Cmput 455 — Search, Knowledge, and Simulations, Fall 2021

Help and References, General

• University of Alberta important links. Crisis Help, academic schedule, policies, etc.

• Course outline
• Course policies
• Teaching team
• Course site on eclass, for quizzes, exams, assignment submission, forum, announcements, and readings
• Assignments
  • Assignment 1
  • Assignment 2
  • Assignment 3
  • Assignment 4
• Activities
• Learning resources
• Python 3 Sample Code
• Python 3 Language, Install,...
• Python 3 for Cmput 455 Bootcamp/Refresher

455 Week by Week

Week 1, Sep 01 – Sep 03

• Slides:
• Lecture 1 - The game of Go and Computer Go
• Do Quiz 0 and 1 on eClass
• Activities: Do the Lecture 1 Activities

Week 2, Sep 06 – Sep 10

• Assignment 1: due Sep 20
• Slides:
• Lecture 2 - Basic Data Structures and Algorithms for Computer Go
• Lecture 3 - Problem solving and Decision-making
• Quiz 2: on eClass. Please read "Reinforcement Renaissance" by Krakovsky (in activities)
• Activities: Do the Lecture 2 Activities and Lecture 3 Activities

Week 3, Sep 13 – Sep 17

• Assignment 1: due Sep 20
• Slides:
• Lecture 4 - Formalizing decision-making and games
• Lecture 5 - Sequential Decision-making
• Quiz 3: on eClass
• Activities: Do the Lecture 4 Activities and Lecture 5 Activities

Week 4, Sep 20 – Sep 24

• Assignment 1: due Sep 20
• Slides:
• Lecture 6 - Preparing for Search - Profiling and Optimizing Go Code
• Lecture 7 - Introduction to Search and Heuristic Search
• Lecture 7 extras (optional) - more on blind search and single-agent heuristic search
• Do Quiz 4 on eClass
• Activities: Do the Lecture 6 Activities and Lecture 7 Activities
• Lots of new Code: Python code Go2, Assignment 2 starter code, Lecture 7 sample codes

Week 5, Sep 27 – Oct 01

• Assignment 2: due Oct 18
• Start on Assignment 2
• Slides:
• Lecture 8 - Minimax and Alphabeta part 1
• Do Quiz 5 on eClass
• Lots of new Activities: Do the Lecture 8 Activities

Week 6, Oct 04 – Oct 08

• Assignment 2: due Oct 18
• Slides:
• Lecture 9 - Minimax and Alphabeta Part 2
• Lecture 10 - Minimax and Alphabeta Part 3
• Do Quiz 6 on eClass
• Activities: Do the Lecture 9 Activities and Lecture 10 Activities
• Code: see all the minimax Python code for Lecture 9 and 10

Week 7, Oct 11 – Oct 15

• Midterm Oct 12
  • Midterm Study Guide
• Assignment 2: due Oct 18
• No quiz this week
• Slides:
• Lecture 11 - Knowledge for Heuristic Search
• Activities for Lecture 11

Week 8, Oct 18 – Oct 22

• Assignment 2: due Oct 18
• Do Quiz 7 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 12 - Simulations in Game Tree Search
• Lecture 13 - Simulations in Go, patterns and filters
• Lots of new Activities: for Lecture 12
and Lecture 13
• Lots of Code: Lecture 12 demos and experiments, Tic-Tac-Toe with simulations, and Go3

Week 9, Oct 25 – Oct 29

• Assignment 3: due Nov 15
• Quiz 8 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 14 - Probabilistic Simulation Policies
• Lecture 15 - UCB for Move Selection
• Activities for Lecture 14
• Code: see Python code

Week 10, Nov 01 – Nov 05

• Assignment 3: due Nov 15
• Do Quiz 9 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 16 - Monte Carlo Tree Search
• Lecture 17 - Introduction to Machine Learning for Heuristic Search
• Reading for Lecture 16
• Code for Go4 and Go5.

Reading week, Nov 08 – Nov 12

• Assignment 3: due Nov 15

Week 11, Nov 15 – Nov 19

• Assignment 3: due Nov 15
• Do Quiz 10 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 18 - Machine Learning with Simple Features and Move Prediction in Go
• Lecture 19 - Introduction to Neural Networks
• Reading and Activities for Lecture 18
and Lecture 19
• New Code: see Python code for neural nets

Week 12, Nov 22 – Nov 26

• Assignment 4: due Dec 14
• Quiz 10 on eClass
• Do Quiz 11 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 20 - Deep Neural Networks for Move Prediction in Go
• Lecture 21 - Reinforcement Learning and TD-Gammon
• Activities: Watch Rich Sutton's RL tutorial (links in eClass)

Week 13, Nov 29 – Dec 03

• Assignment 4: due Dec 14
• Do Quiz 12 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 22 - AlphaGo - The Early Versions
• Lecture 23 - AlphaGo Zero
• Reading and Activities for Lecture 22

Week 14, Dec 06 – Dec 10

• Assignment 4: due Dec 14
• Do Quiz 13 on eClass
• Slides:
• Lecture 24 - AlphaZero

Final exam, Dec 20

• Online final exam on eclass
• Final exam study guide

Created: Oct 2, 2017 Last modified: Dec 7, 2021

Martin Müller, Ting-Han Wei, and James Wright