Intelligent agents

Course goals

Upon successful completion of this course, the student:

• knows the computational foundations of agent technology
• is able to read and assess the research literature in this field masters  important  agent architectures and can apply them to build running agents
• is able to use logic as a modelling and specification framework for AI applications, and thus contributes to the mastery of technical artificial intelligence at an advanced academic level
• has a good understanding of how agent technology falls within the areas of AI and computer science

Assessment

• project (40% of the final mark)
• online quizzes (10%)
• final exam (50%)

To qualify for a repair of the final result the mark needs to be at least a 4, or “AANV”.

Content

This course is about the theory of so-called intelligent agents, pieces of software that perceive, reason, and act while displaying some degree of autonomy.
The agent concept calls for an integration of several topics in artificial intelligence, such as knowledge representation and reasoning (in particular reasoning about action and change) and planning.
Agent technology, as the field is generally called, has a great potential of applications, ranging from intelligent personal assistants to e-commerce and robotics.

Course overview in brief: 

• introduction "What are intelligent agents?"
• agent architectures
• knowledge representation, ontologies, Web Ontology Language (OWL) * agent communication
• goals
• trust and privacy.

Course form
Lectures, presentations, project.

Literature
Textbooks and a collection of articles.