DTSC 8140             Foundations of AI                 Fall 2025


Textbook (suggested):
Artificial Intelligence, a Modern Approach
Stuart Russell, Peter Norvig
Prentice Hall Series in AI

Course Syllabus for DTSC 8140 (Foundations of AI) & ITCS/ITIS 8150 (AI)
https://catalog.charlotte.edu/preview_course_nopop.php?catoid=41&coid=145368

Foundations of AI techniques and their applications in various real-world domains and how to implement a system with intelligent functionality. Students will learn to judge when intelligent functionality and AI may be a good solution for a problem and be able to choose suitable AI methods and techniques.

Topics to be covered:

Agents
Search Algorithms (Uniformed, Informed, Adversarial)
Logical Agents
Games and Puzzles
Knowledge Graphs
Monte Carlo Method
Rough Sets and Dempster-Shafer Theory
Propositional Logic
First-Order Logic
Resolution
Gentzen Systems
Modal Logic
Triangular Norms
Fuzzy Logic
Machine Learning & Deep Learning
Folksonomy
Large Language Models
Generative AI
Recommender Systems
Recommender Systems in Business, Healthcare, Art

Student Learning Outcomes:

(1) Getting familiar with variety of methods, tools, and techniques needed to build intelligent systems
(2) Getting familiar with mathematical foundations of AI, including different types of logics
(3) Learning how to design and build AI-based systems with an interactive interface and provide proper documentation

Attendance Policy:

Attendance is mandatory (see grading policy below).

To be eligible to receive credits (1 point) for each attendance, you should not come in late or leave early for the class. Excuse absence must be accompanied by official documentation that clearly states that you were physically unable to make the class.

Office Hours (August 19 - Dec 2)

If you have questions concerning any topic covered in the class, please join me during my office hours scheduled either in Center City 713, or on ZOOM every week.

Office hours in Center City or ZOOM sessions are listed below:

Zbigniew Chris Ras
- Office Hours in the Center City, Room 715C (Aug 19, 26, Sept 9, 23, 30, Oct 21, 28, Nov 18, 25).
Tuesday: 5:00-7:00pm
-Office Hours on ZOOM (Sept 2, 16, Oct 7, Nov 4, 11, Dec 2)
Tuesday: 2:00-4:00pm
ZOOM LINK: https://charlotte-edu.zoom.us/j/99819646816

LINK TO CLASS GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER

What subjects and when will be covered:

Date Topic Reading Slides
Week 1 August 19 Introduction
Agents
Uniformed Searches
Informed Searches
Optimization		 Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4		 PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
Week 2 August 26 Dijkstra Algorithm
Informed Searches
Advesarial Search		 Chapter 4
Games
Sudoku
Chapter 6		 PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
Week 3 September 2 Sample Problems
Logical Agents, Chapter 7
What is Knowledge Graph
Knowledge Graphs		 Asynchronous
Office Hours on ZOOM: 2:00-4:00pm		 PDF
PDF
PDF
Video
Week 4 September 9 Reducts & Core
Dempster-Shafer (DS) Theory
Propositional Logic
Decomposition Rules
Gentzen-Type Systems (RS)		 Chapter 7 PPT
PPT
PowerPoint
JPG
PDF
Week 5 September 16 Monte Carlo Simulation
Puzzles, Exercises 		Asynchronous
Office Hours on ZOOM: 2:00-4:00pm		 Video
PDF
Week 6 September 23 DS Theory (Exercises)
Propositional Logic
First-Order Logic
 Chapter 7
Chapter 9, Part 1
Formal Definition		 PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PDF
Week 7 September 30 First-Order Logic
Exercises		 Chapter 9, Part 2
Resolution Strategies
Project		 PowerPoint
Word
PDF
Week 8 October 7 Midterm Exam Sample
Review AI1
Review AI2		 Asynchronous
Office Hours on ZOOM: 2:00-4:00pm		 PDF
PDF
PDF
Week 9 October 14 Midterm Exam PDF
Week 10 October 21 Resolution - Exercises
Rough Sets & DS & Modal Logic 		Rough Sets
Modal Logic
Exercises, Solutions		 PDF
PDF
PDF, PDF, PDF
Week 11 October 28 Triangular norms
Fuzzy Logic
RSES Software		 Lectures PDF
PPT
PowerPoint
Week 12 November 4 Machine Learning
ID3, Random Forest
Association Rules
Deep Learning		 Asynchronous
Office Hours on ZOOM: 2:00-4:00pm		 Video1
PPT, Video2
Video3, Video4
Video5
Week 13 November 11 Large Language Models
Recommender Systems (RS)		 Asynchronous
Office Hours on ZOOM: 2:00-4:00pm		 Video
PowerPoint
Week 14 November 18 Content-Based RS
Knowledge Based RS
RS in Healthcare
RS in Business
RS in Art		 Lectures PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
PowerPoint
Power Point
Week 15 November 25 Review Link
November 28 PROJECT DUE DATE
Maximum 2 students on the team
Project Rubric
Week 16 December 2 Generative AI, ChatGPT
Reinforcement Learning		 Asynchronous
Office Hours on ZOOM: 2:00-4:00pm		 Video
Final December 9 Final Exam 2:00-4:30pm City 1101


ADDITIONAL PRESENTATIONS

  • Exercise: Mini-Max 9 pennies (PPT format)
  • Intelligent Agents or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • More about Intelligent Agents (PPT format)
  • Solving Problems by Searching or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Informed Search Algorithms or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Constraint Satisfaction Problems or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Game Playing or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Agents and Propositional Logic or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Logic Agents (PPT format)
  • First Order Logic (FOL) or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Inference in FOL or alternate Presentation (PPT format)
  • Learning(PPT format)
  • Knowledge Discovery (PPT format)
  • Sample Problem (Resolution)

    • Midterm (City 1101): Oct 14 (Tuesday)
    • Project (Canvas) - deadline to submit: Nov 28
    • Final (City 1101): Dec 9 (Tuesday), 2:00-4:30pm

    Grades

    • Midterm - 30 points, Final - 32 points, Project (maximum 2 students on the team) - 30 points, Attendance - 8 points
    • Grade A from 90 to 100 points, Grade B from 80 to 89 points, Grade C from 65 to 79 points.

  • Sample Problems

    Class meetings:

                Location: City 1101
                Time: Tuesday, 2:00-4:45pm


    Instructor:       Zbigniew W. Ras

    Office: Woodward 430C
    e-mail: ras@uncc.edu Office Hours on ZOOM (on days when the class is asynchronous):
    When: Tuesday: 2:00-4:00pm
    Where: https://charlotte-edu.zoom.us/j/99819646816