Note: this is a dynamic schedule, it will almost definitely change as the semester progresses, so make sure to regularly check for changes!
| Week | Event | Date | Topic | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Lecture 1 | Monday 8/18 | Course Overview, TA Introduction & Assignment 0 | Syllabus |
| Lecture 2 | Wednesday 8/20 | Introduction to Computational Problem Classes & Search - Mad Engineer Thought Experiment | Chapter 1 | |
| Lecture 3 | Friday 8/22 | Assignment Series 1 & Heuristic Search | Chapter 2 | |
| Assignment 0 | Sunday 8/24 | Assignment Environment Setup | ||
| Week 2 | Lecture 4 | Monday 8/25 | Genetics and Neo-Darwinian Evolution Theory | Chapter 2 |
| Lecture 5 | Wednesday 8/27 | Introduction to Evolutionary Computing | §3.1, 3.2, 3.5, 3.6, 9.1, 9.2 | |
| Lecture 6 | Friday 8/29 | Measuring EA Performance & Statistical Analysis of Stochastic Algorithms | §9.1, 9.2 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 8/29 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Week 3 | Labor Day | Monday 9/1 | No class | |
| Lecture 7 | Wednesday 9/3 | Decoding & Knapsack Problem, Representation | §3.2.1, 3.4 | |
| Lecture 8 | Friday 9/5 | Genetic Drift, Representation | §4.1-4.4 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 9/5 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Assignment 1a | Sunday 9/7 | Analyzing Stochastic Algorithms | ||
| Week 4 | Lecture 9 | Monday 9/8 | Variation Operators | §4.1-4.3, 4.4.1, 4.4.3, 4.5.2 |
| 15th Class Day | Monday 9/8 | Last day to drop with no grade assignment | ||
| Lecture 10 | Wednesday 9/10 | Braden's EA Tuning Lecture | Slides | |
| Lecture 11 | Friday 9/12 | Permutation Recombination Operators | §4.5.2 | |
| Week 5 | Lecture 12 | Monday 9/15 | Population Models & Selection Methods | §5.1-5.3 |
| Exam 1 | Wednesday 9/17 | Exam covering all material covered through Lecture 12 | Chapters 1-5 (not §4.4.2, 4.6, 5.4, nor 5.5), §6.1, §9.1, 9.2 | |
| Lecture 13 | Friday 9/19 | Exam 1 Postmortem, Technical writing tips, EA Dynamics, Four-Peak Thought Experiment | ||
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 9/19 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Assignment 1b | Sunday 9/21 | Implementing & Tuning Evolutionary Algorithms | ||
| Week 6 | Lecture 14 | Monday 9/22 | Constraint Handling | Chapter 13 |
| Career Fair | Monday 9/22 | Engineering Career Fair Day 1: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM | ||
| Lecture 15 | Wednesday 9/24 | Parameter Tuning | Chapter 7 | |
| Career Fair | Thursday 9/25 | Engineering Career Fair Day 2: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM | ||
| Lecture 16 | Friday 9/26 | Parameter Control | Chapter 8 | |
| Week 7 | Lecture 17 | Monday 9/29 | Assignment 1b Post-Mortem | |
| Lecture 18 | Wednesday 10/1 | Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) | Chapter 12 | |
| Lecture 19 | Friday 10/3 | MOEA In-Class Exercises | Chapter 12 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 10/3 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Assignment 1c | Sunday 10/5 | Constraint Satisfaction | ||
| Week 8 | Lecture 20 | Monday 10/6 | MOEA In-Class Exercises cont., deterioration, non-elitist MOEAs, NSGA-II | Chapter 12 |
| Mid-Semester | Tuesday 10/7 | Mid-Semester - 36th Class Day | ||
| Lecture 21 | Wednesday 10/8 | Braden's "Breaking the Cycle" Lecture | ||
