CS540 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

CS540, Spring 2026
Department of Computer Sciences
University of Wisconsin–Madison


Schedule (Subject to Change)

Week Topic Blerina's Material LEC 001-2 Young's Material LEC 003 Assignments
Week 1 (Jan 20–23) Welcome, Course Overview and Probability Week 1
Week 2 (Jan 26–30) Statistics, Linear Algebra and PCA Week 2 Wednesday Jan 28: HW 1 Released
Week 3 (Feb 2–6) Introduction to Logic and Natural Language Processing (NLP) Week 3 Wednesday Feb 4: HW 1 Due; HW 2 Released
Week 4 (Feb 9–13) Machine Learning: Introduction and Unsupervised Learning I Week 4 Wednesday Feb 11: HW 2 Due; HW 3 Released
Week 5 (Feb 16–20) Unsupervised Learning II and Linear Regression Week 5 Wednesday Feb 18: HW 3 Due; HW 4 Released
Week 6 (Feb 23–27) K-Nearest Neighbors, Naive Bayes, and Neural Networks I Week 6 Wednesday Feb 25: HW 4 Due; HW 5 Released
Week 7 (Mar 2–6) Neural Networks II, Neural Networks III Week 7 Wednesday Mar 4: HW 5 due, HW 6 Released
Week 8 (Mar 9–13) Deep Learning I & II Week 8 Wednesday Mar 11: HW 6 due, HW 7 Released
Week 9 (Mar 16–20) Deep Learning III & IV Week 9
MIDTERM EXAM March 24th, 5:45 PM - 7:15 PM
Week 10 (Mar 23–27) ML/DL Summary, and Search I: Uninformed Search Week 10
SPRING RECESS Mar 28-Apr 5
Week 11 (Apr 6–10) Search II: Informed Search and Games I Week 11 Wednesday Apr 8: HW 7 Due; HW 8 Released
Week 12 (Apr 13–17) Games II and Introduction Reinforcement Learning I Week 12 Wednesday Apr 15: HW 8 Due; HW 9 Released
Week 13 (Apr 20–24) Reinforcement Learning II and Advanced Search Week 13 Wednesday Apr 22: HW 9 Due; HW 10 Released
Week 14 (Apr 27–May 1) Ethics and Trust in AI and Review Week 14 Wednesday Apr 29: HW 10 Due
FINAL EXAM May 7th, 12:25 PM - 2:25 PM