Course Outline
Course Code RSM 358 H1 F
Course Name Foundations of AI for Management
Term, Year Fall, 2024
Course Schedule L0101 Tu 3-5 / RT 142, L0201 Fr 1-3 / WO 20
Web page URL https://q.utoronto.ca
Instructor Details
Name Email Phone Office Office Link
Hours
Ryan Webb ryan.webb@rotman.utoronto.ca 416-978-4418 W 10-12 Rotman 568
Course Scope, Mission and Learning Outcomes
Artificial intelligence — the application of machine-learning techniques to prediction problems
historically performed by humans— is transforming business and society. This course provides
a hands-on introduction to the wide variety of algorithms used in applications of machine-
learning. The technical topics will include linear regression models, classification algorithms,
and more recent machine-learning techniques rooted in neuroscience like reinforcement
learning and deep learning. Application topics will include predicting consumer choices, MLB
salaries, and Super Mario Bros. There will be an emphasis on conceptual understanding, so
that students can interpret the results of these techniques to support effective decision-making.
The course will be complemented by many hands-on exercises using the R programming
language.
Course Prerequisites
ECO220Y1/ ECO227Y1/(STA220H1, STA255H1)/( STA237H1, STA238H1)/( STA257H1,
STA261H1), CSC108H1/ CSC148H1
Course Materials
Required Readings
Item Title Required Instructions
An Introduction to Statistical Learning
This will be the main text for the course. It
Text (2nd Ed) Yes
is available in hardcopy or online here
By James, Witten, Hastie, Tibshirani
Reinforcement Learning Some material will be drawn from this
Text No
By Sutton and Barto textbook, but it is not mandatory reading
Prediction Machines
Reading No Available online from UofT library here
By Agarwal, Gans, Goldfarb
Evaluation and Grades
Grades are a measure of the knowledge and skills developed by a student within individual
courses. Each student will receive a grade on the basis of how well they have command of the
course materials, skills and learning objectives of the course.
Work Percentage of grade Due Date
Class Participation/Attendance 10% Ongoing
Assignments 30% See Quercus
Mid-Term Test 20% Week of Oct 7-12
Final Term Test 40% Date to be determined
Course Format and Expectations
Writing Assignments or Presentations
All assignment will be submitted via Quercus. Students are expected to compete the
assignments individually and be familiar with the University of Toronto standards of Academic
Integrity (see below).
Class Participation
Students are expected to prepare thoroughly and make every effort to attend every class. As
class participation is a graded component of the course, students will be evaluated on the
following:
• Thoughtful responses
• Understanding and analysis of topic
• Idea generation
• Promoting further discussion
Missed Tests and Assignments (including mid-term and final-term
assessments)
Students who miss a test or assignment for reasons entirely beyond their control (e.g. illness)
may request special consideration within 2 business days of the missed
midterm/test/assignment due date.
In such cases, students must:
1. Complete the Request for Special Consideration form: https://uoft.me/RSMConsideration
2. Provide documentation to support the request, eg. Absence Declaration from ACORN,
medical note etc.
Please note: As of September 2023, students may use the Absence Declaration on ACORN
*one time per term* to report an absence and request consideration. Any subsequent
absence will require a Verification of Illness form or other similar relevant
documentation.
Students who do not submit their requests and documentation within 2 days may receive a
grade of 0 (zero) on the missed course deliverable.
The mark for the final exam will be re-weighted to account for the missed test or assignment.
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Final Exams: If you miss the final exam in this course for a legitimate reason (illness, etc) you
will need to contact your College Registrar to file a petition for a deferred exam. This deferred
exam will be written at a later date as established by the Faculty of Arts & Science. Instructions
can be found here: https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/faculty-registrar/petitions-
appeals/preparing-petition
Late Assignments
All assignments are due on the date and at the time specified in Quercus. Late submissions will
normally be penalized by 25% if the assignment is not received on the specified date, at the
specified time. A further penalty of 25% will be applied to each subsequent day. Students who,
for reasons beyond their control, are unable to submit an assignment by its deadline must
obtain approval from the instructor for an extension. Supporting documentation will be required
as per the policy on missed tests and assignments.
Statement on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The University of Toronto is committed to equity, human rights and respect for diversity. All
members of the learning environment in this course should strive to create an atmosphere of
mutual respect where all members of our community can express themselves, engage
with each other, and respect one another’s differences. U of T does not condone discrimination
or harassment against any persons or communities.
Commitment to Accessibility
The University is committed to inclusivity and accessibility, and strives to provide support for,
and facilitate the accommodation of, individuals with disabilities so that all may share the same
level of access to opportunities and activities offered at the University.
If you require accommodations for a temporary or ongoing disability or health concern, or have
any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom or course materials, please email
Accessibility Services or visit the Accessibility Services website for more information as soon as
possible. Obtaining your accommodation letter may take up to several weeks, so get in touch
with them as soon as possible. If you have general questions or concerns about the accessibility
of this course, you are encouraged to reach out to your instructor, course coordinator, or
Accessibility Services.
Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity is a fundamental value essential to the pursuit of learning and scholarship at
the University of Toronto. Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in this
academic community ensures that the U of T degree that you earn will continue to be valued
and respected as a true signifier of a student's individual work and academic achievement. As a
result, the University treats cases of academic misconduct very seriously.
The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters outlines the behaviours
that constitute academic misconduct, the process for addressing academic offences and the
penalties that may be imposed. You are expected to be familiar with the contents of this
document. Potential offences include, but are not limited to:
In papers and assignments
• Using someone else's ideas or words without appropriate acknowledgement.
