A COURSE ON "EXPERT SYSTEMS" FOR ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS

Abstract

A final year undergraduate course on Expert Systems, designed for Electrical Engineering students, is described. To cater for this audience the course has a highly practical nature, despite the students' lack of relevant prerequisites in Computer Science. This is achieved by emphasizing logic programming throughout to illustrate all concepts taught; weekly, scheduled laboratory sessions; and a carefully-graded series of assignments. We have demonstrated that bright engineering students can get to grips with practical issues in applied artificial intelligence through a short, intensive, course - starting from ground level. \fIPROLOG\fR was found invaluable as a pedagogical tool, as was the highly-structured engineering-style laboratory. Informal feedback indicates that the course has achieved its objectives and indeed exceeded expectations.