Academics
  /  
Courses
  /  
Descriptions
COMP_SCI 496: Logic In AI


VIEW ALL COURSE TIMES AND SESSIONS

Prerequisites

Permission by instructor

Description

The goal of this topics course is to study the foundations of different types of logics used commonly in artificial intelligence. Logic forms the basis for many types of reasoning used by humans – researchers in AI have extended classical logic over the years to numerous more “exotic” logics. This course will cover the theoretical foundations of a host of classical and non-classical logics, a number of interesting logics developed by AI researchers for common-sense reasoning, and applications of those logics. You will also learn how to design our own custom logic(s)!

  • This course fulfills the Technical Elective area.

REFERENCE TEXTBOOKS: None. 
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK: None. The instructor will provide a slide deck for each topic that he presents. In addition, URLs will be provided to relevant published papers that will form the basis for discussion in each lecture.

COURSE GOALS:

1) You will learn the basic principles of non-classical logics such as temporal logic, modal logic, probabilistic logics, and understand why there are so many different types of logics. For each of these logics, you will study the model theoretic and proof theoretic foundations.
2) You will learn about logics for “commonsense reasoning” such as default logic and auto-epistemic logic. You will learn about the mathematical foundations of these logics.
3) You will learn about logic programming, a paradigm to use logic for knowledge representation. You will learn about the model theory, fixpoint theory, and query processing procedures involved.
4) You will do a group class project (2-3 students per group) and develop a detailed presentation/report on the project. The goal will be to understand the formal theory of an exotic family of logics (e.g. description logic, spatial logic).

TEACHING METHODS AND PHILOSOPHY:

This is an advanced topics course which will have a strong mathematical component. You will be expected to understand the strengths of weaknesses of different logical formulations, write proofs of results associated with these logics, and generate counterexamples as appropriate.

EXPECTATION AND NORMS:

Students will be expected to have thoroughly read the material to be discussed in each class – and they should come prepared to discuss the material. Students are expected to participate actively in discussions during the class.

GRADING:

Your course grade at the end of the semester will be determined by your performance on the course project (30% of grade), the final exam (30% of grade), homework (30% of grade), and participation in class (10% of grade).

COURSE COORDINATORS: V.S. Subrahmanian
COURSE INSTRUCTOR: V.S. Subrahmanian