Vid~o Cilm~s Computer science majors design game for capstone m <lny students, by the time they reached college, had at one point in their lifetimes played video games. However, only a select few had the chance to make their own. Since 1993, senior computer science majors worked in reams to create unique computer versions ofa popular game each year. In the fal l, the game selected for the scudenrs to wo rk with was "Giveaway C heckers," in which two sides played a game of checkers and each ream a([empred to "give away" aJl of irs playing pieces. Though the contest began in 1993, it was in rhe spring of 2002 that compeddons began ro be held each semester. Games [hat had been rep– licated in previous semesters included backgammon. regular checkers, chess, Jeopardy, spades and Yahrzee. The "Giveaway C heckers" contest had twO teams of fo ur and one team of three in rhe compedtion. Each tcam had a captain who reported [Q lnsrrucm( of Computer Science Dana Steil and gave updates on rhe tcam's progress. While Steil was available for help, he said the teams worked indepen– dently most of the time. "H opefull y we've taught them enough over the pas t four years that they can [work on their games] on their own," Seeil said. T he s(Udems had input in creating the grading rubric for the pfejeer. "They feel like they have an ownership of how they're being evaluated," Steil said. Senior Daniel Benton said that working on the games was a good way (0 gauge his abilicy as a computer programmer. Many different people rested the games for multiple attributes. Friends and family of the team members as wetll as Harding studems played the games and ranked them from best [Q worst. Steil said as many as l 20 (Q 130 sllch people tes ted the games in a semester. Also testing the games were a number ofprofessionals in the computer programming industry. They tested the games o n a more sciemific level, grading each game for categories and qualificatio ns including whether or not the game had a relevam introduction and if the game was "polite" to the user. Teams were also graded o n whether or nor their levels ofdifficul ty were accurate and if the game played by the rules. "If the game cheats, that kind of defeats the purpose," Steil said. The games had (Q be able to play against each other using artificial intelligence, as well as allowing humans to play. Artificial intelligence tournaments allowed the students to see where the games stood agai nst one another, Steil said. T he games for the fall semester were rested beginning Nov. 29. -Carson Fant Sitting in Professor of Computer Science and Math Gene Dugger's Beginning Algebra class, freshman Shara Gillespie uses the computer programALEKS (Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces) on Oct. 17 in the Pryor-England Science Center: "I have three seCtions of beginning algebra usingALEKS, which uses artificial intelligence and allows me to individualize assessment, and I have gone from a 50 percent success rate to a 90 percent rate," Dugger said. -Jon Byron computer science/math 17[...1.1__
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc5NA==