walkway to 3rd floor of Pratt.
Oct 13 There will be a tutorial on October 17.
Oct 10 Posted a clarification regarding the experiments for question 4, based on experience students are having.
Oct 10 2 A1 clarifications added to the clarification page.

Oct 6 Added supplementary slides on Prolog cut to the "Slides" page.
Oct 5 Added some clarifications regarding A1, Question 4.
Oct 5 There will be a tutorial on Tuesday. There will be no formal lecture. TA, Jorge Baier will answer questions about the assignment.
Oct 4 The bookstore had the Brachman & Levesque textbook miscatalogued. 6 copies are now in the CS section of the bookstore. The bookstore wants to know if we should order more, so if you want to buy the book, please try to do so before class on Friday so that I can arrange for more to be ordered as necessary.
Oct 2 Posted some Prolog and Scheme (online) resources at the bottom of the main course page (under "Other Useful Links").
Oct 2 Posted minor clarification regarding A1.
Oct 2 Reminder that there will be a tutorial on Tuesday October 3.
Sept 30 Posted Prolog Remedial Course slides from Sept 29 (see "tutorials" link).
Sept 27 Interesting Talk: Sept 25 Interesting Talk: DCS Distinguished Lecture series:
Sept 22 Posted Prolog Remedial Course slides on (see "Tutorials" link).
Sept 22 Undergrads, please read the waiver info I posted and email me if you require a waiver. You're at risk of being removed from the course if you don't have the appropriate prerequisites.
Sept 22 There *will* be a tutorial on Tues Sept 26.
Sept 22 Assignment 1 is posted.
Sept 19 Clarified the protocol for handling graduate students who lack course prerequisites.
Sept 18 I'm going to try to use this log page for course announcements and also to log changes to the course web page.
Sept 18 Remedial Prolog Classes: Please see link off main page for information about times and locations.
Sept 18 Course pre-requisites: I know I talked to many of you about prerequisites for this course. Please read the clarification posted as a link from the main page.
Sept 18 Assignment 1 will be handed out later this week.
Sept 18 There will be *no* tutorial on Tuesday September 19.
Sept 14 Lecture slides no longer password protected.
Sept 14 Posted course information sheet on main page.
Sept 7 Add room numbers and further info about first lecture to main page.
August 21 Added question regarding Prolog tutorial timing to pre-term info on main web page.
August 1 Initial Web page posted.