SYDE 750 Topic 39 / ECE 750 Topic 34 Artificial Life: Embodied Intelligence
(Winter 2021)

Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn kerstin.dautenhahn@uwaterloo.ca
Prof. Chrystopher L. Nehaniv chrystopher.nehaniv@uwaterloo.ca

Text: Readings (articles, journal papers, book chapters) to be made available to students,
assigned weekly. These should be read before the next class meeting. Also,

Required Books:
 V. Braitenberg (1986), Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology, MIT Press.
 F. Varela, E. Thompson, E. Rosch (1991/2017), The Embodied Mind: Cognitive
Science and Human Experience, 1st or 2nd edition, MIT Press.
Recommended Books (certain chapters, ideas or concepts will be covered):
 Ronald C. Arkin (1998) Behavior-based Robotics, MIT Press.
 Maja Mataric (2007) The Robotics Primer, MIT Press.
 Robin R. Murphy (2019) Introduction to AI Robotics, 2nd edition, MIT Press.
 Rolf Pfeifer, Josh Bongard (2007) How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New
View of Intelligence. MIT Press.
 Rolf Pfeifer, Josh Bongard, Don Berry (2011) Designing Intelligence: Why Brain’s
Aren’t Enough, Starmind.
 Angelo Cangelosi, Matthew Schlesinger (2015) Developmental Robotics- From
Babies to Robots, MIT Press.
 Jakob von Uexküll (2010 [1934]), A Foray into the Worlds of Animals and Humans,
translated by J.D. O’Neil, University of Minnesota Press. [or any other edition].

Home Page: SYDE/ECE 750 topic 39/34 on Learn
Class Times: Monday 10:00-11:20, Thursday 10:00-11: 20
Location: Online via Zoom (LIVE synchronous lectures; recorded)

Course Grading:
 40% Problem Worksheets, Note-taking and participation. Frequent worksheets
and assignments (including programming, writing) will check and develop student
understanding of concepts covered in-class.
 60% Individual term project: Students propose an individual project to carry out,
and critically evaluate an individual project using artificial life techniques in a
particular application area. An 8-page IEEE conference-style formatted report to
which all code and additional appendices must be added. All projects must be
demoed to the instructors. The report has to demonstrate background review,
software/system development, experimental results and analysis, and critical
evaluation. The report will serve as the main basis of assessment.


This course in Artificial Life addresses the foundational role of embodiment and interaction
in living and life-like systems as a paradigmatic approach for Embodied Intelligence in living
organisms, complex adaptive systems, agents and interactive social robots. This is
fundamental for understanding and modeling social and physically grounded intelligent
behavior of living systems, and for the synthesis of embodied intelligence in artificial
interactive systems and AI robotics.





Course Outline: (Target topics, subject to modification*)

1. Logic of Life vs. Embodied Artificial Life; Braitenberg Vehicles; Role of the
Observer; Emergence; Self-Organization; Self-* Properties (autopoiesis, self-
maintenance, etc.)
2. Embodied agents, classification, issues of autonomy and design, degrees of
embodiment
3. Enactive, Connectionist, and Cognitivist concepts and paradigms
4. Life-like believable robots and agents, varieties of social intelligence
5. Subsumption and other behaviour-based robot architectures; behaviour selection and
modulation techniques, potential fields, behaviour-orientation.
6. Cognitive and developmental approaches to AI robotics; social learning and
imitation.
7. Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), and applications
8. Definitions of different types of agents
9. Ethics of artificial life agents
10. Post-Reactive Natural and Artificial Intelligence & Robotics:
Topics chosen from perception-action loop, Shannon information and empowerment;
the temporal horizon: reactive / affective / learning / deliberative / post-reactive
agents and robots; autobiographic agents, sensor evolution; interaction games;
experience histories; and narrative intelligence.
* The instructors reserve the right to modify the content and order of topics covered in the
lectures which may be adjusted, e.g. due to recent developments in the field.
Students are expected to attend all lectures, take detailed notes, and participate in class
discussions online. We will endeavor to complete all this synchronously online, though we
understand that may not always be possible due to Covid-19 and will adapt as needed.

Important Dates:

Wednesday 24 February 2021 – Individual Project Proposals Due by 5 p.m.
Wednesday 7 April 2021 – Final Project Reports Due by 5 p.m.
Friday/ Monday 8 & 12 April 2021 – Project Demo presentations in class from 10 a.m.


Important.

Students should be able to program well in at least one high-level computer language.

ECE M.Eng. students wishing to enroll should have achieved a good mark in ECE 650, or be
able to present evidence of equivalent strong programming ability.
It is expected that students understand the university position on copying (in terms of
assignments) and plagiarism (in terms of the project). All work / figures which are not your
own must be explicitly identified.

