Undergraduate Projects in the Application of Artificial Intelligence to Chemistry. I. Background

Abstract

The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the development of intelligent machines is widely recognized. It is less widely appreciated that the methods which computer scientists use in their work on AI are also applicable to the solution of numerous problems in science. In many cases, AI methods are preferable to more conventional approaches, being superior in terms of time, quality of solution, or both. Most AI tools are comparatively simple to understand, despite their power, and computer programs to implement them can be written by anyone with average programming skills. This series of papers will demonstrate how AI methods are of value in science, why they work, and how they can be introduced into the syllabus as undergraduate research projects; suggestions of projects, illustrative programs and Java source code will be provided. This paper introduces the topic of AI and explains some of the ways in which an AI program differs from a conventional program.