This year we are applying to Google Summer of Code to invite students from around the world to help us with development. Our projects list is available here. We will let you know the outcome as soon as it’s in.
Our projects aim to enhance online educational resources based on “Simply Logical” textbook, which discusses methods to implement intelligent reasoning by means of Prolog programs.
“Simply Logical: Intelligent Reasoning by Example”, an introductory textbook to Artificial Intelligence and Logic Programming, was published in 1994 with accompanying 3.5 inch diskette containing the Prolog programs printed in the book. In 2007 the copyright reverted back to the author and the book and programs were made freely available online. In the age of interactive web the book in pdf format feels outdated and unappealing to younger audience, hence in 2015 we brought to life Simply Logical – an open source organisation that maintains a suite of interactive online educational resources that cover the core concepts of AI and Logic Programming with Prolog.
Over the years we have accumulated a wealth of teaching material, which includes: web-based reasoning with Wikipedia and Google Scholar and an online multiplayer grid world to experiment with search strategies, among others. Nevertheless, to date the bulk of our online material is based on the content of the book ported into a webpage and enhanced with interactive Prolog exercises. Therefore, we are committed to expanding our content with additional resources, including community contributions, that can be used for both self-study and teaching undergraduate level introductory course.
Since the book was written to embody a “teaching by showing, learning by doing” philosophy, explained in the Preface, with current technologies (in particular SWISH, Prolog’s response to Jupyter Notebooks) and GSoC partnership, together we can make our vision – “…every technique is accompanied by a Prolog program implementing it…” – come true. This year you can help us:
- improve the look and feel of the online book (web dev);
- work on the second edition of the book (web dev);
- develop new/adapt old online teaching materials and exercises (Prolog and web dev).
If you want to dip your toes in classic AI and Logic Programming with Prolog while developing interactive online educational resources have a look at our projects!