FIT3094 Course Outline: 2014

FIT3094 : Artificial Life, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Environments

Lecturers:	Associate Professor Alan Dorin Rm. 135, Bldg. 63 (1st floor, South Wing), Clayton Campus
Lecture time & location:	Caulfield campus, Monash University Wednesdays, 10-12pm, room CA_H/HB39 Semester 1, 2014
Tutorial times:	Wednesdays, 12-2pm, room CA_B/B342B (from week 2) - Zoe Bukovac / Tim Taylor OR Wednesdays, 2-4pm, room CA_B/B343 (from week 2) - Alan Dorin
Consultation times:	Wednesdays, 1:30-2:00pm and 4:00-4:30pm, CA_H/Mama-Duke's cafe – please make appointments during lecture, lab or by email
Assessment and due dates:	2hr examination 60%, assignment excercises 40% A pass grade in each of the examination and assignment excercises is a hurdle requirement for successful completion of this unit. Assignment 1 Due Week 7, 16 April 2014, 6pm - Assignment part 1 code submission. Compulsory demo occurs in the lab session immediately before the deadline. Failure to present this demo results in a grade of 0N for the assignment. Assignment 2 Due Week 12, 28 May 2014, 6pm - Assignment part 2 code submission. Compulsory demo occurs in the lab session immediately before the deadline. Failure to present this demo results in a grade of 0N for the assignment.

Course Co/Pre-requisite knowledge:

Pre-requisite: FIT2049 Games Programming using C++
Assumed knowledge includes: (i) programming to second year Computer Science level in an object-oriented programming language such as C++ or Java (ii) programming within a UNIX environment (iii) effective use of FTP, telnet/rlogin under UNIX (iv) A knowledge of OpenGL will be helpful but is not an essential pre-requisite. Nevertheless, students will be exposed to OpenGL during the course and expected to use it in the form of the GLUT to complete their assignment work.
Communication Skills: Effective written and spoken English communication skills are required. If your communication skills in English are not of a high standard, you must seek assistance from language and learning officers (access via the Monash library). Students will be assessed on their ability to write in English.
Co-requisites: nil
Payment of fees: All students must have paid their university fees as required. Students who have not done this on time will not be able to complete the assessment requirements and will therefore not pass the course. This is university policy.

Course materials:

Moodle FIT3094 and/or URL: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~cema/courses/FIT3094/index.html

Course overview:

This unit will introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial Life (AL) techniques that can be used in games development, interactive software, generative art, cinema special effects and for scientific research. The construction of virtual enviornments in which AI and AL agents can be situated will also be discussed. This unit will build upon previous C++ programming skills, and provide a strong grounding for further study in this area, especially related to games development, intelligent systems and biological or ecological simulation.

Practical assignments and excercises provide ample scope for creative expression and utilization of the theory presented in lectures. Students will be assessed on their ability to think and design innovatively, as well as on their understanding of the theoretical issues presented in lectures.

Course topics include:

Algorithms and Theory	Practice
History of Artificial Intelligence History of Artificial Life Finite state automata Search algorithms Neural networks Evolutionary Algorithms	Behaviour generation Movement strategies Complex environments Virtual ecosystems Coordinated group behaviour Vector arithmetic

A full lecture-by-lecture topic listing is available.

Textbooks.

Artificial Life: Dorin, A., Biological Bits: A brief guide to the ideas and artefacts of computational Artificial Life, iBook/PDF/online, Monash University, 2014 [Available during semester]

Artificial Intelligence: Texts written about AI are in abundance. It is not necessary to buy any of these books to complete the course. Each lecture will have a short reading list associated with it. Where this reading is a required part of the course it will be stated so in the notes.

Programming: Reference manuals will be useful for all students completing the course but hardcopies are not strictly required as the online resources for C++ and OpenGL / GLUT are good.

Possible (paper) programming references...

OpenGL Architecture Review Board, Dave Shreiner, Mason Woo, Jackie Neider, Tom Davis, OpenGL(R) Programming Guide: The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL(R), Version 2.1 (6th Edition), Addison-Wesley, 2007

Bjarne Stroustrup, The C++ Programming Language, Addison-Wesley, 2013 (4th edition)

* Students are reminded to consult University materials on cheating, in particular:

Student Resource Guide at http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/handbooks/srg/

Statute 4.1 on Discipline at http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/calendar/statutes/statutes04.html

It is the student's responsibility to make themselves familiar with the contents of these documents.

Courseware