NSTC Module Page 2012/13

Welcome to the NSTC module page for the academic year 2012/13. This page is primarily used to provide electronic copies of module material, and links to extra information related to the module. See the NSTC module description page for information regarding the module's format.

News and Bulletins

• nothing to see here

Lecture Notes (in pdf format)

Autumn Week 3

• Lecture 1 : Introduction
• Lecture 2 : Evolutionary Algorithms

• Practical 1 : Evolutionary Algorithms
  • preparation: read and understand "The Microbial Genetic Algorithm"
  • practical sheet

• Lecture 3 : Genetic Algorithms
• Lecture 4 : Local Search

• Lecture 5 : Ants and Swarms (Jon Timmis)
• Lecture 6 : Artificial Immune Systems (Jon Timmis)

• Practical 2 : Swarm Intelligence
  • preparation: read and understand "Particle swarm optimization"
  • practical sheet
  • sw location: Windows 7 (C:)\Program Files (x86)\NetLogo 5.0.2\NetLogo 5.0.2.exe

• Lecture 7 : Population models
• Seminar 1.a : Representations and cost functions
  • scenarios

• Seminar 1.b : Presentations -- Representations and cost functions
  1. Six Triangle Venn Diagram
  2. Music in the style of Bach
  3. Lego Bridge
  4. Maze Solving
• Lecture 8 : Growth and Development

• Practical 3 : L-Systems
  • preparation: review the L-systems lecture -- understand how the D0L-systems work
  • practical sheet
  • sw location: Applications (G:)\Apps\L-studio\bin\Lstudio.exe
  • examples location: Applications (G:)\Course\nstc\p3

• Lecture 9 : Analogue Computing
• Seminar 2.a : Analogue computing in reality
  • scenarios

• Seminar 2.b : Presentations -- Analogue computing in reality
  1. Spaghetti Sorting
  2. Convex Hull
  3. Clockwork Orrery
  4. Steiner Minimal Tree
• Seminar 3.a : Assumptions of Standard Computation
  • scenarios
  • supporting material: "Journeys in Non-Classical Computation"

• Seminar 3.b : Presentations -- Assumptions of Standard Computing
  1. Turing paradigm -- TEAM 1 presenter -- NO SHOW
  2. Von Neumann paradigm
  3. refinement paradigm -- TEAM 3 -- NO SHOW
  4. algorithmic paradigm
• Lecture 10 : DNA Computing (Simon O'Keefe)

• Lecture 11 : Quantum computation (Sam Braunstein)
• Lecture 12 : Quantum communication (Sam Braunstein)

• Practical 4 : Quantum random walks
  • practical sheet (updated)

• Seminar 4.a : Quantum computation
  • scenarios
• Lecture 13 : Hypercomputation

• Seminar 4.b : Presentations -- Quantum computation
  1. Quantum teleportation
  3. Universe as a (quantum) Computer
  4. Quantum algorithms
• Lecture 14 : Fractals

• Practical 5 : Iterated Function Systems
  • preparation: review the fractals lecture -- understand how IFS and the "chaos game" work
  • practical sheet
  • supplementary sw location (2D): module website
  • supplementary sw location (3D): Applications (G:)\Apps\ifs3\run_ifs.bat

• Lecture 15 : Cellular Automata
• Lecture 16 : Chaos

• Lecture 17 : Complexity
• Seminar 5.a : Embodied computation
  • supporting material: read "Embodiment", sections 12.1-12.4
  • scenarios

• Practical 6 : Cellular Automata
  • preparation: review the CAs lecture -- understand how 1D CAs work
  • practical sheet
  • Golly sw location: Computer > Applications (G:) > Apps > golly > 2.4 > Golly.exe

• Seminar 5.b : Presentations -- Embodied computation
  • team 1+4 : Swarm-nanobots
  • team 2+3 : web-bots -- NO SHOW
• Seminar 6.a : Assumptions of non-standard computation
  • scenarios

• Seminar 6.b : Presentations -- Assumptions of non-standard computation
  • team 1+2+3+4 : assumptions of NSTC
• Lecture 18 : Nanotechnology

• Practical 7 : Strange Attractors
  • preparation: review the chaos lecture -- understand how reconstructing the attractor works
  • practical sheet (updated, now with equations!)

Other Resources

• Mandelbroids and Juliods applet
• Iterated Function Systems applets
• L-music
• Artificial Immune System demo applets
• 1D Cellular Automaton demo applet

• Links to external resources

Assessments

• Both assessments are available online from the beginning of the module.
  • Assessment A, 15% of the overall mark. Issued 12:00 Wed 17 Oct 2012; submission NOON Wed 12 Dec 2012
  • Assessment B, 85% of the overall mark. Issued 12:00 Wed 17 Oct 2012; submission NOON Wed 15 May 2013
• Assessment queries and responses
• Assessment A feedback
• Assessment B feedback

Contact Information