Implementing Neural Networks

Professor Clark Elliott

The assignment: In this fun assignment, we will be writing our own neural network inplementation from scratch. Then we will train one of our neurons to iplement the logic gates we studied in the Bermudez text. The actual programming part is quite trivial because: (a) I give you most of the code and, (b) LISP is a beautiful, elegant language that is easy for beginners to learn. To set this assignment in context: once you have figured out how to complete the assignment, if you lost ALL of your code, it would take you about ten minutes to complete it again from scratch.

This assignment is based on a chapter in the textbook by Jose Luis Bermudez: Cognitive Science: An Introduction to the Science of the Mind, 3rd Edition Cambridge University Press, 2020 and the associated, abbreviated lecture by Clark Elliott to be found at D2L | Content. If you understand the Bermudez lecture on how artificial neurons work and are trained, you will be able to complete this assignment. The actual AI programming is minimal once you understand the topic. Nonetheless, you will have completed a neural network program from scratch that learns how to implement logic gates, which is something to be proud of, and also, as intended, extremely revealing about how artificial neural structures work.

Links:

Find a text editor with which you are comfortable. ALL computer scientists and those in related fields, must be able to edit plain text files. Follow the link to see a good introduction to text editors (see the section labeled LISP compatible text editors).
Install Java We only need Java because our portable LISP platform runs on top of it. Because we will not be programming in Java you can get by with only the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) if you like (to run Java). However, it may be easier to install the whole JDK (Java Development Kit) which includes the JRE in it. We CERTAINLY do not need to install an IDE (a complex Interactive Development Environment for developing Java programs) such as Eclipse or Intellij. For our class, any version after Java 1.9 is fine.
Get LISP running on your machine. Once you have selected a text editor, and have java installed, the only thing you will need is to download the ABCL.jar file to your computer.
The short verion is, if you can run the command "> java -jar abcl.jar" in a command shell, LISP is installed and you can complete the simple LISP programming for the assignment.
Load and run the simple Sample LISP Programs to get a feel for how this fun programming environment works.
Select the Neural Networks assignment from the LISP assignments page and complete the work.