Teaching-CSC4504 for Dr J. Paul Gibson, INFormatique (INF), Telecom SudParis, France.

Formal Languages and Applications

This web site contains 50% of the material for the module CSC4504. The remainder of the material is to be taught by Amel Mammar, who is also the module co-ordinator. A summary of the course objectives can be found here: Template-CSC4504.pdf.

The material will be uploaded dynamically: the teaching approach is based on PBL and much of the learning will be through interaction/group work during the assigned lecturing time. (Please check the website for updates before every lecture.) We will cover the following topics:
• Logic (and formal) programming
• Deduction, reasoning and problem solving.
• Foundations of AI: Symbolic reasoning, expert systems, Brute Force methods, Search and optimization, uncertainty, statistical learning, natural language processing

Assessment

NOTE: The deadline for submission is 5th January 20018, before noon
You will be evaluated on the work that you submit for each of the following problems:
• Using a genetic algorithm to solve a complex problem
• Implementing alpha-beta for intelligent play
• Program in Prolog to check paths in graphs
• Odds and Evens in Event-B - proving a non trivial property
• NLP - Text predictor system
• Neural network - perceptrons for lines and triangles
• Swarm intelligence - research report/article on the state-of-the-art
• Collective intelligence - distributed donations (sum) problem

Your mark is calculated as the average of the best 3 solutions you submit to the given problems. A more detailed breakdown of the marking scheme for each problem is found in:
• Assessment
• pdf

Reference Material

Suitable material will be provided (for download at the web site) for each session. Some general mathematics texts (with Software Engineering focus) that you may find useful are:

Sessions

Sessions are a mix of problem-based learning, group project work, directed practicals, interactive lectures and traditional lectures. There is no preset format - the lecturer organises the style and content of each session depending on the needs of the class. The material is in English but the class will be given in French.

Session 1: Monday 23rd October (14h00, E209)

Problems 1a - 1d

Additional reading material

This material is to help motivate the need for logic and formal methods in software engineering.

Useful External Link(s)

Session 2: Thursday 23rd November (9h45, B07)

Sample Answer to Prime Number problem (3) in previous session

Problem 2: travelling salesman using genetic algorithm

The objective of this problem is to learn about evolutionary computation models, with a focus on genetic algorithms.

Additional reading material

Useful External Links

Session 3: Thursday 30th November (9h45, D012)

Problem 3: Noughts and crosses using minmax (alpha-beta pruning)

The lecture notes explain your task - a perfect Noughts and Crosses player.

Additional reading material

Useful External Links

Session 4: Monday 4th December (14h00, B07)

Problem 4: Natural Language Processing

Additional reading material

Useful External Links

Session 5: Thursday 7th December (9h45, B111)

Problem 5: Introducing Neural Networks

Additional reading material

Useful External Links

Session 6: Thursday 14th December (9h45, B111)

Problem 6: Introducing Swarm, Collective Intelligence and CrowdSourcing

We will look at some of the main concepts, and a small collective intelligence (distributed algorithm) example problem.

• Problem 6 - A Collective Distributed Algorithm
• Problem6-CollectiveIntelligence.pdf
• Threads.zip java threads example problem

Additional reading material

Useful External Links

Session 7: Monday 18th December (14h00, B03)

Problem 7: Getting to grips with Prolog

Additional reading material

Useful External Links

Session 8: Thursday 21st December (9h45, B08)

Problem 8: EventB, Rodin and automated proving

Useful External Links

Useful Files