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Title: Computer Systems Lab TJHSST Current Projects 20042005 Second Period


1
Computer Systems LabTJHSSTCurrent Projects
2004-2005Second Period
2
Current Projects, 2nd Period
  • Casey Barrett The Design and Implementation of
    Decicion Trees for Career Guidance
  • Andy Desoto Modeling of Evacuation Centers using
    NetLogo
  • Keith Diggs Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for
    Use in Cyphers

2
3
Current Projects, 2nd Period
  • John Fitzsimmons Creating a 3D Game With
    Textures and Lighting
  • Christopher Goss Paintball Frenzy Graphical
    Turn-Based Game With a Minimax AI Agent
  • Stephen J. Hilber Modeling Evolving Social
    Behavior
  • Rachel Miller Use of Machine Learning to Develop
    a Better Artificial Intelligence for Playing
    Tic-Tac-Toe

3
4
Current Projects, 2nd Period
  • Kyle Moffett The Analysis and Maintenance of a
    Robust, Highly- Available Computer Systems
    Laboratory
  • Jason Pan Developing an AI Player for "Guess
    Who?"
  • Madeleine E. R. Pitsch Study of Creating
    Compuattional Models of Traffic
  • Timothy Wismer Development of a
    Deadlock-Detecting Resource Locking Algorithm for
    a Kernel Debugging User-space API Library (KDUAL)
  • Dan Wright Developing Algorithms for
    Computational Comparative Diachronic Historical
    Linguistics

4
5
Decision Trees for Career GuidanceThis research
project will be an investigation into the design
and implementation of various decision trees for
career guidance. A decision tree takes into
account some sort of situation outlined by a
group of parameters and outputs a Boolean
decision to the situation. This project will take
into account many aspects associated with
decision trees including database building,
searching and sorting, and algorithms for
accessing data.My project utilizes numerous
decision trees in an effort to serve as a tool
for career guidance for young adults. A user will
fill out a form of specified fields that will
then be analyzed by the group of decision trees
until a field of study/occupation is given to the
user as the outcome. This group of decision trees
will be built through database building
techniques.
5
6
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • Abstract
  • This research pro ject will be an investigation
    into the design and implementation of various
    decision trees for career guidance. A decision
    tree takes into account some sort of situation
    outlined by a group of parameters and outputs a
    Boolean decision to the situation. This pro ject
    will take into account many aspects associated
    with decision trees including database building,
    searching and sorting, and algorithms for
    accessing data. My project utilizes numerous
    decision trees in an effort to serve as a tool
    for career guidance for young adults. A user will
    fill out a form of specified fields that will
    then be analyzed by the group of decision trees
    until a field of study/occupation is given to the
    user as the outcome.

7
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • This group of decision trees will be built
    through database building techniques. I have
    utilized extensive research from various websites
    that offer expertise in a number of areas. I used
    tutorial websites that had examples and
    explanations of decision trees generated by the
    C4.5 program. I have also tried to read various
    research papers that deal with decision trees.
    Although I have yet to find one that remotely
    relates to career guidance, I feel that my
    understanding of decision trees has increased as
    a result of these research papers.
  • Introduction
  • This pro ject will utilize numerous decision
    trees to assist young people by helping them
    focus on their interests and what career paths
    may coincide with those interests.

8
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • Background/Implementation
  • A decision tree is a graphical representation of
    the decision analysis process. This type of tool
    consists of some sort of input, whether it is a
    situation or an ob ject. This input is then sent
    through a set of parameters, or rules, and
    eventually the tree gives a Boolean output. There
    are many different types of parameters that can
    be used. Or in other words, many different types
    of parameter cases can be used. These cases can
    include numerical data, simple yes/no answers, or
    word answers, such as hair color (black, brown,
    or blonde). Each parameter will have a specified
    set of cases that correspond to the parameter.

9
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • To help me better understand decision trees and
    how to build them, I have utilized Professor Ross
    Quinlans revolutionary decision tree generator
    programs, the C4.5. What these programs do is
    take into account large sets of data (from
    properly written database files) and looks for
    correlations within the sets. It then uses these
    correlations to build a decision tree that
    follows the 'rules' outlined by the correlations.
    In an auxiliary program, the C4.5rules program,
    the 'rules' for the tree generated can be
    displayed. This program gave me a better
    understanding of how decision trees are built. I
    wrote my own database files that could be read by
    the C4.5 program. I learned the proper syntax for
    these database files, which I would later utilize
    for career guidance.

