Class Sessions

3 Credit Hours

Hybrid-mode (In-person + streaming)

11:00 am - noon MWF at Molecular Sciences and Engr 1224 Scheller College of Business 223

No Textbook

Grading

Term project: 60% (= Proposal 20% + Midterm 20% + Final 20%)

Paper presentation: 30%

Class participation: 10%

Lecture

The instructors will give introductory lectures for each topic, which are typically followed by a couple of paper presentation sessions. Each lecture will typically span a single class and give a brief overview of mathematical and algorithmic backgrounds.

Special Lecture

There will also be two to three special lectures. The potential topics include guest speakers, paper writing, or debates on tricky subjects.

Term Project

The main portion of the class is the term project. Two to three students will formulate a team and conduct a research project over the semester. The expectation is to implement a reasonable baseline algorithm and improve it based on the team’s own idea. The projects will be guided by the instructors via proposal, midterm, and final presentation sessions. Each team will also submit a midterm report (2 pages) and a final report (4 pages). The successful projects will be discussed to submit to international conferences.

Paper Presentation

Each student will present a paper. The presentation is expected to be 12 minutes, which will be followed by 10 minutes of discussions. The students will sign up for the paper presentation at the beginning of the semester.

Class Participation

Class presence and participation points (10%) are given to encourage your active class participation and discussion. If necessary, please send the instructor a brief email to explain their absence in advance.

Final Note

The class is designed for highly motivated students who want to start deep reinforcement learning and robotics research. The instructors’ expectations can be high.