Cmput 455 — Search, Knowledge, and Simulations, Winter 2021

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Course outline
Course policies
Teaching team
Course site on eclass, for quizzes, exams, assignment submission, forum, announcements, and readings
Assignments
Activities
Learning resources
Python 3 Sample Code
Python 3 Language, Install,...
Python 3 for Cmput 455 Bootcamp/Refresher

455 Week by Week

Week 1, Jan 11 – Jan 15

Assignment 1: due Feb 1
Slides:

Lecture 1 - The game of Go and Computer Go
Lecture 2 - Basic Data Structures and Algorithms for Computer Go

Do Quiz 0 and 1 on eClass
Activities: Do the Lecture 1 Activities and Lecture 2 Activities

Week 2, Jan 18 – Jan 22

Assignment 1: due Feb 1
Quiz 2: on eClass. Please read "Reinforcement Renaissance" by Krakovsky (in activities)
Slides:

Lecture 3 - Problem solving and Decision-making
Lecture 4 - Formalizing decision-making and games

Activities: Do the Lecture 3 Activities and Lecture 4 Activities

Week 3, Jan 25 – Jan 29

Assignment 1: due Feb 1
Quiz 3: on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 5 - Sequential Decision-making
Lecture 6 - Preparing for Search - Profiling and Optimizing Go Code

Activities: Do the Lecture 5 Activities and Lecture 6 Activities

Week 4, Feb 1 – Feb 5

Assignment 1: due Feb 1
Start on Assignment 2
Do Quiz 4 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 7 - Introduction to Search and Heuristic Search
Lecture 7 extras (optional) - more on blind search and single-agent heuristic search
Lecture 8 - Minimax and Alphabeta part 1

Lots of new Activities: Do the Lecture 7 Activities and Lecture 8 Activities
Lots of new Code: Python code Go2, Assignment 2 starter code, Lecture 7 and 8 sample codes

Week 5, Feb 8 – Feb 12

Assignment 2: due Mar 1
Do Quiz 5 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 9 - Minimax and Alphabeta Part 2
Lecture 10 - Minimax and Alphabeta Part 3

Activities: Do the Lecture 9 Activities and Lecture 10 Activities
Code: see all the minimax Python code for Lecture 9 and 10

Reading week, Feb 15 – Feb 19

Assignment 2: due Mar 1

Week 6, Feb 22 – Feb 26

Assignment 2: due Mar 1
Do Quiz 6 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 11 - Knowledge for Heuristic Search
Lecture 12 - Simulations in Game Tree Search

Activities for Lecture 11: just reading
Lots of new Activities: for Lecture 12
Lots of Code: Lecture 12 demos and experiments, Tic-Tac-Toe with simulations, and Go3

Week 7 Mar 1 – Mar 5

Midterm Mar 2
- Midterm Study Guide
Assignment 2: due Mar 1
Do Quiz 7 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 13 - Simulations in Go, patterns and filters

Week 8, Mar 8 – Mar 12

Assignment 3: due Mar 29
Quiz 8 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 14 - Probabilistic Simulation Policies
Lecture 15 - Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) Part 1

Activities for Lecture 14
Code: see Python code

Week 9, Mar 15 – Mar 19

Assignment 3: due Mar 29
Do Quiz 9 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 16 - MCTS Part 2

Reading for Lecture 16
No new code this week

Week 10, Mar 22 – Mar 26

Assignment 3: due Mar 29
Do Quiz 10 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 17 - Introduction to Machine Learning for Heuristic Search
Lecture 18 - Machine Learning with Simple Features and Move Prediction in Go

Reading and Activities for Lecture 18
Code for Go4 and Go5.

Week 11, Mar 29 – Mar 31

Assignment 4: due Apr 21
Quiz 10 on eClass
Do Quiz 11 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 19 - Introduction to Neural Networks
Lecture 20 - Deep Neural Networks for Move Prediction in Go

Reading and Activities for Lecture 19
New Code: see Python code for neural nets

Week 12, Apr 7 – Apr 9

Assignment 4 due Apr 21
Do Quiz 12 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 21 - Reinforcement Learning and TD-Gammon
Lecture 22 - AlphaGo - The Early Versions

Activities: Watch Rich Sutton's RL tutorial (links in eClass)

Week 13, Apr 12 – Apr 16

Assignment 4 due Apr 21
Do Quiz 13 on eClass
Slides:

Lecture 23 - AlphaGo Zero
Lecture 24 - AlphaZero

Final exam, Apr 28

Online final exam on eclass

Created: Oct 2, 2017 Last modified: Jan 8, 2021

Martin Müller, Ting-Han Wei, and James Wright