CS-31 | Tufts University | Fall 2026 · Tu · Th 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Our main textbook will be Artificial Intelligence: Foundations of Computational Agents (3rd edition), by David L. Poole & Alan K. Mackworth. The complete book is free to access online here.
We will frequently supplement the textbook with other materials which we will post each week, such as articles, papers, videos, or individual chapters from other books.
Python Environment and VS Code Setup Guide - step-by-step instructions for installing uv, building the course Python environment, and setting up VS Code with the course notebooks.
TL;DR - Use Piazza and Office hours for help on course material. This makes it easier for us to keep everything together. Only use e-mail for more personal matters.
Office hours will be held regularly by the instructor and TAs. In office hours we'll try and help you with any questions you may have about the course material, labs, or problem sets.
Office hours schedule coming soon.
When using the Piazza forum, you should be aware of the policies around collaboration when posting questions and providing answers (See Collaboration and AI Policy). Questions may be posted as either private (viewable only by yourself and course staff) or public (additionally viewable by all students for the course registered on Piazza).
Some issues warrant public questions and responses, such as: misconceptions or clarifications about the instructions, conceptual questions, errors in documentation, etc.
Some issues are better with private posts, including: debugging questions that include extensive amounts of code, questions that reveal a portion of your solution, etc.
Please use your best judgment when selecting private vs. public. If in doubt, make it private. Staff may later convert a post to public if appropriate.
If you have a question about the course material, please use Piazza. However if the matter is more personal and you do not wish to use Piazza, feel free to see the instructor in-person or contact the instructor at james.skripchuk@tufts.edu.
Please start your e-mail subject line with "CS31" to help me find the e-mail better! If you do not get a response within 24 hours, feel free to message me again.