Extra Handouts have been compiled for the following topics:
RED handouts are compulsory readings. GREEN handouts are optional. Newly added papers will be flagged as (NEW).
  1. Petri nets
  2. Neural Networks
  3. Dynamic Programming and Markov Processes
  4. Topics for term project
  5. Software tutorials
  6. General mathematics and links to free online books, notes, etc.
  7. Machine Learning and related topics (NEW)

Petri Nets
  1. (NEW) Link of database listing of freely available tools for modeling Petri nets: http://www.daimi.au.dk/PetriNets/tools/
  2. PESIM Software for Petri net modeling and simulation. Download 
  3. Sivaraman, E. "Petri Nets: A Primer," 2003. Download
  4. Murata, T. "Petri Nets: Properties, Analysis, and Applications," Proceedings of the IEEE, 1989. Download
  5. Peterson, J.L., "Petri Nets," Computing Surveys, 1977. Download
  6. Agerwala, T. "Putting Petri Nets to Work," IEEE Computer, December 1979, 85-94. Download
  7. David, R. and Alla, H. "Petri Nets for Modeling of Dynamic Systems - A Survey," Automatica, 1994. Download
  8. Johnsonbaugh, R. and Murata, T. "Petri Nets and Marked Graphs - Mathematical Models of Concurrent Computation," American Mathematical Monthly, 1982. Download
  9. Holloway, L.E. et al. "A Survey of Petri Net Methods for Controlled Discrete Event Systems" DEDS: Theory and Applications, 1997. Download
  10. Stremersch, G. and Boel, R.K. "Structuring Acyclic Petri Nets for Reachability Analysis and Control", DEDS: Theory and Applications, 2002. Download
Neural Networks
  1. Download the first four book chapters, transparency masters, and the MATLAB demos at http://hagan.ecen.ceat.okstate.edu/nnd.html
  2. Matlab Neural Network Toolbox User's Guide. Download
  3. M. Hagan, H. Demuth, O. De Jesus, "An Introduction to the Use of Neural Networks in Control Systems," International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control, 2002. Paper Download. Related Software Demos
  4. M. Hagan and H. Demuth, "Neural Networks for Control," Invited Tutorial, 1999 American Control Conference, 1999. Download
  5. (NEW) IMPORTANT - Lecture slides for Chapters 1 through 4 of the Hagan Text - Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4
  6. IMPORTANT NOTES required for future lectures: (suggest printing them as two/four per page on single-sided sheets to allow space for jotted notes)
Software Tutorials
  1. Tutorial on MAPLE - Download Tutorial 1, Tutorial 2
  2. Tutorial on MATLAB Download Tutorial 1
  3. An excelent repository of useful links and information on MATLAB. http://www.glue.umd.edu/~nsw/ench250/matlab.htm
General Mathematics and Links to Free Online Books, Notes
  1. Some basic tricks on how to manipulate recurrence relations, series, etc. (download). This handout has been excerpted from the OUTSTANDING book Algorithms and Complexity by Herbert Wilf (1994). The entire book is available for donwload at the author's web-page. Click here.
  2. If you like playing with mathematics and enjoyed the tricks given in the previous excerpt, you will enjoy Herbert Wilf's book Generatingfunctionology, especially Chapter 1 - it is also available for download from the author's web-page. Click here.
  3. Read Chapter 1 (Introduction) in the book Lecture Notes on Optimization by Pravin Varaiya - you can download the entire book. 
  4. Several other books on general mathematics are available at Link #1, Link #2, Link #3, Link #4,
Term Project - Some Ideas
  1. Here is a MS-WORD template that you can follow for your term-report. Download
  2. Here are some examples of term-reports that you can review for style. Sample #1, Sample #2, Sample #3
  3. Here are some examples of very well-written term-reports that students submitted in Fall 2003. Sample #1, Sample #2, Sample #3
  4. A short report on the verification issues in the design of business processes. DesignVerification
  5. (NEW) Michie, D., Spiegelhalter, D.J., and Taylor, C.C. (1994) Machine Learning, Neural and Statistical Classification, Ellis Horwood. Download
  6. (NEW) Link to an online repository of data-sets that you can choose from for your term-project: ftp://ftp.ics.uci.edu/pub/machine-learning-databases/
Dynamic Programming and Markov Processes
  1. (NEW) Notes on Discrete-time Markov Chains - Part 1, Part 2, Review Problems
  2. (NEW) Notes on Dynamic Programming - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Value Iteration Flowchart, Z-Transforms Table, Part 5, Part 8
Machine Learning and Related Topics (NEW)

    Temporal Difference-Learning
  1. (NEW) Michie, D. (1968) "Trial and Error," Science Science Survey, Part 2, pp. 129-145. Download - High-res PDF, Low-res PDF
  2. Sutton, R.S. (1988) "Learning to Predict by the Method of Temporal Differences," Machine Learning, Vol. 3, pp. 9-44. Download.
  3. A short report written by me that will help clarify Sutton's TD-Lambda technique. Download
  4. Tesauro, G. (1995) "Temporal Difference Learning and TD-Gammon", Comm. of the ACM, Vol. 38(3), pp. 58-68. Download
  5. Barnard, E. (1993) "Temporal-Difference Methods and Markov Models," IEEE Trans. on Sys. Man & Cyb., Vol. 23, pp. 357-365. Download
  6. A Master's thesis that describes an application of temporal difference learning in the game of Go. Download
  7. An interesting document on machine learning, gameplay, and the game of Go. Download
    Agent-Based Modeling and Swarm Intelligence
  1. An extensive link to software tools for agent-based modeling,including one developed at George Mason University (MASON), although ZEUS is also quite nice.
  2. SWARM Intelligence - a very informal, highly readable paper published in the Communications of the ACM. Download
  3. SWARM Intelligence - A whole new way to think about Business, article published in the Harvard Business Review. Download
  4. An extremely well-written paper on agent-based modeling, Download
  5. A paper that expands the ideas of (3) above in greater detail. Download