Schedule of Topics

Key: LS = The Little Schemer; CA = Concrete Abstractions
Week Dates Topics Readings and Notes
1 Sept. 3-5 Introduction to Scheme and Recursion LS Chapters 1-3; GEB handout
2 Sept. 10-12 Simple Recursion LS Chapters 4-6
3 Sept. 17-19 Structural Recursion Last day to add: Monday 9/16
LS Chapters 7-8
4 Sept. 24-26 Data Abstraction CA Chapters 1-2, section 3.3
5 Oct. 1 Higher-Order Procedures CA Chapter 5
Oct. 3 EXAM 1: Thursday, 7-9pm in Millikan 211
6 Oct. 8-10 The Turing Test
Input/Output; Sequential Execution
CA Chapter 6
Computing Machinery and Intelligence (Turing)
A Coffeehouse Conversation on the Turing Test (Hofstadter)
7 Oct. 15-17 Natural Language Query System CA Chapter 7
8 Oct. 22 F A L L     B R E A K
Oct. 24 Turing Machines and Computability
Scheme Vectors
 
Last day to P/NC or drop: Thursday 10/24
9 Oct. 29-31 Universal Turing Machines Proof or Consequences (Casti)
10 Nov. 5-7 Physical Symbol Systems
The Chinese Room
Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry (Newell and Simon)
Minds, Brains, and Programs (Searle)
11 Nov. 12 Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming A Conversation with Einstein's Brain (Hofstadter)
Nov. 14 EXAM 2
12 Nov. 19-21 Object-Oriented Programming
Neural Network Models of Memory
The Appeal of Parallel Distributed Processing (McClelland, Rumelhart, Hinton)
13 Nov. 26 Neural Network Models of Learning
Introduction to Robotics
Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology (Braitenberg)
Nov. 28 T H A N K S G I V I N G     B R E A K
14 Dec. 3-5 Braitenberg Vehicles
Embodied Cognition
Intelligence Without Representation (Brooks)
15 Dec. 10 Subsumption Architecture  
FINAL EXAM: Thursday, December 19, 9:00 AM