Instructor: Prof. Edward Y. Chang
Course Assistants: TBD
Lectures: Mondays & Wednesdays, 4:30 PM - 5:50 PM (Starting March 31, 2025)
Room: 420 041
Due to increased demand, capacity has been raised to 75 + 25 waitlist. New Location: Room 420 041
Join us for an audacious aim—elevating 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. Grading:The primary textbook for this course is: Multi-LLM Collaborative Intelligence, The Path to AGI by Edward Y. Chang. Available on Amazon.
Additional reading materials and supplementary content can be found on SocraSynth.com.
The following schedule is tentative and subject to updates.
# | Date | Description | Course Materials | Instructor and Participants | Deadlines |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | March 31 | Course Aims and Syllabus; From QA to Complex Reasoning and Planning; Can LLMs alone achieve AGI, or are they a necessary but insufficient component on the path to AGI? |
Slides | Readings | E. Chang | Assignment #1 out |
2 | April 2 | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | - | |
3 | April 7 | LangGraph Intro to Model Agentic Workflow for Planning | Slides | Readings | Leonie Freisinger, Stealth Startup | - |
4 | April 9 |
|
Slides | Readings | E. Chang | -- |
5 | April 14 | In class debate: Can LLMs lead to AGI? Project team formaation. |
Slides | Readings | All | Addignment 1 due; Assignment 2 out |
6 | April 16 |
|
Slides | Readings | E. Chang | -- |
7 | April 21 | Fine-Tuning DeepSeek R1 | Slides | Readings | Online Tutorials | Assignment 2 due; Assignment 3 out |
8 | April 23 | Project Dash 1 | Slides | Readings | All | Dash 2 starts |
9 | April 28 |
|
Slides | Readings | E. Chang | 10 | April 30 |
|
Slides | Readings | E. Chang | Assignment 3 due |
12 | May 5 | Highlights of Natural Language Processing History in One Lecture | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | |
11 | May 7 | Project Dash 2 | Slides | Readings | All | -- |
13 | May 12 | Managing Information Diversity, Knowledge Exchange, and In-Context Reasoning | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | -- |
14 | May 14 | NeurIPS Day | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | -- |
15 | May 19 | Consciousness Modeling: What and Where Is It? | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | -- |
16 | May 21 | Consciousness Mechanics: Quantum Jump and Thermodynamics | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | |
17 | May 26 | Memorial Holiday | Slides | Readings | -- | -- |
18 | May 28 | Course Summary and Office Hours | Slides | Readings | E. Chang | -- |
19 | June 2 | Final Presentation | Slides | Readings | Group 1 | -- |
20 | June 4 | Final Presentation | Slides | Readings | Group 2 | -- |
Assignment details and deadlines will be announced in class and posted here.