10
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • For each database, two separate kinds of files
    are needed, the .names file, which outlines each
    parameter and the appropriate cases as well as
    the end cases, and also the .data file, which
    consists of singular entries. Each entry in the
    database properly fills up each parameter
    outlined in the .names file. I also had to
    research techniques for career guidance. The most
    rudimentary of these techniques was to have a
    user fill out a list of field data and then
    compare the user's answers to those of a highly
    comprehensive database. Some of these
    questionnaire-type devices included many
    different occupational fields, such as art/music,
    engineering, writing/journalism, and social
    services. For my pro ject, I decided to start out
    with two very distinct fields that would be a
    good way to acclimate myself for making a career
    guidance program.

11
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • These two fields would be the liberal arts field
    and the sciences field. For career guidance, I
    separated the decision trees that I would need
    into three different and distinct trees. The
    first one is a tree designed to help a user
    decide whether they should focus on either of the
    broad intellectual categories of the sciences or
    the liberal arts. This decision will be decided
    based a series of fields the user fills out in a
    separate C program. Some of these fields
    include the user's grades in their current
    English and Math class, if the user is in a
    science club, the number of computers that the
    user owns, and the number of plays the user has
    participated in during the last year. These
    starting questions are somewhat broad because
    this is the first preset tree that the user will
    be compared to.

12
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • The next step was to develop a user input program
    that prompts the user questions related to career
    guidance. The program then takes the answers and
    writes them to a .data file. I wrote this program
    in C. Likewise, I needed to use the fstream.h
    library in order to gain access to the classes
    ifstream and ofstream. I then created the
    questions test file that became the ifstream that
    the program will read. This program contained
    four functions, better outlined in the Iteration
    Report Third Quarter. Currently, the only
    acceptable inputs for this program are strings,
    however, during the fourth quarter, I will expand
    the inputs to include classes char, int, and
    double. The user input is first compared to a
    database of other people's answers and the
    decision that each of the other people decided
    upon.

13
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • Since I have not had enough users, the databases
    are fictitious data that I have engineered in
    order to fit my ideal decision tree for this
    progression.
  • The data from this database helps comprise a
    decision tree that the user's answers will be run
    through. Since there are three different decision
    trees, three separate ideal databases will be
    made, one for the broad first test, and then one
    each for the science fields and the liberal arts
    field. After a first decision is made, it will be
    relayed back to the user. If the user wishes to
    continue, he or she will be given another set of
    parameters that will be more in depth in either
    the liberal arts or science fields.

14
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • These trees, which are still in progress, will
    help the user compare their answers against
    another database corresponding to their broad
    interests (liberal arts or sciences).
  • When compared to these more specialized
    databases, a more focused decision was sent back
    to the user. This is because the user's responses
    will be matched up with the decision tree that
    the databases helped generate and the decisions
    that the databases output. Right now, I am
    working on the algorithm that compares the user
    input answers to the decision tree. This
    algorithm will produce some sort of numerical
    correlation between the sets of answers. The
    higher the correlation number is with respect to
    that specific path of the decision tree, then the
    more likely the program will output an answer
    similar to that of the higher correlation.

15
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • In the end, a type of occupation or a field of
    study will be output to the user based on the
    correlations. Also, I have trained extensively in
    the ways of the Reverse Game. Without possessing
    a shred of natural Reverse Game ability, I have
    worked my way up from the ranks of novice to a
    somewhat respectable player capable of defeating
    each and every of the 20 progressively
    challenging levels.