| Fall Break | Thursday 10/9 & Friday 10/10 | No class | ||
| Week 9 | Lecture 22 | Monday 10/13 | Evolution Strategies | Section 6.2 |
| Exam 2 | Wednesday 10/15 | Exam covering all material covered through Lecture 22 | ||
| Lecture 23 | Friday 10/17 | Evolutionary Programming with In-Class Exercise | §5.3.2, 6.3 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 10/17 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Assignment 1d | Sunday 10/19 | Multi-Objective Optimization | ||
| Week 10 | Lecture 24 | Monday 10/20 | Genetic Programming - The Movie | §4.6, 6.4 |
| Lecture 25 | Wednesday 10/22 | Braden's Assignment Series 2 Introduction | §4.6, 6.4 | |
| Career Fair | Thursday 10/23 | Engineering October Career Fair: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM | ||
| Lecture 26 | Friday 10/24 | Genetic Programming | §4.6, 6.4 | |
| Week 11 | Lecture 27 | Monday 10/27 | Sean's GP Variants Lecture | |
| Lecture 28 | Wednesday 10/29 | GP Case Study, Multimodal Problems, Diversity Maintenance, Restricted Mating, Island Model | §5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.5.6 | |
| Lecture 29 | Friday 10/31 | Diffusion Model EAs, Automatic Speciation, Fitness Sharing, Crowding, Population Size Control | §5.5.3-5.5.5,5.5.7 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 10/31 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Assignment 2a | Sunday 11/2 | Tree Representations | ||
| Week 12 | Lecture 30 | Monday 11/3 | Population size control cont., autonomous EAs, hyper-heuristics | §8.4.6 |
| Lecture 31 | Wednesday 11/5 | Hyper-heuristic case studies | ||
| Lecture 32 | Friday 11/7 | Hyper-heuristic case studies cont., Asynchronous Parallel EAs | ||
| Week 13 | Lecture 33 | Monday 11/10 | Coevolutionary Algorithms | Chapter 15 |
| Lecture 34 | Wednesday 11/12 | Schema Theory | §16.1 | |
| Lecture 35 | Friday 11/14 | Learning Classifier Systems | §6.5 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Friday 11/14 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Assignment 2b | Sunday 11/16 | Genetic Programming | ||
| Week 14 | Lecture 36 | Monday 11/17 | No Free Lunch Theorem, Memetic Algorithms, Lamarckianism, Baldwin Effect | Chapter 10, §16.10 |
| Lecture 37 | Wednesday 11/19 | James' EAs Simulating Molecular Evolution Lecture | ||
| Lecture 38 | Friday 11/21 | Neuroevolution, CMA-ES, Quality Diversity | ||
| Last Withdraw Day | Friday 11/21 | Last Day to Withdraw | ||
| Week 15 | No class | Monday 11/24 | Thanksgiving Break | |
| No class | Wednesday 11/26 | Thanksgiving Break | ||
| No class | Friday 11/28 | Thanksgiving Break | ||
| Week 16 | Lecture 39 | Monday 12/1 | Interactive EAs | Chapter 14 |
| Exam 3 | Wednesday 12/3 | Exam covering all material covered through Lecture 39 | Chapters 1-5, Sections 6.1-6.5, Chapters 7 & 8, Sections 9.1 & 9.2, Chapters 10, 12-15, Sections 16.1 & 16.10 | |
| TA Lab Hours | Wednesday 12/3 | 12:30 - 4:00 PM in BK 2174 | ||
| Lecture 40 | Friday 12/5 | Deacon's Lecture on AI Software Development | ||
| Assignment 2c | Friday 12/5 | Genetic Programming & Coevolution | ||
| Week 17 | Final Exam | Friday 12/12 10:30am-12:30pm | Comprehensive Exam covering all course material (regular class room) | Chapters 1-5, Sections 6.1-6.5, Chapters 7 & 8, Sections 9.1 & 9.2, Chapters 10, 12-15, Sections 16.1 & 16.10 |