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CS371

CS371 Cognitive Science

This is the homepage for CS371 Cognitive Science, Fall 2003 at [WWW]Bryn Mawr College in the [WWW]Computer Science Department, Philadelphia, PA.

Cognitive science is the inter-disciplinary study of intelligence in mechanical and organic systems. In this introductory course, we examine many topics from psychology, philosophy, computer science, linguistics, neuroscience, and mathematics. Some questions that we will examine: Can a computer be intelligent? How do neurons give rise to thinking? What is consciousness? No prior knowledge or experience with any of the sub-fields is assumed or necessary.

CS371Discussion

  1. CS371 Cognitive Science
    1. General Information
    2. Materials
      1. Texts
      2. Software
    3. Schedule
    4. Grading
    5. Links

General Information

Instructor: Douglas Blank, 246B Park Hall, (610)526-6501

Email: dblank@cs.brynmawr.edu

Web sites:

Instructor http://dangermouse.brynmawr.edu
Edventure http://edventure.brynmawr.edu
Notes (this page) http://wiki.cs.brynmawr.edu/?CS371

Teaching Assistant: N/A

TA Lab Hours: N/A

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.

Lecture room: Park Science Building, room 338

Laboratory Hours: TBA

CS Laboratory: Park 232 (need access code)

Materials

Texts

This course does not have a textbook. We will read papers available online.

Software

We will use a few software packages, all available on the Computer Science network. You will need an account on http://bubo.brynmawr.edu/.

Schedule

This schedule may change. Please check here often. 

      September               October               November               December
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa   Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
    1  2  3  4  5  6             1  2  3  4                      1       1  2  3  4  5  6
 7  8  9 10 11 12 13    5  6  7  8  9 10 11    2  3  4  5  6  7  8    7  8  9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20   12 13 14 15 16 17 18    9 10 11 12 13 14 15   14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27   19 20 21 22 23 24 25   16 17 18 19 20 21 22   21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30               26 27 28 29 30 31      23 24 25 26 27 28 29   28 29 30 31
                       30
Week/Day Dates Topic Assignment due Links
1 T Sep 1 - Sep 5 Intro Discuss: What is Cognitive Science?
1 R Sep 1 - Sep 5 Intro [WWW]Reflections #1: What is intelligence? Give a definition.
2 T Sep 8 - Sep 12 Intelligence Reading: [WWW]Minds, Brains, and Programs [WWW]Reflections #2 [WWW]Rules, [WWW]Data
2 R Sep 8 - Sep 12 Intelligence Reading: [WWW]Computing Machinery and Intelligence
3 T Sep 15 - Sep 19 Intelligence Reading: [WWW]The Turing Test: A Coffeehouse Conversation [WWW]Reflections #3
3 R Sep 15 - Sep 19 Psychology Braitenberg's Vehicles [WWW]Reflections #4 My definition of intelligence: Definition:Intelligence
4 T Sep 22 - Sep 26 Robotics Pyro Reading: PyroModules
4 R Sep 22 - Sep 26 Robotics Pyro Reading: PyroModules
5 T Sep 29 - Oct 3 Robotics Experiments Discuss findings of Project #1
5 R Sep 29 - Oct 3 Psychology: Brains Guest Lecture: Laura Barde, Psychology. Discuss Chapter Handout
6 T Oct 6 - Oct 10 Psychology: Neural models Discuss Intro to NNs, Discuss PDP, Chapter #1
6 R Oct 6 - Oct 10 Psychology: back-propagation Discuss [WWW]Neural Networks, Assign Project #2 [WWW]Backprop Trace
7 T Oct 13 - Oct 17 Fall Break
7 R Oct 13 - Oct 17 Fall Break
8 T Oct 20 - Oct 24 Neural Networks [WWW]Backprop Trace
8 R Oct 20 - Oct 24 NN Controlled Robots SimpleAvoidBrain
9 T Oct 27 - Oct 31 Robot Learning PyroCognitiveScience:RobotLearning
9 R Oct 27 - Oct 31 Robot Learning PyroCognitiveScience:RobotLearning
10 T Nov 3 - Nov 7 Analogies: Metacat Metacat - on-line docs Discuss [WWW]Metacat
10 R Nov 3 - Nov 7 Analogies: Metacat Metacat - on-line docs
11 T Nov 10 - Nov 14 Analogies: Metacat Metacat - Project #3
11 R Nov 10 - Nov 14 Analogies: Analogator Project #3 Due
12 T Nov 17 - Nov 21 Analogies: Analogator Final Project Proposals due next week
12 R Nov 17 - Nov 21 Evolutionary Systems PyroModuleEvolutionaryAlgorithms Assign Project #4
13 T Nov 24 - Nov 28 Evolutionary Systems PyroModuleEvolutionaryAlgorithms
13 R Nov 24 - Nov 28 Thanksgiving break
14 T Dec 1 - Dec 5 Philosophy [WWW]The Matrix as Metaphysics, David Chalmers. R#
14 R Dec 1 - Dec 5 Philosophy:
15 T Dec 8 - Dec 12 Project presentations
15 R Dec 8 - Dec 12 Project presentations
Exams Dec 15 - Dec 19

Other possible readings:

Grading

There will be weekly reaction reports that you will write. Each will be just a couple of pages of text written by you providing comment on the readings and lab experiments. These reports will be submitted using [WWW]Edventure.

All work will receive a grade between 0.0 and 4.0 (typically the Bryn Mawr scale 4.0, 3.7, 3.3, 3.0, 2.7, 2.3, 2.0, 1.7, 1.3, 1.0, or 0.0 will be used). At the end of the semester, final grades will be calculated as an average of all grades according to the following weights:

Links