UTK ECE 414/517: Reinforcement Learning (Fall 2024)

Week	Date	Lecture	Material	Assignment
1	Aug 20	Introduction (Part A)
1	Aug 22	Introduction (Multi-arm Bandits)	Sutton's book, Chapter 2.
2	Aug 27	Markov Decision Processes (Part A)
2	Aug 29	Markov Decision Processes (Part B)
3	Sep 3	Solving MDPs: Dynamic Programming (Part A)
3	Sep 5	Solving MDPs: Dynamic Programming (Part B)
4	Sep 10	Project 1: Lab		Due HW1 (Sep 13)
4	Sep 12	Model-Free Prediction: Monte Carlo and Temporal Difference (Part A)
5	Sep 17	Model-Free Prediction: Monte Carlo and Temporal Difference (Part B)
5	Sep 19	Model-Free Control: Off-Policy & On-Policy (Part A)
	Sep 20			Due of Project 1
6	Sep 24	Model-Free Control: Off-Policy & On-Policy (Part B)
6	Sep 26	Value Function Approximation (Part A)
7	Oct 1	Value Function Approximation (Part B)		Due of HW2 (Oct 2)
7	Oct 3	Policy Gradient Methods (Part A)
	Oct 4			Selection of Final Project Topics/Groups
8	Oct 8	Fall Break - No Class!
8	Oct 10	Policy Gradient Methods (Part B)
9	Oct 15	Project 2: Lab
9	Oct 17	Actor-Critic Algorithms (Part A)
10	Oct 22	Actor-Critic Algorithms (Part B)
10	Oct 24	Deep RL: DQN, PPO, TRPO, DDPG
	Oct 25			Due of Project 2
11	Oct 29	Exploration and Exploitation (Part A)
11	Oct 31	Guest Lecture: Research in RL		Due of HW3
12	Nov 5	No Class!
12	Nov 7	Exploration and Exploitation (Part B)
13	Nov 12	Final Project: Lab
13	Nov 14	Optimal Control and Planning (Part A)
14	Nov 19	Optimal Control and Planning (Part B)
14	Nov 21	Guest Lecture: Research in RL		Due of Final Project's Code
15	Nov 26	Final Project Presentations
15	Nov 28	Happy Thanksgiving!
16	Dec 3	Closing Remarks		Due of Final Project's Report