This is a tentative syllabus: all of it can and probably will change without notice, especially early in the course.
When: 1830-2100 (6:30-9:00PM) Tuesdays and Thursdays
Where: Neuberger Hall, Room 387
Who: Bart Massey <bart@cs.pdx.edu>
Office Hours: By e-mail appointment.
CRN: 82403(410), 82404(510)
What: The catalog says
This course covers the theory and practice of finding optimal and satisfying solutions to one-player and two-player combinatorial games, including such popular games as Sokoban, Othello, checkers, chess, backgammon, bridge, and CCGs. Simple applications in decision theory and economics may also be discussed. Emphasis on implementation of state-of-the-art solution techniques. Prerequisites include CS 350 (Algorithms) or equivalent experience, plus fluency in some reasonable programming language. Previous AI experience is not required, but may prove helpful.
This course concentrates on adversary search using combinatorial search techniques to achieve high-quality tactics in competitive situations. Other successful methods of tackling combinatorial games will also be examined.
Prerequisites:
This course is intended to dig very quickly and deeply into this cutting-edge topic. As such, students not prepared to devote substantial out-of-class time to programming, learning, and exploring are unlikely to achieve a passing grade.
Unlike some of my previous offerings, I plan to be fairly strict about getting things done on time in this course: the course will move very quickly, and if you get behind, you will never catch up anyhow. No incompletes will be given (except in the most catastrophic of personal circumstances). Homework turned in after the following assignment's due date or after the last scheduled meeting will be silently discarded.
Required Text: An unpublished book by Dr. Richard Korf, entitled Heuristic Search. It is still under development, so we will be trying to give Dr. Korf some feedback as we use the text in the course. Available at Clean Copy for about $15.00.
Other Readings
Links
Handouts will be provided for all required readings except the Korf text; however, you may want to go to the library and look at other material in the reserve texts, or even purchase some of these texts.
The coursework will consist of a variety of small and medium-sized programming projects, implementing analysis various games and evaluating performance. Some of the course projects may be done by yourself or with a small (2-3 person) group.
Those experimenting with departmental computers must follow the ``safety guidelines''.
No quizzes or examinations are currently planned, but I reserve the option to schedule them at a later date.
If I catch you plagiarizing any material, I will do what I can to end your academic career. Plagiarism is using anyone else's works, writings, or ideas without explicitly giving them credit. If you get code, ideas, or text from a fellow student, put their name on it so that we both know what happened.
In this course, you will be expected to do a lot in a short time, in a sometimes competitive environment. This is not an excuse to do things that are unethical, immoral, or illegal.
We will occasionally play our programs off against each other, most notably at the end of the course. This will never harm your grade. Your program may be able to win these contests by ``cheating''. If so, you will receive due credit for this, as long as you explicitly acknowledge and explain your methods up front. If you fail to do so, and your program is caught deliberately cheating, it will lose the tournament it participates in, and you will receive a 0 for the assignment.
| Date | Topics | Readings | HW |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6/20 | Games Computers Play | Korf ch. 1 | HW 1: A Card Solitaire |
| 6/22 | Andreas
Junghanns Search In Single-Player Games |
Korf ch. 2 | |
| 6/27 | Game SE 1: The Game SW Lifecycle | ||
| 6/29 | Two-Player Games And Minimax Search | HW 2: Heuristics For Aces Up | |
| 7/4 | No class | ||
| 7/6 | Minimax Search Fundamentals | Korf ch. 7 | |
| 7/11 | Alpha-Beta and Other Pruning Techniques | Korf ch. 8 | HW 3: Perfect Tic-Tac-Toe |
| 7/13 | Transposition Tables | MTD(f) | |
| 7/18 | Game SE 2: Programming Tips And Tricks | HW 4: Awari Moves | |
| 7/20 | Openings and Endgames | ||
| 7/25 | Probability and Hidden Information | Project: Awari | |
| 7/27 | Bjorn Chambless Learning Approaches To Games |
Korf ch. 11 [nets] |
|
| 8/1 | TBA | ||
| 8/3 | Impact Of Combinatorial Games | ||
| 8/8 | Project Presentations | ||
| 8/10 | Online Tournament |
This course should be a huge amount of fun. Please let me know if you have questions I can answer, or just want to chat about some fascinating material. On the other hand, if you are unwilling to devote substantial out-of-class time and really get into this topic, you will likely be disappointed in both the course and your performance. Come prepared to work hard and play hard!
Bart Massey <bart@cs.pdx.edu>