If you’re interested in learning more about scientific programming in Python, and want to compete in a Pacman capture-the-flag tournament, join us for the next Advanced Scientific Programming in Python summer school in St. Andrew, UK! The faculty line-up includes developers of well-known scientific libraries for Python (e.g., Francesc Alted of PyTables fame). The program [...]

I never got the chance to show a working agent based on the Bayesian estimator for the enemy position in the PacMan capture-the-flag game. In the previous PacMan post, I wrote about merging a model of agent movements with the noisy measurements returned by the game to track the enemy agents across the maze. Clearly, [...]

Recently a friend of mine introduced me to a game called Set. Set is a logic cards game for several players; 3-5 players is probably best, but in there is no limit in principle, and it is also fun to play as a solitary. The game contains a deck of cards with symbols varying across [...]

The Computer Science of the University of Waterloo is organizing its second Google AI Challenge. The challenge is a competition between computer programs that control the artificial intelligence of the players in a video game. This time, the game is set in space, and features a symmetric configuration of planets, each containing a fleet of [...]

As another scientific Python course is approaching, I’ve been brushing up my PacMan skills. I decided to give a try to a strategy I had been thinking on, which relies upon having a good estimate of the enemy’s position. I should remind the reader that in the PacMan capture-the-flag game, one team does not know [...]

At the beginning of September I’ve been invited to teach at a summer school about scientific programming. The whole experience has been really rewarding, but it was the student’s project that got me going: we had the students write artificial intelligence algorithms for the agents of a PacMan-like game, and organized a tournament for them [...]