Knowledge Representation and Reasoning 2012-2013

Last year web page

Previous exam papers and answers

Module feedback (average exam marks etc.)
Feedback for exam 2012-13

The module describes how knowledge can be represented symbolically and manipulated in an automated way by reasoning programs. It will be based on the following textbook: Ronald Brachman and Hector Levesque. Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. Elsevier, 2004. There are several copies in the Jubilee Library, location Q387 BRA. An a link to eBook edition from the library catalogue.

Hector Levesque's on-line lecture slides based on the book
local copy

Lectures

• Lecture 1 (1 Oct) (Introduction, what are knowledge based systems)
• Lecture 2 (4 Oct): syntax and semantics of first-order logic. See Levesque's slides 18-27 , textbook chapter 2.1 - 2.3.2.
• Lecture 3 (8 Oct) : semantics of first-order logic, logical entailment. See Levesque's slides 28-34, textbook the rest of chapter 2.
• Lecture 4 (11 Oct): expressing knowledge in first-order logic. See Levesque's slides 35-45 , textbook chapter 3.
• Lecture 5 (15 Oct): Exercises:
  Barber exercise
  Answer to the barber exercise
  Alpine Club exercise
  Answer to the Alpine Club exercise
• Lecture 6 (18 Oct): answer to Alpine Club exercise and begin Resolution (textbook chapter 4, Levesque slides from slide 46).
• Lecture 7: propositional resolution, chapter 4.1, slides 46-55.

  Handout with definitions and rules

  Exercise on propositional reduction to CNF
  Answer to the exercise
  Exercise on propositional resolution
  Answer to the exercise

• Lecture 8: Resolution continued. First-order case. Slides 56-61.

  Handout with definitions and rules
  Exercise on first-order resolution.
  Another exercise on first-order resolution: answer Alpine club exercise using resolution
  Solution to both exercises
  Exercise on answer extraction
  Solution to the exercise

• Lecture 9: continue first-order resolution (Skolemisation, answer extraction...). Slides 62 and 64.
• Lecture 10: Unification. Algorithm for computing a most general unifier. Handling equality. Slides 64, 68. Handout about unification and equality
• 5 November: Lecture 11: Termination and complexity of resolution. Slides 66, 67, 71, 72.
• 8 November: Lecture 12: Horn clauses. SLD resolution. Backward chaining. Chapter 5, slides 79-90. Exercise: do question 4 in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 exam.
• 12 November: Lecture 13: Prolog. SEM feedback.. Reading: Chapter 6, slides 91-100. If you want to try Prolog, it is installed on clyde, type sicstus at command prompt. User manual is here .
• 15 November: Lecture 14: Horn clauses continued. Forward chaining. Handout about forward chaining and exercise Rules in production systems. Chapter 7, slides 89, 103-118. Answer to the exercise
• 19 November: Lecture 15: Life cycle of a knowledge based system. Knowledge acquisition. Decision tables. Java Rules API and Jess. Lecture slides
  There is a small exercise on decision tables in the lecture slides, and you can do exam 2007 (5b), 2008 (4d), 2009 (6b), 2011 (5a).
• 22 November: Lecture 16: Description logic. Chapter 9, slides 138-163.
  Summary of technical definitions and an exercise
  Answer to the exercise
  See also exam papers 2010: question 3, 2009: question 4, 2008: question 5.
• 26 November: Lecture 17: Non-monotonic reasoning. Chapter 11, slides 178-201.
• 29 November: Lecture 18: Non-monotonic reasoning continued.
  Summary of lectures 17 and 18
  See also exam papers 2010: question 5, 2009: question 5, 2008: question 6.
• 3 December: Lecture 19: Bayesian networks. Chapter 12, slides 202-216.
  Summary of Bayesian networks and an exercise (There was a typo in the handout, Pr( a UNION b) = Pr(a) + Pr(b) - Pr( a UNION b) instead of Pr( a UNION b) = Pr(a) + Pr(b) - Pr( a INTERSECTION b), fixed now, thanks to Laurence Herbert.
  Solution to the exercise
• 6 December: Revision.
• 11 January: Revision 2.