• Submitting your own work in more than one course without the permission of the
instructor.
• Making up sources or facts.
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• Obtaining or providing unauthorized assistance on any assignment (this includes
collaborating with others on assignments that are supposed to be completed
individually).
On test and exams
• Using or possessing any unauthorized aid, including a cell phone.
• Looking at someone else's answers.
• Misrepresenting your identity.
• Submitting an altered test for re-grading.
Misrepresentation
• Falsifying institutional documents or grades.
• Falsifying or altering any documentation required by the University, including (but not
limited to) medical notes.
All suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated by the procedures outlined in
the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have any question about what is or is not
permitted in the course, please do not hesitate to contact the course instructor. If you have any
questions about appropriate research and citation methods, you are expected to seek out
additional information from the instructor or other U of T or RC resources such as the RC Centre
for Professional Skills, the College Writing Centres or the Academic Success Centre.
Generative AI / ChatGPT
• Students are encouraged to make use of technology, including generative artificial intelligence
tools, to contribute to their understanding of course materials.
• Students may use artificial intelligence tools, including generative AI, in this course as learning
aids or to help produce assignments. However, students are ultimately accountable for the work
they submit.
• Students must submit, as an appendix with their assignments, any content produced by an
artificial intelligence tool, and the prompt used to generate the content.
• Any content produced by an artificial intelligence tool must be cited appropriately. Many
organizations that publish standard citation formats are now providing information on citing
generative AI (e.g., MLA: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/ ).
• Students may choose to use generative artificial intelligence tools as they work through the
assignments in this course; this use must be documented in an appendix for each assignment.
The documentation should include what tool(s) were used, how they were used, and how the
results from the AI were incorporated into the submitted work.
Email
At times, the course instructor may decide to communicate important course information by
email. As such, all U of T students are required to have a valid UTmail+ email address. You are
responsible for ensuring that your UTmail+ email address is set up and properly entered on
ACORN. For more information visit the Information Commons Help Desk.
Forwarding your utoronto.ca email to a Gmail or other type of email account is not advisable. In
some cases, messages from utoronto.ca addresses sent to Gmail accounts are filtered as junk
mail, which means that important messages from your course instructor may end up in your
spam or junk mail folder.
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Recording Lectures
Lectures and course materials prepared by the instructor are considered by the University to be
an instructor’s intellectual property covered by the Canadian Copyright Act. Students wishing to
record a lecture or other course material in any way are required to ask the instructor’s explicit
permission, and may not do so unless permission is granted. Students who have been
previously granted permission to record lectures as an accommodation for a disability are
excepted. This includes tape recording, filming, photographing PowerPoint slides, Quercus
materials, etc.
If permission for recording is granted by the instructor (or via Accessibility Services), it is
intended for the individual student’s own study purposes and does not include permission to
“publish” them in any way. It is forbidden for a student to publish an instructor’s notes to a
website or sell them in any other form without formal permission.
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Weekly Schedule
Session 001 002 Topic Readings
Prediction Machines, Ch 1-2
1 Sep 3 Sep 6 Course Overview and Introduction
ISL: 2.1
Assessing Model Accuracy
2 Sep 10 Sep 13 ISL: 2.2
Sep 20
3 Sep 17
(1pm-5pm)
Linear Regression Review ISL: 3.1-3.5
Classification – Logistic Regression
4 Sep 24 Cancelled ISL: 4.1-4.3
5 Oct 1 Oct 4 Resampling – Cross-Validation and Bootstrapping ISL: 5
6 Oct XX Oct XX MIDTERM (during week Oct 7-12)
7 Oct 15 Oct 18 Model Selection – Subset Methods ISL: 6.1
8 Oct 22 Oct 25 Model Selection – Shrinkage Methods ISL: 6.2
9 Nov 5 Nov 8 Non-Linearities – Polynomial Regression, Splines ISL: 7.1 - 7.6
10 Nov 12 Nov 15 Trees – Pruning, Bagging, Random Forests, Boosting ISL: 8
11 Nov 19 Nov 22 Deep Learning ISL: 10.1-10.6
12 Nov 26 Nov 29 Reinforcement Learning S&B: 2.1-2.5
Please note that the last day you can drop this course without academic penalty is
November 4, 2022.
Other Useful Links
• Become a volunteer note taker
• Accessibility Services Note Taking Support
• Credit / No-Credit in RSM courses
• Rotman Commerce Academic Support
URL links for print
• Book an appointment with a writing or presentation coach: http://uoft.me/writingcentres
• Writing and Presentation Coaching academic support page:
https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-students/academic-support/writing-and-
presentation-coaching/
• Centre for Professional Skills Teamwork Resources page:
https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/teamwork-resources
• Book an appointment with a Teamwork Mentor: http://uoft.me/writingcentres
• Request for Special Consideration Form: https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-
students/forms-requests-and-appeals/forms/
• ACORN: http://www.acorn.utoronto.ca/
• Email Accessibility Services: accessibility.services@utoronto.ca
• Accessibility Services website: http://studentlife.utoronto.ca/as
• University's Plagiarism Detection Tool FAQ: https://uoft.me/pdt-faq
• The University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters:
http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm
• Information Commons Help Desk: http://help.ic.utoronto.ca/category/3/utmail.html
• Become a volunteer note taker: https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/program/volunteer-note-
taking/
• Accessibility Services Note Taking Support: https://studentlife.utoronto.ca/service/note-
taking-support/
• Credit / No-Credit in RSM courses: https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-
students/degree-requirements/credit-no-credit-option/
• Rotman Commerce Academic Support: https://rotmancommerce.utoronto.ca/current-
students/academic-support/
