Instructor

Professor: Bill Tomlinson

Email: wmt@uci.edu

Office: CS 430A

Office Phone: (949) 824-9333

Office Hours: Thursday 3:00-5:00pm in CS 430A or by appointment.

Course Web Site: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~wmt/courses/BiomoW04/

Overview

This studio/lab course will provide a survey of the ways in which biological systems have informed computing, and offer hands-on examination of several main paradigms. Topics will include practical and historical overviews of systems that resemble and/or employ the principles of living things, for example, cellular automata, genetic algorithms and evolutionary computing, neural networks and simulated group behavior (ant colonies, bird flocking), among others. Several significant implementation projects will give students first-hand engagement with the material.

Schedule

Week	Class Date	Topic	Readings Due	Assignments
1	Jan 13	Introduction
2	Jan 20	Evolution/Genetic Algorithms	Sims paper (link)	Game of Life assignment, due 1/19/04
3	Jan 27	Computational Neurons and Brains	Mehrotra chapter 1 (link)
4	Feb 3	Social Behavior	Vaughan paper (link) Reynolds paper (link)	Genetic Algorithm assignment, due 2/2/04
5	Feb 10	Biological Phenomena	Reading TBA	Flock of Boids assignment, due 2/9/03
6	Feb 17	Presentation of proposals	Three readings of your choice (see Final Project assignment)	Present proposal for Final Project, due in class
7	Feb 24	Robotics/Embodied Intelligence	Full & Farley paper (link) Brooks paper (link)
8	Mar 2	Presentation of prototypes	One reading of your choice (see Final Project assignment)	Present Final Project prototype, due in class
9	Mar 9	Humans and Humanoids	Breazeal paper (link)
10	Mar 16	Presentation of Final Projects	None	Present complete Final Project, due in class

Assignments, Handouts and Links:

Professor Tomlinson will bring assignments and handouts to class at least a week before they are due. Assignments are due by 5pm on the due date specified (Game of Life, Genetic Algorithm and Flock of Boids assignments) or in class (Final Project proposal, Final Project prototype and completed Final Project).

Links

Sims: http://www.genarts.com/karl/papers/siggraph91.html

Mehrotra et al., Chapter 1: http://cognet.mit.edu/library/books/view?isbn=0262133288

Vaughan et al.: http://www-robotics.usc.edu/~vaughan/papers/vaughan_sab00.ps.gz

Reynolds: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~dt/siggraph97-course/cwr87/

Full & Farley: http://polypedal.berkeley.edu/Profs_office/Full/Publications/publication_reprint_PDFs/59_Musculoskel_Dynamics.pdf

Brooks: http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/brooks/papers/ascona.pdf

Breazeal: http://web.media.mit.edu/~cynthiab/Papers/Breazeal-ijhcs02-final.pdf

Grading:

Three Assignments @ 10% = 30%

Final Project = 50%

Class Participation = 20%

Computer Labs

ICS Lab Hours:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~lab/about/hours.html

Computer and Network Use Policy

When working on UCI systems, you are bound by the UCI Computer and Network Use Policy: http://www.policies.uci.edu/adm/pols/714-18.html

Add/Drop

Students will not be permitted to add or drop this course after the second week of classes (Jan 23, 5:00pm).

Note

These are guidelines intended to help students plan their work in this course. However, the instructor reserves the right to make changes to this syllabus over the course of the quarter.