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Previous years: [Autumn 2005] [Autumn 2006]

Back to future: [Autumn 2008]

This is an advanced course on knowledge representation, automated reasoning and decision making. In autumn 2007, the course concentrates on answer set programming (ASP) which is a new rule-based constraint programming paradigm. A more detailed brochure and program are available.

General Information

• Please use the TOPI system for registration (active September 5, 12:00 — September 24, 12:00). Late registration by contacting the lecturer directly.
• This course replaces two former courses: T-79.154 Logic in Computer Science: Special Topics II and T-79.230 Foundations of Agent-Based Computing. The course contents is partially based on T-79.154 this term.
• Lectures: Docent, D.Sc.(Tech.) Tomi Janhunen, Mondays, 12—14, room TB353, starting on the 17th of September
• Tutorials: M.Sc.(Tech.) Antti Hyvärinen, Tuesdays, 15—16, room TB353
• Course material: lecture notes and articles.
• Supplementary reading (not required): Chitta Baral: Knowledge Representation, Reasoning, and Declarative Problem Solving. First edition. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• Course brochure
• Tentative schedule for lectures

Course Material

Lecture Notes

• Practical arrangements (.ps)
• Lecture 1: Introduction (.ps)
• Lecture 2: Positive Programs (.ps)
• Lecture 3: Normal Programs (.ps)
• Lecture 4: Further Primitives (.ps)
• Lecture 5: Modelling Aspects (.ps)
• Lecture 6: AI Planning (.ps); source code for the blocks' world domain and after splitting operators
• Lecture 7: Complexity and Approximation (.ps)
• Lecture 8: Implementation Techniques (.ps)
• Lecture 9: Equivalence Checking (.ps)
• Lecture 10: Modularity Aspects (.ps)
• Lecture 11: Relationship with propositional logic (.ps); source code for a tight normal program
• Lecture 12: Translation into propositional logic (.ps)

Exercise Problems from Tutorials

• Tutorial 1 (.ps)
• Tutorial 2 (.ps)
• Tutorial 3 (.ps); source code for the 8-queens problem with plain normal rules and choice rules and constraints
• Tutorial 4 (.ps); source code for the tournament scheduling problem
• Tutorial 5 (.ps); source code for the knapsack problem
• Tutorial 6 (.ps)
• Tutorial 7 (.ps)
• Tutorial 8 (.ps)
• Tutorial 9 (.ps)
• Tutorial 10 (.ps)
• Tutorial 11 (.ps)
• Tutorial 12 (.ps)
  To be arranged exceptionally on Monday, the 10th of December, 2007, at 14:15, in TB353

Articles

[EL03] Erdem, E. and Lifschitz, V.:Tight Logic Programs.

Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 3(4—5), 499—518, 2003.

[JO07] Janhunen, T. and Oikarinen, E.: Automated Verification of Weak Equivalence within the Smodels System.

Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, 7(6), 697—744, 2007.

[LZ03] Lin, F. and Zhao, J.: On Tight Logic Programs and Yet Another Translation from Normal Logic Programs to Propositional Logic.

In the Proceedings of IJCAI'03, 853—858, 2003.

[LZ03] Lin, F. and Zhao, J.: ASSAT: computing answer sets of a logic program by SAT solvers.

Artificial Intelligence, 115—137, 2004.

[Nie99] Niemelä, I.: Logic Programs with Stable Model Semantics as a Constraint Programming Paradigm.

Annals of Mathematics and Artificial Ingelligence, 24(3—4), 241—273, 1999.

[SNS02] Simons, P., Niemelä, I., and Soininen, T.: Extending and implementing the stable model semantics.

Artificial Intelligence, 138(1—2):181—234, 2002.

[SN99] Soininen, T., Niemelä, I.: Developing a Declarative Rule Language for Applications in Product Configuration.

In the Proceedins of Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages, 305—319, 1999.

Home Assignments

• Results for home assignments 1—3 as of June 10, 2008.
• Home assignments are strictly personal and supposed to be done individually on the basis of the course material given.
• We create a dedicated home directory for each student registered for the course.
• You should expect an email (on October 16, 2007) which gives you access rights to your home directory.
• Please include a copy of the question sheet to your answers which can be returned to lectures, tutorials, or the white mailbox that is located just outside room TB336.
• Each home assignment is graded on a scale 0—5 (1 is required to pass).
• Each home assignment weighs 10% when the final course grade is calculated. The share of the final exam is 70%.

Schedule

• HA1: October 16, 2007; deadline November 5, 2007.
• HA2: October 23, 2007; deadline November 12, 2007.
• HA3: November 28, 2007; deadline December 12, 2007.

For the third home assignment, we provide a pair of modularly equivalent programs P_k and Q_k as an example how to declare external atoms in program modules. However, the front-end lparse produces warnings about atoms which lack defining rules.

Links

• The SMODELS system — the source code of SMODELS (version 2.32) and LPARSE (version 1.0.17 is recommended for now)
• You may also want to try CLASP (version 1.0.4) which is a SMODELS look-alike
• LPARSE user's manual
• The ASPTOOLS collection — the binaries of IGEN, LEN, LPCAT, LPLIST, and TESTSM
• Translation-based verification tool — the binary of LPEQ
• Some freeBSD binaries (as of Dec 3, 2007) have been installed under /u/1/ttj/asptools/bin at Niksula.

Feedback

• It is possible to give course feedback from December 10, 2007, until January 7, 2008.
• Please use the respective form in Finnish, Swedish, or English.

Examinations

• Please use the TOPI system in order to get registered for an exam.
• December 17, 2007, final results (published Jan 23, 2008)
• March 6, 2008, final results (published Mar 31, 2008)
• May 7, 2008, final results (published June 10, 2008)