The course will have a substantial independent project and will require strong class participation. Many of the lectures will not be structured. You are expected to read the material assigned and participate in discussions.

Each student will select a project during the course of the semester. They will be expected to become familiar with a particular body of research beyond the classroom lectures. Students will submit a written report, and give an oral presentation of their findings. A list of suggested projects for this course will be available after the first 4 weeks of classes.

To succeed in this course you should have taken a data structures/algorithms course and have prior knowledge of software engineering .

Course Textbook:

Topics to be Covered:

Meta-heuristic Search

• Introduction and Overview of Heuristic and Meta-Heuristic Search
• General optimization problems
• Fitness functions
• Local search vs. Meta-heuristic search
• Visualization of the Search Landscape
• Hyper-heuristics

• Specific Search Algorithms (not all may be covered):
  • Hill Climbing
  • Simulated Annealing
  • Tabu Search
  • Genetic Algorithms
  • Genetic Programming
  • Ant Colony Optimization

Other AI Techniques (not all may be covered):

• AI Planning
• Classification Trees
• Natural Language Processing

Applications in Software Engineering

• Software Test Generation
• Regression Testing
• Test Suite Repair
• Automated Software Repair
• Reverse Engineering
• Fault Characterization
• Software Security
• Performance Tuning
• Software Refactoring
• Specification Mining
• Generating Program Comments

The grading for the class will be as follows:

• Homeworks: problems, programs: 15%
• Paper reviews 10%
• In Class participation: 10%
• Mid semester exam: 15% Tentative Due Date: Monday, October 6th
• Project Proposal: 10% Tentative Due Date: Friday, October 17th
• Paper presentation: 5%
• Final project presentation results and paper: Due Friday, December 11th (during the 15th week: aka dead week*) 35%

There will be one exam given in this course. Evaluation will be based primarily on your class participation, assignments, paper reviews, your paper presentation, and your written and oral project presentations. There will be a considerable amount of reading of research papers in the course. Students are expected to attend and participate during class. Missed classes and/or a lack of participation will lower the class participation score.

Academic Dishonesty
	All homework assignments, quizzes, exams, etc. must be your own work. No direct collaboration with fellow students, past or current, is allowed unless otherwise stated. The Computer Science & Engineering department has an Academic Integrity Policy. All students enrolled in any computer science course are bound by this policy. You are expected to read, understand, and follow this policy. Violations will be dealt with on a case by case basis and may result in a failing assignment or a failing grade for the course itself. Departmental Academic Integrity Policy for more details.
Special Needs
	Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact [the instructor or teaching assistant] for a confidential discussion of their individual needs for academic accommodation. It is the policy of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to provide flexible and individualized accommodations to students with documented disabilities that may affect their ability to fully participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. To receive accommodation services, students must be registered with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office, 132 Canfield Administration, 472-3787 voice or TTY.
Departmental Resources and Feedback
	The Student Resource Center is located in Avery 13A.
	The CSE Department has an anonymous suggestion box that you may use to voice your concerns about any problems in the course or department if you do not wish to be identified.

Course Expectations:

• There will be three fifty minute lectures per week. Students are expected to come to class and participate. Missing multiple classes will result in a low score on class participation. In addition students should expect to spend approximately 6 additional hours per week on reading, study and projects.

Course Policies:

• All Assignments will have clearly marked due dates and penalties.
• No make-up exams will be given unless arranged with the instructor in advance or a written medical excuse is provided.
• You will have one week from the time the grades are available to challenge a grade on an assignment, or exam. After that, challenges are not accepted.

Grade Assignments

Both graduates and undergraduates will complete the same work during this course, however the marking and scaling of any grades will be done separately for each group. In addition, the project component for undergraduates will have a less stringent research component.

Grades are made based on the following scale:

A: 93-100	A-: 90-92
B+: 87-89	B: 83-86	B-: 80-82
C+: 77-79	C: 73-76	C-: 70-72
D+: 67-69	D: 63-66	D-: 60-62	F: 0-59




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*See UNL 15th week policies for more information

Some Important University Dates for 2014 (please check UNL Calendar for the complete and official listing):

• August 25th, Late registration fee begins
• September 2nd, Last day for adds/drops (100% refund)
• September 5th, Last day to drop course from record without receiving a "w"
• September 1st, Labor Day: University Holiday
• October 20-21, Fall Break
• November 14th, Last day to withdraw
• November 27-30, Thanksgiving Holiday
• December 13th, Last day of classes

Course Calendar: Updated as Semester Progresses