8980 - AI and Gaming

Syllabus

The class syllabus is broken into sections.

1. See the class specific information.
2. See the class policies.
3. See the recommended syllabus info.
4. See the specific dates of importance.
5. Topics

Information You Need to Know for This Class

• My comments about lab reports and technical writing
• How to get/put a file on a local computer and a remote one
• Link to the gamedev server

Assignments

Consider what graduate students do. Yes, they take classes, but what separates graduate students from undergraduates? Graduate students do:

• Reading, analyzing, and writing research papers
• Working on research projects (at least in CS)
• Presenting research
• Giving critical feedback to others' research

These are the things that we will be doing this semester:

• Paper summary, presentation, and feedback
  
  1. Written Paper Summary
     Write a Paper summary of a paper (conference or journal). See the how to review page.
     The summary is due January 25, 2026.
  2. Paper Summary Presentation
     You will give a 5 minute presentation on the paper that you wrote about. The presentations will be held starting January 27, 2026.
     We will do this live.
  3. Feedback
     Leave feedback for each other with the presentation feedback form. This feedback counts towards the Participation and Attendance grade.
     Here are Paper Summary comments for the written part. Many of these will apply to the literature review, too.
• Project Abstract:
  (The project abstract counts towards the project grade.)
  The project abstract is due February 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. Note: the following system appears to work well, but you are advised to keep a copy of what you type, in case there is a problem. Use this link to submit the abstract. If you want to see what other groups are doing, click here.
• Project Update Video and Feedback
  The project update presentation counts towards the project grade.
  1. Your update video is due February 15, 2026 - The video should be about 5 minutes. Please follow the specifics for this class and general video project update directions. Present the current status of your project, including what you have accomplished so far. Include any problems you have, and any decisions you made.
     Projects should be individual ones or groups of 2 at the most. Otherwise, follow the Project proposal guidelines. Your video should be complete enough to anticipate questions, and keep in mind that your video audience will not have seen your initial project deliverables. We may need to extend presentations to the following class(es), too. Use .mp4 for the video format. Use the following links to submit links to your project update video and display video links.
  2. Feedback on Other Project Update Videos
     After we see the video, we will ask you questions about your project, and give you feedback. Feedback is due Sunday, February 22, 2026 (This is assuming that we have seen all of the videos; if not, this date may be pushed back.)
     The feedback that you give to others counts towards the Project grade.
• Milestone Checklist 1
  Click here for the Milestone Checklist due March 1, 2026 Turn this in through iCollege.
• Literature Review and Presentation
  This is an assignment.
  
  1. Written Literature Review
     Write a literature review, due March 29, 2026.
     Turn the papers (the one you wrote plus the references) through iCollege. Since this is turned in electronically, the due date is a Sunday.
     Also note that your papers should all be recent (i.e. within the last 1--3 years), unless you make a compelling argument.
  2. Literature Review Presentation
     This is an assignment. See the how to review page.
     Presentation of your Literature Review
     We will start presentations on March 31, 2026. The presentation of your literature review should last 5 minutes.
     You will present this in class.
  3. Literature Review Feedback
     You can see other people's links here.
     Click here for the presentation feedback form. This feedback counts towards the Participation and Attendance grade.
• Milestone Checklist 2
  Milestone Checklist 2 due April 12, 2026. Turn this in through iCollege.
• Final Project:
  We will have the presentation videos (along with question and answer sessions) and feedback, but will not have a written report. Your presentation should last no more than 6 minutes, not including time for questions and answers. Follow these directions for the presentation. Like previous assignments, we will watch the video you made, then ask you questions about it.
  1. A link will be provided through iCollege to allow you to turn in "code", which is anything you can provide to demonstrate all of the wonderful hard work you've done on your project. This may be used to modify your final project grade, i.e. hopefully to convince me that you've put in a lot of effort and well deserve the grade.
  2. Final Exam
     Due to the number of students this semester, we will hold the final project presentations over multiple days. Remember that feedback to fellow students is a required part of the assignment, so attendance is mandatory for all final presentations. Final presentations are April 16 (updated), April 21, April 23 and May 5 (update: May 5 conflicts with the graduation ceremony!). (These dates may change depending on class size. That is, if all presentations can reasonably fit in 3 days, then we will hold them on those last 3 days.)
     You are responsible for making sure that this does not conflict with any other class that you are taking, and reporting any problems in the first week of class. Click here for the presentation feedback form.
  3. Presentation schedule TBA
  4. You can submit the link to your video here.
     You can see other people's links here.
     Click here for the presentation feedback form. This feedback counts towards the project grade. Feedback is due May 5, 2026, 11:59 p.m.
  Final Project Videos
  Final Project demonstration videos will be during the final exam time-slot. Also see this information on the Final videos.
  • There are only so many groups that can present their videos in that time slot; we may also use class-time from the classes immediately before. In a recent semester there were so many groups that we had to schedule presentations over 4 classes.
  • You will NOT do this live; instead, you will show us a video that you made on your project. The video should last at least 4 minutes, but no longer than 6 minutes.
  • Afterward, you will answer questions from the class.
  • The final video should include game-play, so that we can clearly see what your game is like.
  • It would be better to have a small game that works rather than a large game that does not work.
  The Final Exam time-slot is Tuesday, May 5th, 2026, 16:15-18:45. All work (except feedback) is due then.

Announcements and Other Information

• The Pac-Man Dossier
• Lecture 5: Backpropagation and Project Advice from Stanford University School of Engineering
• Texas Instruments and Calculator Hobbyists discusses mods and a company's attitudes towards them
• Here is the link to the game with NN-trained ogre Collect the equipment in the starting room, then go to the room to the right
• Here are a few options, if you choose to use a game engine. There are many more; if you find one that you like that is not listed here, let me know.
  • allegro
  • godot
  • libGDX
  • LittleJS
  • phaser
  • pygame
  • roblox
  • unity
  • unreal engine