Instructor: Prof. Edward Y. Chang
Course Assistant: Longling Gloria Geng
Lectures: Mondays & Wednesdays, 4:30 β 5:50 PM (Starting January 5, 2026)
Location: NVIDIA Auditorium
Join us for an audacious aimβelevating LLMs from pattern matching to conscious reasoning, validation, and planning.
Large Language Models (LLMs) have revolutionized AI through remarkable pattern matching capabilities. However, the path to Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) requires advancing beyond unconscious, reactive processing (automatic, stimulus-response behavior) to deliberate reasoning and validated planning. This course explores approaches to enhance LLMs with AGI-oriented capabilities through systematic reasoning, planning, and decision-making.
Through lectures, discussions, and hands-on projects, students will explore and implement multi-agent systems that advance beyond current state-of-the-art frameworks (e.g., LangGraph) to address planning problems across various domains, including project planning, supply chain management, emergency room logistics, and natural disaster response.
Prerequisites: Completion of Machine Learning and Deep Learning courses, along with substantial experience with LLMs.
Multi-LLM Collaborative Intelligence (MACI), The Path to AGI Volume 1 by Edward Y. Chang, December 2025, ACM Books.
System-2 Reasoning: From Semantic Anchoring to Causal Intelligence: The Path to AGI Volume 2 by Edward Y. Chang, February 2026, Amazon release.
Additional reading materials and supplementary content can be found on SocraSynth.com.
The following schedule is a sample from last year.
| # | Date | Topic | Materials | Instructor | Deadlines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1/5/2026 | Course Aims and Syllabus; From QA to Complex Reasoning and Planning; Can LLMs Achieve AGI? | Slides | Recorded | Preface, AGI Book Vol #1 | E. Chang | |
| 2 | 1/7 | Reasoning #1 Pearl's Causality Hierarchy, and Assignment #1 Specification | Slides | Recorded | E. Chang | Assignment #1 out |
| 3 | 1/12 | Reasoning #2 PID Architecture for Sycophancy and Skepticism | Slides | Recorded | AGI Book, Vol #2, Ch 6, 7 | E. Chang, Gloria Geng | β |
| 4 | 1/14 | Reasoning #3 Prompting Large Language Models With the Socratic Method | Slides | Recorded on Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapter 5 | E. Chang | Assignment #1 due |
| 5 | 1/19 | Martin Luther King, Jr., Day (holiday, no classes) | Assignment #2 out | ||
| 6 | 1/21 | Reasoning #4 Reasoning Recap and Planning Intro | Slides | Recorded on Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #2, Ch 4; Vol #1, Chapter 12 | E. Chang | |
| 7 | 1/26 | AGI #1 Multi-LLM Agent Collaborative Intelligence | Slides | Recorded on Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapters 6 and Chapter 7 | Class | |
| 8 | 1/28 | ASI #1 What is Consciousness, System 2 Introduction | Slides | Recorded | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapters 13 | E. Chang | Assignment #2 due |
| 9 | 2/2 | AGI #2 MACI Survey and Pathologies in Multi-Agent Debate Systems | Slides | Recorded Canvas | AGI Book, Vol #2, Chapter 8 | E. Chang | Final Project proposal due |
| 10 | 2/4 | ASI #2 Computational Consciousness: Free Will, Ethic Modeling | Slides | Recorded | AGI Book, Vol #1, Chapters 13 | E. Chang | |
| 11 | 2/9 | Reasoning #5 ERM: Epistemic Regret Minimization | Slides | AGI Book Vol#2, Chapter 10 | E. Chang | |
| 12 | 2/11 | Reasoning #6 SagaLLM: Context Management, Validation, and Transaction Guarantees | Slides | AGI Book Vol#1, Chapter 11 | E. Chang | |
| 13 | 2/16 | Presidents' Day (holiday, no classes) | |||
| 14 | 2/18 | Midterm Project Dash, Session 1 | All | β | |
| 15 | 2/23 | Midterm Project Dash, Session 2 | All | β | |
| 16 | 2/25 | Reasoning #7 TSO: Transactional Swarm Orchestration | Slides | AGI Book II, Chapter 9 | E. Chang | β |
| 17 | 3/2 | AGI #3 Collatz Dynamics as a Model World for Temporal-Spatial Optimization | Slides | | E. Chang | β |
| 18 | 3/4 | ASI #3 Summary & Real Wisdom | Slides | | E. Chang | |
| 19 | 3/9 | Final Presentation | Slides | Readings | β | |
| 20 | 3/11 | Highlights of Natural Language Processing History, 70 Years in 70 Minutes | Slides | Recorded Lecture | Chapters 1, 2 | β |