Students enrolling agree to have their work checked on Turn-It-In to guard against plagiarism
and collusion. (If you enroll but do not agree, please contact Prof. Nehaniv to discuss within
the first two weeks of term.)
Auditors (those not enrolling for credit), if any, are required complete all course elements
except for the final project report.
Rules for Collaboration
Students are strongly encouraged to talk about assigned work, share ideas, or share code
fragments. However, each final submission is to be composed individually. Direct copying of
a solution, or providing the copy, is considered cheating. Two key things to remember are
“separation” and “disclosure.”
Separation means that, after you discuss an assignment with other people, you separate
yourself from them and from any shared materials while you then individually compose your
solution to hand in. In addition to avoiding direct copying, this will significantly improve
your speed of learning.
Disclosure means you indicate on the submitted work any significant help you received,
and specify any component which you took directly from another source. You may lose
whatever portion of the grade relates to the copied part. However, you won’t be cheating and
you will be learning from the parts you were able to complete on your own.
Email Policy:
Only emails from a valid uwaterloo email address will be responded to. The email must
contain the full student name and student ID. We endeavour to respond within 24 to 48 hours
during working hours.
Worksheet assignments are open book in the sense that you may consult your
readings, course notes, and materials posted in, or directly linked from, the course LEARN
site, and also online materials. Inclusion of other material is permitted, but if this is done
without proper citation, you may be subject to academic discipline. Use of any other resource
without citation (including file- sharing services such as chegg.com, coursehero.com,
stackexchange.com, ...) is prohibited. Assignments need to be completed on an individual
basis, you must write up your text and solutions yourself in your own words. You must fully
cite any material (e.g. text, figures, diagrams, tables, pictures etc.).
Individual Project Reports. Make sure to carefully cite the sources of all
assertions made in your report, writing in your own words and using quotation
marks around any direct quotes. Cite sources and authors of all software code you use or
modify in your project. Paraphrasing or quoting long sections of text (more than one
sentence), even with citations, from other sources is generally not appropriate, and may
constitute academic misconduct.
Writing and Communication Centre: The Writing and Communication Centre works with
students in all Faculties to help you consider your audience, clarify your ideas, develop your
voice, and write in the style appropriate to your discipline. We offer one-on-one support for
writing papers, delivering presentations, integrating research, and revising for clarity and
coherence. Group appointments for team-based projects, presentations, and papers are also
available. All of our services are available virtually: booked appointments, drop-ins,
resources, and writing groups. Check out our website for other ways to interact with us, such
as open online forums and online “Question and Answers”. Visit us at
www.uwaterloo.ca/wcc. Please note that communication specialists guide you to see your
work as readers would. We can teach you revising skills and strategies, but will not change or
correct your work for you. Please bring your assignment instructions and any notes or drafts
to your appointment. [Link Writing and Communication Centre]

All coursework and software code is subject to checking for
collusion and plagiarism using Turn-It-In.
Turnitin.com: Text matching software may be used to screen assignments in this
course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are
documented. Students’ submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be
given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are
concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first
week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and
alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.
LaTeX lecture notes: When it is your turn to take notes for the class, log
into https://www.overleaf.com using your University of Waterloo credentials to create your
notes document. When finished, share the document allowing editing with the course
instructors. Include only material presented in the lecture and no external material.

Privacy and Remote Teaching and Learning:
https://uwaterloo.ca/privacy/about-informaion-and-privacy/guidelines-frequently-
asked-questions/privacy-and-remote-teaching-and-learning
Notice of Recording: Since lectures must be available for students unable to attend
synchronously, these will be recorded for those who cannot take part live. The URL of an
event or an event session recording or copies of recording are not permitted to be disclosed to
anyone, without the permission of the course instructor or event organizer. The URL should
be available only to authorized participants who have been directly provided the link.
Generally, we intend that only the instructors or TAs will be recorded, but the online
platforms used may potentially record your audio or video.
Student demos will not be recorded.
Course materials and videos provided by the instructors must
not be shared on social media or otherwise distributed in any
form (including sharing links to them).
They are for your own personal use while studying at the University of Waterloo only, and
are subject to copyright and intellectual property laws, and university privacy policies.
By taking part in the course, you agree not to share this material or any
links to it to anyone outside the course without instructor
agreement.
Please discuss with the instructors if you have concerns.
Auditors (those not enrolling for credit), if any, are required complete all course elements
(including project proposal) except for the final project report.
Compassionate Accommodation: If you are facing challenges that are affecting
more than one course contact the Associate Chair Graduate Studies. They will review your
case and coordinate a reasonable and fair plan in consultation with appropriate others (for
example: instructors, Department Graduate Studies Committee, Chair, AccessAbility
Services, Engineering Counselling services, Registrar's Office).
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING – MORE FINE PRINT
Faculty of Engineering website: [Link Academic Support and Policies ].
Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the
University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect,
and responsibility.
[Check Academic Integrity website for more information. Link Office of Academic Integrity].
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity (see link
above) to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for their actions.
A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in
learning how to avoid offences (for example: plagiarism, cheating) or about expectations for
group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic
advisor, or the graduate Associate Dean. Relevant documents include:
 University of Waterloo Policy 71 [Link Policy 71 Student Discipline].
 Academic Penalty Guidelines [Link Policy 71 Penalty Guidelines].
 Assessment of Unauthorized Collaboration: [Link Assessment of Unauthorized
Collaboration].
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their university
life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy
70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt please be certain to contact
the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies who will provide further assistance.
[Link Policy 70 Petitions & Grievance.]

Appeals: A decision made, or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and
Grievances) (other than a petition) or Policy 71 (Student Discipline) may be appealed if there
is a ground. A student who believes they have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy
72 (Student Appeals) [Link Policy 72 Student Appeals].

























































































































































































































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