VNU-HUS MAT1206E: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

This is the website for the course “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (VNU-HUS MAT1206E)” I am participating in teaching at the University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi in Semester 1 of the 2025-2026 academic year.

Basic information
Textbook, references
Lectures, exercises
- Week 0
- Week 1
- Week 2
History of announcements

Announcements

16/09/2025:
- Course content updated
  - Week 2
- Update the evaluation method for the midterm exam
10/09/2025:
- Update location of theory classes to Room 107-T5 (the first two classes were held at Room 303-T4)
- Update the number of credits from 4 to 3. The extra online learning activities are no longer required.
09/09/2025:
- Course content updated
  - Week 1
31/08/2025:
- Website initialized
- Students registering for MAT1206E 3 should fill in the form https://forms.office.com/r/wcsWncHtny before 23:59 on 17/09/2025 to be invited to the Canvas course.
- Course content updated
  - Week 0

See older announcements here.

Students who wish to be absent must notify via the form https://forms.office.com/r/RY6LnDk2wv before the class starts. Other forms of notification (email, message, asking someone else to request leave, …) are not accepted.

Basic information

University: University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi
Course code: MAT1206E
Section codes: MAT1206E 1, 2, 3
Credits: 3
Schedule: Semester 1, Academic year 2025-2026
- Theory: Wednesday, 08:50 - 10:40 (Periods 3-4), Room 107-T5 (The first two classes were held at Room 303-T4)
- Exercise, Lab: Thursday, 13:00 – 18:30 (Periods 7-12), Room 509-T5
  - MAT1206E 1: 13:00 - 14:45 (Periods 7-8)
  - MAT1206E 2: 14:50 - 16:40 (Periods 9-10)
  - MAT1206E 3: 16:45 - 18:30 (Periods 11-12)
Instructor:
- Theory: Hoàng Anh Đức (University of Science, VNU Hanoi, hoanganhduc[at]hus.edu.vn (replace [at] with @), GitHub Username: hoanganhduc)
- Exercise, Lab: Phạm Ngọc Hải (University of Science, VNU Hanoi, harito.work[at]gmail.com (replace [at] with @), GitHub Username: Harito97) and Trần Bá Tuấn (VNU University of Science, tranbatuan[at]hus.edu.vn (replace [at] with @), GitHub Username: tranbatuan)
Canvas: GHGYGK
- Note: Students should fill in the information at https://forms.office.com/r/wcsWncHtny to be invited to the Canvas course.
- Note: Students must set their display name to their full Vietnamese name, e.g. “Nguyễn Văn Tuấn”. Also set the timezone in Canvas to Hanoi (GMT+7). See how to change displayed name and how to change timezone.
Content: The course provides learners with knowledge about knowledge representation and representation of knowledge, together with reasoning techniques on knowledge. Some AI systems are introduced as expert systems. Through those systems, students experiment with AI programming languages or practice with open-source systems to design and build knowledge processing systems.
Assessment, grading:
- Regular (10%) [Exercises, Lab, Attendance]
- Midterm (20%) [Written Test]
- Final (70%) [Mini Project Report + Presentation]

Textbook, references

Wolfgang Ertel. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. 3rd edition. Springer, 2025 [Main textbook]
- Book homepage
- Google Drive (requires HUS email account)
- Prof. W. Ertel’s AI lectures at Ravensburg-Weingarten University in 2011 (Chapters 1 and 6-10)
Stuart J. Russell, Peter Norvig. Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. 4th edition. Pearson, 2021.
- Book homepage
- Google Drive (requires HUS email account)
- Code
Supplementary materials for the course
- Some materials for the course “Introduction to AI” at VNU-HUS
- Mini-Project Guidelines and Templates, including Rubrics for Mini-Project Evaluation, Proposed Topic Template, and Some Mini-Project Ideas

Lectures, exercises

Note: Part of the lecture content is based on the slides of Prof. Wolfgang Ertel used in lectures at Ravensburg-Weingarten University, Germany.

Week 0

Theory: Preliminaries
Exercise, Lab: Help students to set up for the course
Preparation for next week:
- Introduction and Introduction: In-class Discussion
- Chapter 1 of the textbook
- Prof. Ertel’s Introduction Lecture at Ravensburg-Weingarten University in 2011 [YouTube]
- A recent conversation (April 2025) between Johann Schumann and Prof. Ertel (retired) [AI at the Crossroads: Symbolic Logic, Impact on Society, and the Future of Work]

Week 1

Theory:
- In-class Discussion
- Introduction
Exercise, Lab: Exercises in Chapter 1 of the textbook
Preparation for next week:
- Propositional Logic
- Chapter 2 of the textbook

Week 2

Theory:
- Discussion
- Propositional Logic
Exercise, Lab: Exercises in Chapter 2 of the textbook
Preparation for next week:
- First-order Predicate Logic
- Chapter 3 of the textbook