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Implementation of Heuristic Algorithms for Board Games

Implementation of Heuristic Algorithms for Board Games

Practical Software Course, Summer Semester 2024

News

  • Dec 4: Page up
  • Mar 26: Updated meeting schedule

Plenary meetings

Plenary meetings will be held every two weeks to discuss previous assignments, the next assignment and overall flow of the course.

  • Biweekly meetings: April 9, April 23, May 14, June 4, June 18 and July 2 in Room 9U10 (2359|U112) (E3) from 12:30 – 14:00 (most of the time, less than 90 minutes will suffice).

Group meetings

Location: The group meetings are held in our seminar room at I2, building AS55 E1. It is located on the 3rd floor (2.OG), 2nd door on the left of our hallway.

Meeting times for each group will be published here after the groups have been established.

Discussion Group

A mailing list will be made available for general and technical questions and discussions among students. Students are urged to answer other student’s questions.

Topics and Goals

The aim of the course is the implementation of a strong computer player for an extended version of Reversi. At the end of the course, a competition will be held between the developed computer players and a ranking is set up. The top of the ranking is the winner of the competition, and additional points to the final grade will be awarded to the winner.
During the course, techniques and concepts for creating stronger computer players are introduced incrementally which are expected to be studied and understood by the student. The course covers the following topics:

  • Client network socket programming
  • Mini-max and paranoid search
  • Alpha-beta pruning
  • Iterative deepening
  • Move sorting
  • Aspiration windows
  • Game state rating heuristics
  • Empirical algorithmic efficiency analysis
  • Performance and memory profiling
  • Technical writing and reporting

The current lab organizer is Christopher Brix.

References

Remarks

  • Attendance of every group meeting is mandatory.
  • The language for this course will be English.
  • Students are expected to form and work in groups of 4 students.
  • Grades are based on the quality of the written reports, the quality of the source code, the strength of the AI, team play and work attitude.
  • The implementation is expected to be in Java or C++.
  • Reports have to handled in a clearly defined location in your Git repository.
  • We will make use of the University’s Gitlab: https://git.rwth-aachen.de