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SPRING 07 ARCHIVE Lectures

Lecture schedule and content

The material presented in each class session will be summarized here, with links to the associated reading material, web resources, and powerpoint files. You may need to enter the course userid and password to access the lecture slides and reading material.

Week1: introduction; evolution of intelligence

Tue, Jan 16

Topics: introduction to the course; overview of course website; intro to MATLAB.
Powerpoint: Lecture 1
Readings: Belew, Braitenberg, Crist
Homework 1 due Tue Jan 23 (midnight).

Thu, Jan 18

Topics: evolution of intelligence; MATLAB tutorials.
Powerpoint: Lecture 2

Week 2: behavior without a nervous system, bacterial chemotaxis

Tue, Jan 23

Topics: single-cell intelligence; bacterial chemotaxis; kinesis and taxis; HW02 overview;
Powerpoint: Lecture 3
Readings: Dusenbery, Jurica, Zupanc
Homework 2 due Tue Jan 30 (midnight).

Thu, Jan 25

Topics: HW01 discussion; internal state, state variables; obstacle avoidance in paramecia; electrical signaling; HW02 help session.
Powerpoint: Lecture 4
Movies: Paramecium 1, Paramecium 2

Week 3: sensory information processing

Tue, Jan 30

Topics: Emergence of multicellular organisms; Braitenberg vehicles; What is information?; Dusenbery article; Homework 3 overview;
Powerpoint: Lecture 5

Thu, Feb 1

Topics: Information relationships (syntactic, semantic, pragmatic); possible evolutionary relationships among different sensory modalities (solvent vs. solute sensing); emergence of animals (~600 MYA), emergence of nervous systems (~550 MYA); Intro. to C. elegans.
Powerpoint: Lecture 6

Week 4: simple nervous systems; C. elegans chemotaxis

Tue, Feb 6

Topics: Chemotaxis in C. elegans; neural model of chemotaxis behavior; HW04 overview; Matlab techniques; getting your bots to behave;
Powerpoint: Lecture 7

Thu, Feb 8

Topics: Cambrian explosion, evolution of brain complexity, early vertebrates; non-linearities and neural logic; perceptrons; tropotaxis using a perceptron model; Homework #4 help session.
Powerpoint: Lecture 8

Week 5: modulation of behavior; motor patterns; exam I

Tue, Feb 13

Topics: NO CLASS - SNOW DAY!

Thu, Feb 15

EXAM I: First in-class exam. Covers material from Jan 16 through Feb 8 (Lectures 1-8, Homework 1-4, Readings weeks 1-4).

Week 6: action selection, vertebrate neuroethology

Tue, Feb 20

Topics: area-restricted search in C. elegans, neuromodulation, organizing behavior on multiple time scales. organizing motor output, Beer's artificial insect
Powerpoint: Lecture 9

Thu, Feb 22

Topics: action selection; condition-action pairs; behavioral hierarchies; neural substrates; robot control, Brooks' subsumption architectures
Powerpoint: Lecture 10

Week 7: vertebrate neuroethology; learning & memory

Tue, Feb 27

Topics: vertebrate neuroethology, toad visual information processing, predator/prey behaviors
Powerpoint: Lecture 11

Thu, Mar 1

Topics: learning, memory, honeybee foraging, proboscis extension reflex
Powerpoint: Lecture 12

Week 8: honeybee foraging; associative learning

Tue, Mar 6

Topics: neural basis of PER, VUMmx1 neuron, associative learning models, delta rule, Montague et al. model of bee foraging (predictive Hebbian learning)
Powerpoint: Lecture 13

Thu, Mar 8

March Madness Bot Tournament
Week 9: timing and counting; circadian rhythms

Tue, Mar 13

Topics: circadian rhythms
Powerpoint: Lecture 14

Thu, Mar 15

EXAM II: Second in-class exam. Covers material from Feb 20 through Mar 6 (Lec 9-13, HW 5, readings for weeks 6-8).

Enjoy your SPRING BREAK!!!

Week 10: active sensing; memory systems

Tue, Mar 27

Topics: active sensing, fish electrolocation, bat and dolphin echolocation, rat whisking, blind mole rats, flashlight fish
Powerpoint: Lecture 15

Thu, Mar 29

Topics: memory systems
Powerpoint: Lecture 16

Week 11: communication

Tue, Apr 3

Topics: animal communication, language, general issues, specific examples (vervet monkeys, bee dance, ant pheronomes, ...)
Powerpoint: Lecture 17

Thu, Apr 5

Topics: ant pheromone trails
Powerpoint: Lecture 18

Week 12: emotions; spatial navigation

Tue, Apr 10

Topics: emotions in animals and animats
Powerpoint: Lecture 19

Thu, Apr 12

Topics: spatial navigation; desert ants, path integration, compass sense, landmark-based navigation, mammalian place cells, human spatial navigation
Powerpoint: Lecture 20

Week 13: applications; exam III

Tue, Apr 17

Topics: applications
Powerpoint: Lecture 21

Thu, Apr 19

EXAM III: Third in-class exam. Covers material from Mar 13 through Apr 12 (Lec 14-20, HW 6-9, readings for weeks 9-12);

Week 14: tournament II

Tue, Apr 24

Topics: HW09 review; Tournament 2 tips; Tournament scrimmage?

Thu, Apr 26

Bot Tournament II: 9am
Week 15: TBD

Tue, May 1

NO CLASS - Office Hours
in 3351 Beckman.

Make-up exam next Wed


May 9 at 8:00 AM!