MAS-Project-2022 Home

1. General course information

Course code: XM_0041

Duration: 4 weeks - Period 3 (Jan - Feb 2022)

Level: BSc 2 (Artificial Intelligence)

Credits: 6

Schedule and locations:
Tue 11:00 - 12:45 (lecture): zoom - https://vu-live.zoom.us/j/96415582147?pwd=cUJTWktISThkcUZVUkUxOXVLM3RJdz09 (Meeting ID: 964 1558 2147, Passcode: 939428)

Practical sessions: Fri 09:00 - 12:30 location: [on campus / online (see schedule)]

Instructors:

Koen Hindriks k.v.hindriks@vu.nl

Florian Kunneman f.a.kunneman@vu.nl

Teaching assistants (your assigned TA will be your main point of contact):

Akanksha (TA coordinator) a.akanksha@vu.nl

Ryan Saeta (TA)

Priya Gangaram-Panday (TA)

Ege de Bruin (TA)

Dante de Lang (TA)

Storm Timmermans (TA)

Zenit Shkreli (TA)

2. What is this course about?

In this course, you will gain an understanding of how Prolog and the GOAL Agent Programming language can be integrated with the Social Interaction Cloud and Google Dialogflow to design and develop a conversational agent, that will help the user to select and cook a recipe. You will learn how to set up the conversational agent, how to think of the user perspective and dialogue design, and how to best deploy the speech and visual interface as the conversational with the user evolves. Apart from following lectures, you will work in groups towards developing and evaluating your cooking assistant.

3. Learning Goals

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

  • (L1) Explain what a conversational agent is, and how it can be designed using the GOAL Agent Programming

  • (L2) Explain the “what, why, and how” of each component of the conversational agent programming

  • (L3) Apply basic conversational design principles

  • (L4) Explain how verbal and visual communication influence the recipe selection and flow of the conversation or dialog

  • (P1) Perform a (pilot) user study to evaluate your conversational agent

4. Organization

The course consists of three main components:

  • Lectures (through Zoom) in which course material is presented. Some lectures will have assigned readings to prepare before class.

  • Practical sessions VU campus / discord

  • Course assignment where you will work in a group on weekly deliverables, such as the code and weekly report.

A detailed overview of all lectures, assignments, and deadlines is available here.

Assignment Groups

You will be working on the course assignment together in a group of 6 students. We will assign a teaching assistant (TA) to each group. Your teaching assistant is your main point of contact for any questions you have about the course and the assignment. Your TA will also monitor whether each group member individually contributes to the deliverables. Individual contribution and active participation in the course is required to pass the course.

Practical Sessions

Each week, there will be one practical session on Friday mornings, in which groups can talk with their TA about the progress and ask questions. It is obligatory for all members of the group to attend this meeting. Groups can choose themselves whether they would like to meet on campus or online (through discord). Note that you are required to work together on the project during the whole week, and that your TA is available for questions on discord or additional meetings if needed during these days as well. The Friday morning slot is strictly required to meet as a group and with the TA. We have suggested some development targets for each week on the assignment page.

Communication

You can choose if you want to attend the practicals on campus or online. For communication when working on the project assignment, we will use Discord. Make sure you use your own name (and not a nickname) in Discord. For each group, we have created a group channel, and we have created channels for specific topics. In your group channel, you can privately talk with the other students in your group and your TA (no one else will have access). Discord is the way for you to communicate with your TA.

5. Schedule

The schedule for the course, including lectures and deliverables, can be found here. Make sure you follow it closely throughout the course in order not to miss any deadline.

As a group you are advised to submit weekly deliverables as assignments on canvas. Your TA will monitor your progress on the design document and updates to your Github repository. Because you will be asked to share deliverables in a Google folder that we will make available to each group, you will only be asked to submit a url link to that deliverable. We will not publish assignments for code, but expect you to each week update the Github repository that we make available to you.

6. Grading

  • The course is assessed based on the cooking assistant functionalities, the coding and the end report.

  • Individuals may be rewarded a higher or lower grade than the group based on their effort and cooperation

  • These assignments must be completed in groups. The assignments are graded with a mark (0-100). There must be a minimum of 55 to pass the course.

  • The Rubric for the assessment can be found here.

7. Resources

This course does not have a textbook, however, we encourage you to consult the following resources:

 

Other interesting/relevant resources

9. Corona rules

The latest Corona measures can be accessed here.

Please follow this decision tree to check whether or not you are allowed to be on campus, e.g., after travel, or if you or someone you were in contact with test positive.

If you haven’t done so already, we encourage you to:

10. Inclusivity statement

We strive to offer students a safe and inclusive classroom environment. We welcome the perspective of students of all ethnicities, genders, spiritual beliefs, and sexual orientations, among others. If you feel discriminated on the basis of your identity, please report it to the course staff.

If you have a disability and require accommodations, please let us know before the beginning of the course so that we can discuss your accommodations and needs to make the course as accessible to you as possible.

11. Academic integrity and code of conduct

Plagiarism is not tolerated for both reports and code. You are welcome to use any code you see fit for your project, as long as you appropriately cite your sources both in the report and in the code itself (as comments).

Any behavior that violated the VU rules for academic integrity and code of conduct will not be tolerated.