Note: The following provides a suggested course description,
objectives, and an outline. These may be modified pending discussion with
the Faculty Chairs, proposing faculty, and other curriculum
reviewers.
Course Description: The course objective is to
understand the main methods of designing and analyzing algorithms for
controlling engineering systems that must learn how best to perform
sequential tasks on the basis of simple reinforcement feedback provided
only at task endings. The course methods apply for example to machine
learning of: the least-cost route through a network, how best to assign
channels among interacting regions of a large multi-region cellular phone
network, the best policy for a constrained elevator-car dispatcher to
follow in a large multi-car office building, how best to schedule factory
manufacturing jobs that satisfy precedence constraints and that draw on
limited pools of resources, how best to time traffic light switches, and
optimal computer game strategies, etc.