16
The Design and Implementation of Decicion Trees
for Career GuidanceCasey Barrett
  • Conclusions References
  • Decision Trees A subtopic of machine learning.
    http//www.aaai.org/AITopics/html/trees.html
    Quinlan, Ross. (n.d.) Ross Quinlan Personal Page.
    http//www.rulequest.com/Personal/ C4.5 Tutorial.
    http//www2.cs.uregina.ca/hamilton/courses/831/no
    tes/ml/dtrees/c4.5/tutorial.html Career Key Job
    Interests. http//www.careerkey.org/cgi-bin/ck.pl?
    actionchoices Hettich, Scott. (n.d.) UCI Machine
    Learning Repository http//www.ics.uci.edu/mlearn
    /MLRepository.html Nilsson, Nils. (May 10, 2004).
    Introduction to Machine Learning
    http//robotics.stanford.edu/people/nilsson/mlbook
    .html

17
Modeling of Evacuation Centers Using
NetLogoModeling is a powerful tool that allows
a programmer or social engineer to observe
cause-and-effect relationships in occurences that
a) happen too slowly or quickly to see, b)
involve danger or safety concerns, c) occur on a
scale too large or too small for study, d) is not
a common occurrence. Using NetLogo, a
multi-agent programmable modeling environment,
the socio- and psychological factorsaffecting
decision-making in these situations can be
effectively simulated.
17
18
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • Abstract
  • The actions of citizens during terror and
    evacuation events are oftentimes hard to predict.
    Using NetLogo, a 'crossplatform multi-agent
    programmable modeling environment' from The
    Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based
    Modeling (CCL), the socio- and psychological
    factors affecting decisionmaking in these
    situations can be effectively simulated. Through
    appropriate research in categories of modeling
    and sociology, human behavior can be studied to
    help urban developers and social engineers
    protect the nation's interest its citizens.
    Citizens that follow certain algorithms, or
    behave in certain ways, have a much greater
    chance of survival.

19
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • I . Introduction to NetLogo
  • NetLogo is a cross platform multi-agent
    programmable modeling environment created by
    Northwestern University's Center for Connected
    Learning and Computer-Based Modeling (hereafter
    CCL). It was designed specifically for simulation
    of social and natural phenomenon. Originally
    StarLogoT, this language and graphical user
    interface hybrid offers a multitude of
    possibilities for researchers and students,
    allowing users to examine interactions and
    behaviors on both micro and macro scales.

20
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • NetLogo is designed with accessibility in mind
    the program allows for quick Java applet
    exportation and interactivity with CCL's HubNet
    interface, which lets the user run participatory
    simulations in which a class or group of testers
    takes part in enacting the behavior of a system
    as each user controls a part of the system by
    using an individual device (such as a TI-83
    calculator or a networked computer). NetLogo
    comes packaged with an expansive models library
    and an assortment of code samples for easy
    access. A. NetLogo Graphic User Interface
    NetLogo's main advantage is that it allows a
    quick and relatively simple way for the
    programmer to implement a convenient graphical
    user interface (hereafter GUI).

21
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • A NetLogo GUI can contain the following
    components buttons, sliders, switches, choices,
    monitors, plots, texts, and outputs. 1) Buttons
    Buttons activate on the user's command. There are
    two types of buttons, standard buttons and
    forever buttons. Standard buttons activate the
    contained code on click, but forever buttons
    execute the contained commands repeatedly until
    the button is clicked a second time, mimicking a
    whileloop.

22
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • 2) Sliders Sliders allow the user to manually
    select the value of a certain variable. Sliders
    control the minimum and maximum values, as well
    as the increment of increase/decrease, while the
    user chooses the value. 3) Switches Switches
    allow for a user to directly affect a boolean
    value. 4) Choices Through the use of choices,
    the user can select certain values, Strings, and
    more that the programmer allows. 5) Monitors
    Monitors allow the user to examine the value of a
    variable as the simulation runs. 6) Texts and
    Outputs Texts and Outputs display certain
    messages the programmer encodes. These can be
    displayed at any time during the simulation.

23
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • B. HubNet and Other Extensions NetLogo's
    versatility allows programs to be accessed and
    used in environments outside the computer
    laboratory setting. HubNet, one instance, allows
    a multitude of users to interact with a single
    model through the use of Texas Instruments TI-83
    calculators or networked computers. This is ideal
    for classroom settings because it allows each
    tester involved to affect the model in some way.
    Also, NetLogo offers easy exportation to Java
    Applet format, and with several keystrokes, an
    applet embedded in an HTML page can be created.

