Overview

Gain expertise in one of the most fascinating and fastest growing areas of computer science through an innovative online program that covers fascinating and compelling topics in the field of Artificial Intelligence and its applications. This MicroMasters program from Columbia University will give you a rigorous, advanced, professional, graduate-level foundation in Artificial Intelligence. The program represents 25% of the coursework toward a Master's degree in Computer Science at Columbia.

These courses are instructional-led and each course has 10-12 weeks of lecture plus an additional final exam week. If you are interested in completing the full MicroMasters program on edX, there is no time limit in which you must complete all the courses in the program. Currently, the courses are offered twice a year, in the spring and fall term.

For those who are interested in applying for an M.S. degree at Columbia University, you must complete this MicroMasters program within 2 years of the start date of the first course in order to include MicroMasters certificate in your application package. For example, if you aim to apply for 2021 Fall M.S. program, you have to earn the MicroMasters Program certificate by 2021 February admission deadline.

Syllabus

Courses under this program:
Course 1: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Learn the fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and apply them. Design intelligent agents to solve real-world problems including, search, games, machine learning, logic, and constraint satisfaction problems.

Course 2: Machine Learning

Master the essentials of machine learning and algorithms to help improve learning from data without human intervention.

Course 3: Robotics

Learn the core techniques for representing robots that perform physical tasks in the real world.

Course 4: Animation and CGI Motion

Learn the science behind movie animation from the Director of Columbia’s Computer Graphics Group.

Courses

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12 weeks, 8-10 hours a week, 8-10 hours a week
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How do you create realistic animations? How do you predict the motion of materials? It’s key to the success of animated films to ensure (was insure) audiences believe in characters.

This course will show you how to create lifelike animations focusing on the technical aspects of CGI animation and also give you a glimpse into how studios approach the art of physically-based animation.

You will learn the fundamental concepts of physical simulation, including:
1. integration of ordinary differential equations such as those needed to predict the motion of a dress in the wind.
2. formulation of models for physical phenomena such as crumpling sheet metal and flowing water.
3. treatment of discontinuities such as fractures and collisions.
4. simulation of liquids and solids in both Lagrangian and Eulerian coordinates.
5. artistic control of physically-based animations.
These concepts will be put into practice in the programming assignments spanning:
- Discretizing and integrating Newton’s equations of motion
- Constrained Lagrangian Mechanics
- Collisions, contact, and friction: detection and response
- Continuum mechanics
- Finite elements
- Rigid body simulation
- Thin shell and cloth simulation
- Elastic rod and hair simulation
- Fluid simulation