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.
The required textbook: Multi-LLM Collaborative Intelligence (MACI), The Path to AGI by Edward Y. Chang, December 2025, ACM Books.
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 | AGI #3 MACI New Design with Ghost Nodes | Slides | Chapter 12 | E. Chang | |
| 12 | 2/11 | Planning #2 SagaLLM: Context Management, Validation, and Transaction Guarantees | Slides | 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 | Application #1 LLMs with Healthcare (The Fourth Wave of AI Failures?) | Slides | Chapter 9 | E. Chang | β |
| 17 | 3/2 | Application #2 LLMs and Psychological Disorders | Guest Speaker | β | |
| 18 | 3/4 | Highlights of Natural Language Processing History, 70 Years in 70 Minutes | Slides | Recorded Lecture | Chapters 1, 2 | Online | β |
| 19 | 3/9 | ASI #3 Artificial Super Intelligence | Slides | | E. Chang | |
| 20 | 3/11 | Final Presentation | Slides | Readings | Group 1 | β |
| 21 | 3/13 | Final Presentation | Slides | Readings | Group 2 | β |