PROVIDING TOOLS FOR NOVICE AI PROGRAMMERS S.C.Lynch

Solutions to Artificial Intelligence (AI) problems are often complex to implement by nature. This presents AI tutors with problems if they want to encourage students to explore practical implementation issues. If tutors wish to give students concise, easy to understand, practical examples of AI solutions they are often forced to simplify systems to a point where their functionality is no longer realistic and may hide important practical issues. Alternatively tutors may encourage students to build small but real systems. This requires students to possess advanced programming abilities and takes time, limiting what can be covered in other theoretical aspects of an AI course. As the nature of computing degrees becomes more diverse, and also the background of students sitting AI modules, we suggest a third alternative. This paper describes a suite of programming tools which have successfully helped novice students learn the practical aspects of AI programming