24
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • I I . Introduction to Modeling
  • Modeling is a powerful tool that allows a
    programmer or social engineer to observe
    cause-and-effect relationships in occurences that
    a) happen too slowly or quickly to see, b)
    involve danger or safety concerns, c) occur on a
    scale too large or too small for study or d) is
    not a common occurrence. Armed with this
    knowledge, a scientist can use the material
    learned to help a community, understand a cause,
    or solve a problem. A perfect use for the
    modeling technology of today is a subject that
    meets all of these above criteria.

25
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • The modeling of population centers during
    evacuation situations is perfect for such a
    study, because evacuation frequently occurs too
    quickly, is quite dangerous, happens rarely, and
    happens on such a wide scale that observing
    patterns is nearly impossible. In order to
    accurately code such an event, certain features
    must be researched.
  • A. The Environment In general, areas to be
    evacuated generally contain a large number of
    citizens in a small area the population density
    in such regions tends to be quite high. In the
    metropolises and cities of today, high-rise
    apartments, parking garages, subway stations all
    provide unique, but crowded, environments.

26
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • These situations provide the greatest trouble to
    researchers and social engineers. B. The Citizens
    In times of terror or enormous stress, citizens
    often behave irrationally different than they
    would normally. Thus, citizens' behavior in the
    simulation must reflect this behavior. The
    intelligences programmed into version 1.2 follow.
    ) Speedy, Normal, Slow The Speedy, Normal, and
    Slow citizens differ in the number of times they
    move per timestep. Speedy, Normal, and Slow
    citizens more 3, 2, and 1 squares, respectively.

27
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • When they collide with a wall (or another
    citizen, if Collision? is turned on), they turn
    in a random direction and continue their
    movement. 2) Righty Righty citizens react to
    collisions by turning ninety degrees. They move
    two squares per timestep. 3) Retreater
    Retreaters react to collisions by turning 180
    degrees, taking a step forward, and choosing a
    direction in their 90 degree front arc.

28
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • I I I . Running the Simulation
  • Utilizing the Simulation consists of three steps
    initializing the Basic Environment Setup, or BES
    running the model analyzing the model with the
    Graphical (Statistical) Interface, or GSI. A.
    Basic Environment Setup (BES) The user controls
    the following sliders, choices, and etc. to set
    the parameters for the environment. 1)
    'walldistancey' Slider sets the distance between
    the horizontal walls. When a citizen's movement
    would take it into a wall, it runs its collision
    program detailed above. The two horizontal walls
    each contain a passable gap separating the danger
    from the safety area.

29
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • 2) 'walldistancex' Slider sets the distance
    between the vertical walls. When a citizen's
    movement would take it into a wall, it runs its
    collision program detailed above. 3)
    'evacuationtime' Slider sets how many timesteps
    the model runs for. 4) 'collide?' Switch selects
    whether or not citizens collide with one another,
    activating collision code upon impact. 5)
    'areasize' Selector selects how many citizens
    begin in your model.

30
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • The selector has five options a) Metropolis (225
    citizens) b) City (150 citizens) c) Village d)
    Town (90 citizens) e) Thorpe (15 citizens) f)
    Abode (3 citizens). There are (citizens / 3)
    citizens of each color (red, white, blue) in the
    model. 6) 'explosiontime' Slider selects at what
    time the explosion occurs. The explosion is the
    radius selected below.

31
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • 7) 'explosionrad' Slider chooses the radius of
    the explosion. Explosions kill citizens contained
    within them and creates an impenetrable wall. 8)
    'Draw Walls' Button while depressed, lets the
    user draw black walls 1 pixel in diameter. I V. T
    H E P RO J E C T This project was set up to
    determine the most effective ways to get large
    numbers of citizens to safety in times of danger.
    In order to determine how to do this, certain
    things must be determined. First, the parameters
    that add to the dangerousness of the environment
    should be measured. Secondly, once the situations
    of greatest danger are found, the most effective
    intelligences to escape this danger must be
    poinpointed as well.

32
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • Using the environment instantiated in the setup
    (see subsection "The Environment"), different
    situations are tested. The tests were run in
    environments of four different dimensions large
    x large, short x large, large x short, and short
    x short. V. T H E T E S T As described above (see
    "Project" section), the first part of the test is
    to determine the dangerous situation. The results
    of this test follow.

