The class will meet twice a week for one and one-half hours each time. Enrollment is limited to 20. Cognitive scientists and biologists want to understand how the minds and brains of animals work and how they evolved. In this course we will grapple with the nature of intelligence and behavior from all of these perspectives. Students will examine the main methods and results that have emerged within the fields of animal behavior, animal cognition, artificial intelligence and robotics.
Enrollment is open, by instructor permission.
Programming Language Paradigms Microprocessors manipulate patterns of bits in small numbers of simple ways. But high-level programming languages allow us to think of these bits and the processes that manipulate them in a remarkable variety of ways. In this course we will discuss the dimensions along which current programming languages differ and think about some of the future possibilities for human-machine communication. Students will be expected to write small programs in several different languages and to complete a final project that explores the unique features of one programming language in detail. There will also be midterm exam on programming language concepts.