The Department of Computer Science & Engineering
cse@buffalo
UB CSE 4/563

CSE 4/563: Knowledge Representation
Stuart C. Shapiro
Spring, 2006

MWF, 11:00 - 11:50, 222 NSC

(Note: on Feb. 27 - March 10, we will meet in 107 Talbert)


"Reports that say something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know." -- Donald Rumsfeld, February 2002

"We think we know what he means. But we don't know if we really know." -- John Lister, spokesman for Britain's Plain English Campaign, December 1, 2003.


Lecturer TA Class Meetings
Text On-Line Resources Additional Readings
Interesting KR Links Newsgroups Homeworks
Projects Grading Academic Policies
Sample Project Report Calendar Gradesheet
Lecturer:
Prof. Stuart C. Shapiro, 326 Bell Hall, 645-3180 ext. 125, shapiro@cse.buffalo.edu
Office Hours: T 1:00-1:50, W 4:00-4:50, Th 11:00-11:50
or make an appointment via email. See my schedule for my available times.

TA:
Michael W Kandefer, Trailer E, Desk 5, 645-3771, mwk3@cse.buffalo.edu
Office Hours: M 4-5pm, T 11-12pm, F 3:30-4:30pm.

Class Meetings:
CLASS INSTRUCTOR REGIS. NO. DAYS HOURSLOCATION
463 LectureShapiro MWF 11:00-11:50 NSC 222
563 LectureShapiro MWF 11:00-11:50 NSC 222
463 Recitation B1 Kandefer 368376 M 2:00-2:50 Norton 214
563 Recitation B1 Kandefer 233794 M 2:00-2:50 Norton 214
463 Recitation B2 Kandefer 466171 M 12:00-12:50 Bell 337
563 Recitation B2 Kandefer 313042 M 12:00-12:50 Bell 337

Texts:
Ronald J. Brachman & Hector J. Levesque, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Morgan Kaufmann/Elsevier, 2004. (Referred to below as B&L.)

Stuart C. Shapiro, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Logics for Artificial Intelligence, lecture notes.

Additional Readings:

On-Line Resources: Click here

Newsgroup:
You should subscribe to the newsgroup sunyab.cse.563 and read it regularly. It will be monitored by the lecture and recitation instructors, and will be used for announcements meant for the entire class. You may also use it to ask questions, for example, for clarification of assignments between class and recitation meetings.
Do not use the newsgroup to share answers to assignments.

Homeworks:
The purposes of homework exercises are: to give you hands-on experience with relatively small problems; to give you a chance to assess the level of your understanding; to give you experience with the kinds of questions that may be asked on exams. Small programming exercises may be assigned as homework exercises. Homeworks will be assigned in lecture and via this web page. The due date will be announced when the homework is assigned, and will be contained on the homework assignment. They will be due at the beginning of lecture on that date, but will be returned and reviewed in recitation. Some homeworks will be submitted electronically (using submit_cse463 or submit_cse563), in which case instructions will be given with the homework assignment. NO LATE HOMEWORKS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
Grading: Each homework exercise will be worth some modest number of points, which will be stated when the exercise is assigned. The final homework grade will be the percentage of total points possible that were actually earned. To make up for any occasional poor performance on homeworks or for late or missed homeworks, there will occasionally be homework questions worth bonus points.

Projects:
There will be three programming projects during the semester. Each one will involve building and demonstrating a knowledge-based system. You will be given a corpus of knowledge expressed in English, or directed to compile one, and some questions to be answered and/or tasks to be performed. The KR language and reasoning system to be used will be given more or less specifically. It will be up to you to formalize the corpus/questions/tasks and add any background knowledge "normally assumed".

For each project, you will be expected to hand in a conference-style paper, produced using a document formatting program such as Microsoft Word or LaTeX, and printed on 8.5 by 11 inch paper, stapled in the upper left-hand corner, with a title, your name, and other identifying information at the top of the first page (Do not use the header page automatically produced by the printer), plus a well-documented listing and run of your program. (Do not enclose your paper in a folder or cover.) The main product of your work is the paper, not the program! For general advice on how to prepare a written report, see William J. Rapaport, How to Write. A sample CSE 4/563 paper is available.

