George
Mason University
School of Engineering
Department of Computer Science
CS 499 Knowledge Engineering
Meeting
time: Thursday 4:30 pm - 7:10 pm
Meeting location: Innovation Hall 327
Instructor: Dr. Gheorghe Tecuci,
Professor of Computer Science
Office
hours: Monday and Thursday 7:20 pm - 8:10
pm
Office: Nguyen Engineering Building, Learning Agents Center, Room 4613
Phone: 703 993 1722
E-mail: tecuci at gmu
dot edu
Course Description
Prerequisite: C or better in CS 310 and CS 330
This course presents the theory and
practice of knowledge engineering, the discipline concerned with the design,
development, and maintenance of intelligent agents that use knowledge and
reasoning to perform problem solving and decision making tasks. It covers the basic concepts, principles, methods, and tools for the main stages in the development of
a knowledge-based agent: understanding the application domain, modeling problem
solving in that domain, developing the ontology, learning the reasoning rules,
and testing the agent. The classes will consist of three parts: theory, tools,
and project. In the theoretical part, the instructor will discuss various
methods for developing knowledge-based agents. In the second part the students
will experience the use of advanced agent development tools. In the project
part the students will design and develop cognitive assistants for
evidence-based reasoning in domains of their choice (e.g., cybersecurity, science
education, medicine, intelligence analysis, forensics, etc.). Such a cognitive
assistant can learn complex problem-solving expertise directly from human
experts, can support experts and nonexperts in
problem solving and decision making, and can teach their problem-solving
expertise to students.
Students will have accounts on
Blackboard and can download the lecture notes by going to courses.gmu.edu and
logging in using their Mason IDs and passwords.
The Disciple agent development
environment used in this course is available only for Windows. If you have a
Macintosh computer and want to install the software on it, you will have to use
either a virtual machine or BootCamp to install
Windows on your Macintosh computer. VMWare Fusion and Windows are available at
no charge through your enrollment in Volgenau School courses. Instructions for
obtaining the software are in the Microsoft DreamSpark & VMWare FAQs on http://labs.vse.gmu.edu
Outcomes
- A knowledge of evidence-based reasoning and knowledge-based
reasoning.
- A knowledge of modeling expert problem solving.
- A knowledge of designing and developing ontologies.
- A knowledge of developing reasoning rules through agent
teaching and learning.
- An ability to design and develop knowledge-based agents.
Course
Topics
- Artificial Intelligence, Knowledge Engineering, and
Intelligent Agents
- Evidence-Based Reasoning
- Methodologies and Tools for Agent Design and Development
- Modeling the Problem Solving Process
- Ontology Design and Development
- Reasoning with Ontologies and Rules
- Learning for Knowledge-Based Agents
- Rule Learning
- Rule Refinement
- Abstraction of Reasoning
- Design Principles for Cognitive Assistants
Grading Policy
- Project Assignments and Class participation: 15%
- Final Project: 25%
- Mid-term Exam: 30%
- Final Exam: 30%
Readings
- Tecuci G., Marcu D., Boicu M., and Schum D.A. (2016), Knowledge Engineering: Building Cognitive
Assistants for Evidence-based Reasoning, Cambridge University Press.
- Tecuci G., Lecture
Notes on Knowledge Engineering, Fall 2016 (provided by the instructor).
- Additional papers required or recommended by the instructor.
Email
Communication
- Please use your Mason email and include CS499 in the subject of any
message you are emailing to Dr. Tecuci.
- Please try to limit the size of the files you are emailing.
Mason
Email Accounts
Students must activate their Mason email accounts to
receive important University information, including messages related to this
class.
Office
of Disability Services
If you are a student with a disability and you need
academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability
Services (ODS) at 993-2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged
through the ODS. http://ods.gmu.edu.
Other
Useful Campus Resources
- Writing Center: A114 Robinson Hall; (703) 993-1200; http://writingcenter.gmu.edu
- University Libraries: Ask a Librarian http://library.gmu.edu/ask
- Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): (703) 993-2380; http://caps.gmu.edu
University
Policies
The University Catalog, http://catalog.gmu.edu, is the central resource for university policies affecting student,
faculty, and staff conduct in university affairs. You may also review the
University Policy web site, http://universitypolicy.gmu.edu/
Honor
Code
You
are expected to abide by the Mason honor code. Information on the university
honor code can be found at http://academicintegrity.gmu.edu/honorcode/.
Additional
departmental CS information: http://cs.gmu.edu/wiki/pmwiki.php/HonorCode/CSHonorCodePolicies