33
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • These tests were ran with build version 1.2,
    located on the web www.tjhsst.edu/
    kdesoto/techlab. Large x large 15m x 5m Short x
    large 5m x 15m Large x short 15m x 5m Short x
    short 5m x 5m A set of 225 "control" citizens
    was given a period of 120 minutes to escape each
    danger situation. This was performed ten times,
    and escaped citizens were graphed. This can be
    found in the appendix. The l x l area, on
    average, trapped almost 111 citizens per 120
    minutes. This is almost 50 percent. The s x l
    area, on average, trapped almost 22 citizens per
    120 minutes. This is almost 10 percent.

34
Modeling Evacuation of Population Centers Using
NetLogoKurt Andrew DeSoto
  • The l x s area, on average, trapped almost 27
    citizens per 120 minutes. This is almost 12
    percent. The s x s area, on average, trapped 0
    citizens per 120 minutes, 0 percent. VI.
  • Conclusion The conclusion goes here.
  • V I I . Acknowledgement
  • The authors would like to thank... Mr. Randy
    Latimer, Computer Systems Laboratory Mr. Uri
    Wilenski, CCL REFERENCES
  • A 1 H. Kopka and P. W. Daly, A Guide to LTEX,
    3rd ed. Addison-Wesley, 1999.

35
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Cypher
DecodingOver the past several years, genetic
algorithms have come into wide use because of
their ability to find good solutions to computing
problems very quickly. They imitate nature by
crossing over strings of information represented
as chromosomes, with preference given to the more
fit solutions produced. They hold great promise
in the field of cryptology, where they may be
used to quickly find good partial solutions, thus
eliminating much of the intense manual labor that
goes into identifying initial coding schemes.
35
36
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Abstract
  • Over the past several years, genetic algorithms
    have come into wide use because of their ability
    to find good solutions to computing problems very
    quickly. They imitate nature by crossing over
    strings of information represented as
    chromosomes, with preference given to the more
    fit solutions produced. They hold great promise
    in the field of cryptology, where they may be
    used to quickly find good partial solutions, thus
    eliminating much of the intense manual labor that
    goes into identifying initial coding schemes.

37
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Introduction
  • This document is the written history of the
    author's work on genetic algorithms over the
    course of the past year. The hope is to reach a
    better understanding of genetic algorithms
    through the results of intensive work on the sub
    ject in several different applications.
  • The Problem
  • Genetic algorithms have become very useful tools
    in the field of computer science, however, they
    are rather open-ended and can be applied in
    wildly different ways.1 The problem here is to
    optimize a genetic algorithm for a cryptological
    problem.

38
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Statement of Objective
  • The ultimate objective is to use a genetic
    algorithm to efficiently solve different problems
    such as the Beale cypher and the evolution of pi.
    Regardless of whether that objective is reached
    or not, the pro ject should foster a better
    understanding of how to apply genetic algorithms
    to cryptology problems. The purpose of this
    report is to document the development and
    effectiveness of the project.

39
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Scope
  • The pro ject deals mainly with the Beale Cyphers
    as a tool with which to determine which
    properties of a genetic algorithm may be modified
    so that the algorithm may operate more smoothly.
    The pro ject also includes an initial foray into
    evolving the value of pi.
  • Background
  • Historical Summary
  • The Beale Cypher is one of the most famous
    unsolved puzzles in cryptography. Basically, 100
    years ago, Beale buried treasure in a lake in
    Bedford County, near Roanoke.

40
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Three letters were written, encoded and given to
    a friend. Beale subsequently travelled west and
    never returned. Later, one of the 3 letters was
    deciphered. Beale had used a simple encoding
    algorithm. His letters consisted of a large list
    of numbers. These numbers corresponded to the
    first 480 words in the American Declaration of
    Independence. For example, if the document starts
    "The quick brown fox..." then 3 would represent
    the letter 'b' and so forth.
  • (1 Duray)

41
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • So, one of the letters was succesfully
    deciphered, but to this day the other two remain
    unbreakable. While there is a fair amount of
    evidence that the Beale treasure is a hoax, there
    is no reason to believe that the cyphers
    themselves are. It is also probable that the
    other cyphers either use the same document, just
    different encoding methods, or use similar
    documents and the same encoding.2
  • Preceding Work
  • I am not sure how much work has been done trying
    to decode the two as-yet undeciphered letters.

