A multi-institutional project-centric framework for teaching AI concepts

Abstract

The paper presents the second phase of a curriculum project that builds on existing successful work. Our work involves the development, implementation, and testing of an adaptable framework for the presentation of core AI topics that emphasizes the relationship between AI and computer science. Under phase 1, we developed and pilot-tested our proof-of-concept. The second phase involves further development and testing of this adaptable framework for the presentation of core AI topics through a unifying theme of machine learning using a project-based and application-oriented approach. A total of twenty-six projects that span a variety of applications are being developed and tested. Each project involves the development of a machine learning system in a specific application. The applications span a large area including network security, recommender systems, game playing, computational chemistry, robotics, conversational systems, cryptography, Web document classification, vision, bioinformatics, pattern recognition, data mining, and others. We present an overview of this work along with preliminary classroom experiences.