Artificial intelligence

The Web Class

The field of Artificial Intelligence is very diverse, which this series of web classes will show you. Four important areas of AI will be explored in four weeks. In the first week we are going to ask ourselves some philosophical questions about what intelligence really is. What are the necessities for intelligence? Are language and understanding of the world important for intelligence or can systems without any knowledge of the world also be considered intelligent? You are going to look for some answers on the previous questions by talking to a chatbot on the internet.

The second week is about the more technical aspects of AI. You will learn what an algorithm is, and we will try to find a smart algorithm for determining our way in a maze. You don’t have to have any programming skills for this.

The next week is about human intelligence. You will conduct a short experiment regarding human attention, and we will have a look at multi-tasking. You are going to look at the interaction between human and system: is it dangerous to drive and handle a cell phone at the same time? Can we find an answer to this question by looking at the brain? And can we use this knowledge to make a navigation system more user friendly?

When most people hear AI, they immediately think about Robotics. In the final week we will combine the topics of the previous weeks and look more closely at what is needed in order to design a robot or intelligent system. You can also choose between three final assignments on the topic of Robotics.

This webclass is offered in English, but questions can be submitted in either English or Dutch.

Student Workload and Awarding

You can earn credits comparable to a workload of 10 hours and will receive a certificate if you do the practical assignments sufficiently every week. The fourth week contains a final assignment that will be graded. It is possible to use this course for credits at your school, but you have to arrange this with your school yourself. You can for example ask your teacher to join this web class, so he/she can keep up with your accomplishments.

Studying Artificial Intelligence

This course gives a good impression of the diversity of the degree programme of Artificial Intelligence. Especially during the first years you will follow courses from different research fields such as cognitive science, programming, linguistics, philosophy and logic. During the third year you have a lot of freedom to pick your own course units and specialize in the direction you are most interested in.

These web classes offer a short introduction to the actual Artificial Intelligence education. We will introduce you to the varying subjects which Artificial Intelligence students deal with during their study time.