42
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Throughout the 1970s, one Dr. Carl Hammer used
    computers to analyze those two letters and found
    cyclic patterns in the numbers that suggested an
    actual coding mechanism as opposed to randomly
    chosen numbers.3 There is some evidence that the
    cypher is nothing more than a hoax. Kenneth
    Dobyns concludes after a lengthy statistical
    analysis that "there is no content to the
    cyphers" and that the numbers in the two
    undeciphered texts were chosen "substantially at
    random, limited only by the restriction that no
    numerical value would be repeated immediately
    adjacent or semi-adjacent to a similar value."

43
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Theory
  • It is one of the great ironies of computer
    science that a machine built to outperform a
    living organism works best at times when it
    imitates the living organism itself. Charles
    Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species laid
    the foundation not only for anthropology but for
    a great number of largely economic theories such
    as "Social Darwinism." The idea that the members
    most fit to survive would be the most likely to
    reproduce resounded in the scientific community.
    It should come as no surprise, then, that
    computers might be able to produce end results as
    well as nature itself if they would follow this
    model.

44
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • A genetic algorithm is a method of computing that
    attempts to replicate nature's mechanism for
    evolution by organizing computer data into
    formats that are akin to DNA chromosomes. The
    idea is to have multiple manifestations of these
    computer data so that they might "cross over" the
    way that real-life chromosomes do. The "crossing
    over" does not happen randomly the programmer
    has to code the program to do this, but he can
    choose to do it in a manner that takes two
    promising sets of data and combines them into
    what would hopefully be an even better set of
    data. We need these "promising sets of data"
    because the data are supposed to be the solution
    to some sort of problem.

45
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Genetic algorithms are most effective in quickly
    finding good solutions to problems in which there
    may be several acceptable solutions.
  • The problem of decoding the Beale Cypher, then,
    would seem to be an excellent candidate for a
    genetic algorithm as described above. The search
    space is essentially infinite, yet it would be
    possible to program the computer to recognize
    good solutions as those with a high incidence of
    actual English words coming out of the
    translation. While there is one "correct"
    solution, but if I can get my program to come up
    with a solution that a human viewer could
    identify as reasonably close to this correct
    solution, then it will have been a success.
  • 2 Matthews 3 Krystek

46
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Design Criteria
  • Primary Criteria
  • The pro ject will be able to take the code of
    the second letter in the Beale Cypher and
    independently come up with a string in which an
    observing human can recognize the English message
    of the cypher. The pro ject will use a genetic
    algorithm to do so, crossing over possible
    solutions to produce hopefully better ones.
  • Secondary Criteria
  • The pro ject may independently produce the
    exact answer to the second letter in the Beale
    Cypher, character for character. The genetic
    algorithm may be both time-efficient and
    space-efficient, allowing for easy application to
    other similar cyphers (even other letters)

47
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • The pro ject may produce a viable solution to the
    first and third letters of the Beale Cypher from
    which a human would be able to do meaningful and
    independent work.
  • A genetic algorithm similar to the one used to
    satisfy the Primary Criteria may be adapted to
    other areas in cryptology and (this is a long
    shot) into other research areas such as
    artificial life.
  • Procedure
  • The project largely dictated its own future
    since there was no initial goal at the outset of
    the year, the pro ject was largely defined as
    whatever might be successful.

48
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • At the time the author applied for the Computer
    Systems Research Lab, his idea was to create an
    intelligent computer agent to play the Japanese
    game Go. By September, the idea of exploring
    genetic algorithms had become fairly entrenched
    in the author's mind, but a search for
    applications was still necessary. After spending
    two months tinkering with a program that evolved
    the value of , it was decided to pursue the
    Beale Cypher in depth. The program decode01.c was
    written to the point where it would begin
    crossing multiple chromosomes over each other and
    producing results that clearly followed
    progressive patterns (thanks to substantive
    debugging). Once the functionality for crossing
    over was written into the program, work on the
    heuristic could begin.

49
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • It is based on the relative frequencies of each
    alphabetical character in the English language4
    and the most commonly occurring words in the
    language.5 The heuristic analyzes the
    translations produced by a chromosome and
    calculates how far the relative character
    frequencies of the translations deviate from that
    of general English, with priority values being
    assigned to the translations that deviate the
    least in terms of character frequency and also
    have the most identifiable English words.

