Catalog Description: This course will cover the intersection of control, reinforcement learning, and deep learning. This course will provide an advanced treatment of the reinforcement learning formalism, the most critical model-free reinforcement learning algorithms (policy gradients, value function and Q-function learning, and actor-critic), a discussion of model-based reinforcement learning algorithms, an overview of imitation learning, and a range of advanced topics, including exploration, model-based learning with video prediction, transfer learning, multi-task learning, and meta-learning. Homework assignments will cover imitation learning, policy gradients, Q-learning, and model-based reinforcement learning, as well as a final project.

Units: 3

Prerequisites: CS189/289A or equivalent is a prerequisite for the course. This course will assume some familiarity with reinforcement learning, numerical optimization and machine learning, as well as a basic working knowledge of how to train deep neural networks (which is taught in CS182 and briefly covered in CS189).

Formats:
Fall: 3.0 hours of lecture and 1.0 hours of discussion per week
Spring: 3.0 hours of lecture and 1.0 hours of discussion per week

Grading basis: letter

Final exam status: Alternative method of final assessment