Module 2: Search, planning, and problem formulation

Module 2: Search, planning, and problem formulation#

Theme#

Search, planning, and problem formulation

Essential Question#

How do search and planning convert goals into tractable state spaces?

Module Components#

  • Book prose: conceptual framing, domain scenario, methods, and failure modes

  • Assignment: evidence-backed production of a specific artifact

  • Slides: presentation sequence for seminar or lecture delivery

  • Narration: spoken version of the slide flow

  • Rubric: criteria for evaluating the module artifact

  • Notebook: executable lab aligned with the module theme using synthetic system evidence including task features, model outputs, confidence signals, and review outcomes

Module Artifact#

AI system review package with architecture, evidence, limitations, and deployment recommendation focused on search, planning, and problem formulation: Implement breadth-first and heuristic search on a small planning problem.

Professional Setting#

Students work as if advising an AI review team evaluating a proposed applied AI system before pilot deployment. Their work must be intelligible to technical lead, domain owner, governance reviewer, and end-user representative.

Use This Module in Order#

  1. Read the learning chapter.

  2. Review the slide deck with the matching narration.

  3. In Populi, open the private student-repository link for this course and enter modules/module-2.

  4. Clone the repository once or open its Codespace/Colab copy; run lab.ipynb and complete exercise.ipynb there.

  5. Self-check with the rubric, commit and push the work, then submit exactly what Populi requests.