Extra Credit

There are two options for extra credit in this course, you may do one or the other, but not both. Either option can add up to 5 points to your overall grade. The number of extra credit points earned will depend on the quality of work, and only truly exceptional work will receive the full 5 points. The options are:

Paper

Research some topic of AI and write a paper on it. Your paper must be 15-25 pages (double-spaced) and must cite at least five different references. These references must be books or papers from journal and conference proceedings, simply Googling a topic and taking the first five hits is not acceptable. Many possible references can be found in the Fairchild Martindale library. You may wish to consider recent proceedings from the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, or relevant journals such as AI Magazine, IEEE Intelligent Systems, and Artificial Intelligence. Another possible source for articles is the CiteSeer Research Index (http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/cs) of online computer science publications. Direct quotations should be used sparingly (if at all), and when used must be clearly indicated and the appropriate reference cited. Plagiarism of any form will not be tolerated. The value of the assignment will be based on the depth of your research, the organization of the paper, and the quality of your writing. It is important that your paper demonstrates that you have read material beyond what is simply available in the textbook. To receive credit, you must turn in a hard copy of the paper and discuss it with me in person.

Programming Project

Write a computer program that demonstrates or compares one or more of the algorithms that we have studied in class. The value of the assignment will be based on how difficult the project was and how correct your program is. Projects that serve as good teaching aids by graphically depicting the steps of the algorithm are especially encouraged. In order to receive credit, you must demonstrate the program for me and turn in your source code, both in hard and soft copy.

In both cases, I must approve your idea for an extra credit assignment before you begin it. In order to receive approval, write a one paragraph proposal for your project and meet with me to discuss it. Due to the significance of credit that can be received, you are expected to do a major project that should take at least a month to complete. Therefore, you must get your project approved before April 5. The assignment must be completed by May 3 at the latest.