In addition to the paper, you are to submit (using submit_cse463 or submit_cse563) your program, so that it can be run and checked if the instructors choose.

You will have three to four weeks to do each project. The due date and time will be announced when the project is assigned.

Each project will be graded on a scale of 0 - 100%. A finer break-down will be announced with each project. In general, aspects of writing the paper will be weighted more heavily for CSE563 students than for CSE463 students, and aspects of correctness of the program will be weighted more heavily for CSE463 students than for CSE563 students.

Late projects will be penalized 10 points per 24-hour period, or part thereof. The later of the time the paper is turned in and the time the program is submitted will be the time used. You may turn in late papers either to the lecturer, the TA, or the CSE Department office (201 Bell Hall). Realize that the only times you may be sure that anyone will be available to accept your paper is immediately before or after the lecture, immediately before or after the recitation, or during office hours---plan ahead.

Grading:
Each homework problem will be assigned a point value. Homework points will be cumulative. The final homework grade will be the percent of points earned over maximum points possible. (Due to the availability of bonus points, this might be greater than 100%.) Each project will be graded on the basis of 0-100%, then the project grades will be averaged. Each exam will be graded on the basis of 0-100%. The final course grade will be a weighted average of the total homeworks, the average projects, the midterm exam, and the final exam, according to the following weights:
Homeworks20%
Projects25%
Midterm Exam25%
Final Exam30%
Total100%

The default mapping from percents to letter grades will be the "standard" curve:

CSE 463CSE 563 
93-100A  77-79C+         93-100A  77-79C+
90-92A-  73-76C    90-92A-  70-76C
87-89B+  70-72C-    87-89B+  60-69D
83-86B  67-69D+    83-86B  0-59F
80-82B-  60-66D    80-82B-
      0-59F
A more generous curve may be used. If so, it will be derived from the scores of the CSE 463 population.

You should check the electronic grade sheet regularly, and promptly report any discrepancy between the grades shown there and your own records of your grades to the Lecturer or the TA. The grade sheet is only available to UB addresses.

Academic Policies:
This course will abide by the Departmental Academic Integrity policies and procedures,
and the Departmental Incomplete policy. The short versions are:

This course will also abide by the University's principles and procedures regarding students with disabilities. See the Office of Disability Services' statement on UB's Commitment to Disability Access. Notify the lecturer if you need any accommodations under these policies.

