EMBU UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

(A Constituent College of the University of Nairobi)

2016/2017 ACADEMIC YEAR
SECOND YEAR CAT FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN
COMPUTER SCIENCE

UNIT CODE CSC 215: UNIT NAME: INTRODUCTION TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Answer all Questions in Section A

Section A

1. Explain the difference between thinking humanly and acting rationally [4 Marks]

Thinking humanly:: describes how thinking manifests in human beings, i.e. through decision making,
problem solving, learning, etc [cognitive model]

Acting rationally:: describes correctness of actions as a result of computed like scenarios of perceiving,
reason , then acting [rational agent]

2. Explain the relation between philosophy and practice (applications) of AI [2 Marks]

Philosophy studies the working of the mind and especially the concept of logic as behind intelligent
behavior. Overtime, this concept has lead to the abstraction of the workings of the mind (logic) in
mathematical/computational representations. These lead to design of devices/machines that can then
by following the mathematical representations (capturing knowledge) exhibit intelligent behavior in
modern day practice of AI.

3. Describe four examples of Artificial Intelligence manifestations in our daily lives today. [2 Marks]

Robotic – Driverless vehicles

Speech recognition
Autonomous planning and scheduling
Game playing
IBM Watson

4. Define Artificial intelligence from the perspective of thought processes [2 Marks]

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AI as thought processes describes efforts to make computers think (be machines with minds). It’s about
automating decision making, problem solving, learning, etc

5. search state
a. Define what search state represents. [2 Marks]

A search state is a formal representation of solving a problem by defining the process as a combination
of known techniques (guided by rules that define a single step) and the conversion/transition from one
step to another until a desired situation (goal) is arrived at.

b. A farmer wishes to cross a river given the following constraints

i. He has a goat, a leopard, a bunch of grass and a boat
ii. Only the farmer can steer the boat. Further the boat can only carry one item at
a time (excluding the farmer)
iii. The following combinations are not allowed to be on one side of the river
without the farmer: Goat and Leopard; Goat and the grass

Required:

- Develop a search state space representation with at least 5 entries starting from the initial
state and show the possible configurations with current and next states [10 Marks]

Let GT, FMR,GR, LPD represent Goat, Farmer, Leopard respectively . Let representation of items on the banks
of the river be represented as vectors. E.g. GT, FMR, LPD, GR | 0,0,0,0
All items on the left bank.0, FMR,
LPD, GR | GT,0,0, GR
Goat and grass on the second bank [3 marks]

SNO Current state Next state Description

1 GT, FMR, LPD, GR | 0,0,0,0 0,0, LPD, GR | GT, FMR,0,0 Farmer moves to second
bank with the Goat
2. 0,FMR, LPD, GR | GT, 0,0,0 Farmer is back to bank A
3 0,0, LPD, 0 | GT, FMR,0,GR Bring grass to Bank B
4 GT,FMR, LPD, 0 | 0, 0,0,GR Farer to bank A with the
goat
5 GT,0, 0, 0 | 0, FMR,LPD,GR Farmer to bank B with the
leopard
6 GT,FMR, 0, 0 | 0, 0,LPD,GR Farmer is back to bank A
0,0, 0, 0 | GT, FMR,LPD,GR Farmer rides to bank B with
the goat

At one Mark each =

[5 marks]

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 6. Using a relevant example describe the following properties of an intelligent agent: Performance
measure, Environment, Actuators and Sensors [8 Marks]

Driverless car (See the notes)

Agent type Performance Environment Actuators Sensors

measure
Taxi Driver Safe, fast, legal, Roads, other road Steering, Cameras, sonar,
maximize profits users, Accelerator, speedometer
pedestrians, signal, horn Engine sensors,
customer keyboard

7. What is the importance of studying Artificial Intelligence in relation to the Kenya Vision 2030? [2
Marks]

With vision 2030, our country Kenya aspires to be industrialized. That will call for engaging automated
labor in the form of intelligent machines like robots etc

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