{"id":1527,"date":"2016-07-25T14:46:35","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T14:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.porticomagazine.ca\/?p=1527"},"modified":"2020-10-28T14:40:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T18:40:30","slug":"coursework-adding-a-pop-culture-twist-to-computer-science-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/07\/coursework-adding-a-pop-culture-twist-to-computer-science-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Coursework: adding a pop culture twist to computer science class"},"content":{"rendered":"

He doesn\u2019t play chess. And he doesn\u2019t watch The Big Bang Theory<\/em>. So how did computer science student Patrick Hartman end up tops in a class assignment for an online chess tournament modelled after the TV sitcom?<\/p>\n

Speed and strategy, says Hartman. His program won 53 of 58 games in a round-robin tournament run by Prof. Stefan Kremer, School of Computer Science, for \u201cIntroduction to Intelligent Systems,\u201d a third-year artificial intelligence (AI) course.<\/p>\n

In the process, Hartman and his classmates learned more about AI \u2014 the ultimate goal for Kremer, who added the pop culture twist as another way to engage students in a regular course assignment to write chess-playing programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to train students to be able to solve interesting computing problems,\u201d says, Kremer. He adds that programming machines to play games is a longstanding tradition in AI courses.<\/p>\n

His AI assignments already involved games, puzzles and problem-solving. For this project, he assigned students to write chess-playing programs modelled after a chess version developed by the character Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Unlike Sheldon\u2019s three-player game that uses a three-sided board, Kremer stuck with a simpler two-player version. But he borrowed the sitcom\u2019s made-up chess pieces complete with their unorthodox properties. For example, the serpent \u201cpoisons\u201d adjacent pieces and the catapult launches other pieces to land elsewhere on the board.<\/p>\n

After his students wrote their programs, he pitted those agents against each other in an online, round-robin tournament of games lasting up to two minutes each.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the idea of competition,\u201d says Hartman, who aimed to write a program that \u201cthought\u201d its way quickly through possible moves and counterattacks. \u201cIt\u2019s chess but it\u2019s more involved than chess. There\u2019s a lot that could happen, a lot of moves to consider and different strategies.\u201d \u2013 ANDREW VOWLES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He doesn\u2019t play chess. And he doesn\u2019t watch The Big Bang Theory. So how did computer science student Patrick Hartman end up tops in a class assignment for an online chess tournament modelled after the TV sitcom? Speed and strategy, says Hartman. His program won 53 of 58 games in a round-robin tournament run by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":null,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":null},"categories":[31],"tags":[184,182,185,39,183],"yoast_head":"\nCoursework: adding a pop culture twist to computer science class -<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/porticomagazine.ca\/2016\/07\/coursework-adding-a-pop-culture-twist-to-computer-science-class\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coursework: adding a pop culture twist to computer science class -\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He doesn\u2019t play chess. And he doesn\u2019t watch The Big Bang Theory. So how did computer science student Patrick Hartman end up tops in a class assignment for an online chess tournament modelled after the TV sitcom? Speed and strategy, says Hartman. 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