Course Calendar:
This is a tentative schedule, and will probably change continually as the semester proceeds.
WeekDayDate 
1 Mon1/16 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
 Wed1/18 First Lecture
Introduction to Course
 Fri1/20 Introduction to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning and to Logic: B&L, Chap. 1; Chap 1 slides; Shapiro 2004, Chap. 1
Fevahr demo
2 Mon1/23 First Meeting of Recitation B1
CarPool World: A Simple Motivating Example: Chap 2 slides through p. 17; Shapiro 2004, Sec. 2.1
The "Standard" Propositional Logic: Chap 2 slides, p. 18-31; Shapiro 2004, Sec. 2.2
 Wed1/25 First Meeting of Recitation B2
HW1 assigned
Semantics of the "Standard" Propositional Logic: Chap 2 slides, p. 32-42; Shapiro 2004, Sec. 2.2
 Fri1/27 Drop/Add deadline
Semantics of the "Standard" Propositional Logic: Chap 2 slides, p. 32-43
3 Mon1/30
HW1 due; a solution is posted.
HW2 assigned.
Wang's Algorithm and Semantic Tableaux: Chap 2 slides, p. 44-59
 Wed2/1 Proof Theory of the Standard Propositional Logic: Chap 2 slides, p. 60-69
 Fri2/3
Fitch-Style Proof Theory of the Standard Propositional Logic: Chap 2 slides, p. 70-87
4 Mon2/6 HW2 due. A solution will be posted.
HW3 assigned.
Syntax, Semantics, Intro to Proof Theory of Clause Form Propositional Logic: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 2.3 slides p. 88-98
 Wed2/8 Refutation Resolution: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 2.3 slides p. 99-110; prover and SNARK
 Fri2/10 Project 1 assigned
Refutation Resolution on Standard Wfps: Chap 2.3 slides p. 111-122
5 Mon2/13 HW3 due. A solution has been posted.
HW4 assigned.
The "Standard" Elementary Predicate Logic: B&L, Chap. 2; Chap 3 slides
 Wed2/15 The "Standard" Elementary Predicate Logic: Chap 3 slides p. 135-149
 Fri2/17 The "Standard" Elementary Predicate Logic: Chap 3 slides p. 150-154
6 Mon2/20 HW4 due. A solution has been posted.
HW5 assigned.
The "Standard" Elementary Predicate Logic: Chap 3 slides p. 155-165
 Wed2/22 The "Standard" Full First-Order Predicate Logic: B&L, Chap. 2; Chap 4 slides p. 165-190
 Fri2/24 The "Standard" Full First-Order Predicate Logic: B&L, Chap. 2; Chap 4 slides p. 191-211
7 Mon2/27 Meet in 107 Talbert
HW5 due. A solution has been posted.
Clause Form Full First-Order Predicate Logic: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 4 slides p. 212-213
 Wed3/1 Meet in 107 Talbert
Clause Form Logic: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 4 slides p. 214-221
 Fri3/3
Meet in 107 Talbert
Midterm Review
8 Mon3/6 Meet in 107 Talbert
Project 1 due
Midterm Exam. Solutions have been posted.
 Wed3/8 Meet in 107 Talbert
HW6 assigned.
Clause Form Logic: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 4 slides p. 222-238
 Fri3/10 R deadline
Meet in 107 Talbert
Clause Form Logic: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 4 slides p. 239-259
  Mon3/13 Spring Break
 Wed3/15 Spring Break
 Fri3/17 Spring Break
9 Mon3/20 Clause Form Logic: B&L, Chap. 4; Chap 4 slides p. 260-268
 Wed3/22 Project 2 assigned.
Summary: Chap 5 slides
Prolog: B&L, Chap. 5, 6; Chap 6 slides
 Fri3/24 Prolog: Chap 6 slides p. 283, 288-294
10 Mon3/27 HW6 due. A solution will be posted.
HW7 assigned.
Prolog: Chap 6 slides p. 294-297
 Wed3/29 A Potpourri of Subdomains: Chap 7 slides p. 301-306
 Fri3/31 A Potpourri of Subdomains: Chap 7 slides p. 307-316
11 Mon4/3 HW7 due. A solution will be posted.
HW8 assigned. (It's completely bonus.)
SNePS: SNePS: A Logic for Natural Language Understanding and Commonsense Reasoning,
Chap 8 slides, p. 317-334
 Wed4/5 An Introduction to SNePS
SNePS: Chap 8 slides, p. 335-343
 Fri4/7 SNePS: Chap 8 slides, p. 344-355
12 Mon4/10
HW8 due. A solution is posted.
HW9 assigned.
Examples of path-based inference: /projects/shapiro/CSE563/pbinf1.snepslog & /projects/shapiro/CSE563/pbinf2.snepslog & /projects/shapiro/CSE563/pbinf3.snepslog
 Wed4/12 Project 2 due. A solution will be posted.
Project 3 assigned.
SNeRE: Chap 8 slides, p. 356-365. SNePS 2.6.1 User's Manual, Chapters 4, 7.3.
 Fri4/14 SNeRE: Chap 8 slides, p. 366-371.
13 Mon4/17 HW9 due. A solution will be posted.
HW10 assigned.
 Wed4/19 Belief Revision/Truth-Maintenance Systems: Chap 9 slides, p. 372-383
 Fri4/21 Belief Revision/Truth-Maintenance Systems: Chap 9 slides, p. 384-406
14 Mon4/24 HW10 due. A solution will be posted.
Belief Revision/Truth-Maintenance Systems: Chap 9 slides, p. 407-423
 Wed4/26
The Situation Calculus: B&L, Chap. 14, Chap 10 slides
 Fri4/28 Course summary: Chap 11 slides
15 Mon5/1 Last Lecture
Last Meeting of Recitation B1
Last Meeting of Recitation B2
Project 3 due.
 Wed5/3
Reading Days
 Thursday5/4 Final Exam, 8:00 - 11:00 AM, 262 Capen Hall. Solutions have been posted.

Last modified: Thu May 4 11:34:57 EDT 2006
Stuart C. Shapiro <shapiro@cse.buffalo.edu>