50
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • The word-search function was the most difficult
    part of the program to write, not because the
    goal was uncertain, but because it introduced an
    entirely new problem to the pro ject that of
    organizing an extensive list of data into the
    program's infrastructure in such a manner that it
    could then be successfully used to analyze
    translations of the program. I finally settled on
    a linked-list structure after a long period of
    flailing with a very error-prone
    multi-dimensional array.

51
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Results
  • Results at this point are very basic I have just
    recently completed the word-search function and
    have yet to use it heavily in tandem with the
    genetic algorithm. Appendix 2 shows some sample
    results. The first part demonstrates the
    character-frequency analysis function it shows
    five false translations of the Beale cypher and
    gives their variances. (Defined in the program as
    the sum of the percentage points by which the
    frequency of each letter relative to the complete
    translation varied from the ideal percentage
    defined in Singh. A lower number is better.) The
    second part shows the word-search function, only
    recently completed.

52
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • The results shown include the debugging code I
    planted in the program. It shows the program
    going through the sample translation two
    characters at a time. Every exclamation point
    means that the program has identified the most
    recently displayed two-character combination as
    possibly beginning a word. Actual words showing
    up after exclamation points indicate that that
    word has been identified in the text and that the
    program has added a point to the translation's
    heuristic score.
  • References
  • Dobyns, Kenneth. "Beale Codes Were they a
    Hoax?" Genealogy, History, and Miscel laneous
    Material. 1984. 25 Jan. 2005 www.myoutbox.net/bea
    lhome.htm
  • 4 Singh, accessed at Southampton

53
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • Duray, Naranker. "Genetic Algorithms." Imperial
    Col lege of London Department of Computing.
    1996. 25 Jan. 2005 www.doc.ic.ac.uk/nd/surprise
    96/journal/vol4/tcw2/report.html Gantovnik,
    V.B., Z. Gurdal, and L.T. Watson. "Genetic
    Algorithm with Memory for Optimal Design of
    Laminated Sandwich Composite Site Panels."
    Technical Report, 2002. Computer Science _at_
    Virginia Tech. 21 May 2002. Virginia Polytechnic
    Institute and State University. 8 Feb. 2005

54
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • eprints.cs.vt.edu8000/archive/00000555/01/gaCS02
    a.ps Huss, Eric. "The C Library Reference
    Guide." Webmonkeys A Special Interest Group at
    the University of Il linois. 1997. 14 Apr. 2005
    www.acm.uiuc.edu/webmonkeys/book/c guide/
    Krystek, Lee. "The Beale Cryptograms." The Museum
    of Unnatural History. 2000. 13 Jan. 2005
    www.unmuseum.org/beal.htm Matthews, James. "The
    Beale Cypher." Generation5. 2003. 13 Jan. 2005

55
Optimizing Genetic Algorithms for Use in
CyphersKeith Diggs
  • www.generation5.org/content/2003/beale.asp
    Singh, Simon. The Code Book The Secret History
    of Codes and Code-breaking. Unknown Fourth
    Estate, 1999. University of Southampton, ed.
    Teachers' Notes to Accompany the Lesson Packs.
    National Cipher Challenge. Southampton, UK
    University of Southampton, 2003. National Cipher
    Chal lenge. 1 Oct. 2003. University of
    Southampton. 25 Jan. 2005 www.cipher.maths.soton.
    ac.uk "The 500 Most Commonly Used Words in
    English." World English Test, Learn, and Study
    the English Language Online. 22 Aug. 2001. 25
    Jan. 2005. www.world-english.org/english500.htm

56
Creating a 3D Game With a Study of OpenGL
Textures and Lighting TechniquesTo create a
first person 3D game using OpenGL. The program
consists of using models, textures, lighting, and
polygons to create a 3D world in OpenGL. Various
equations are used to calculate camera angles,
movement, and physics. For example, to move the
camera, eye movements are controlled by
glLookAt, which takes an eye position with 3
points (x,y,z) and 2 vectors. One vectors is the
up direction and the other is the forward
direction.
56
57
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • Abstract
  • The objective is to create a simple, 3D first
    person shooter using OpenGL and C. To acheive
    this goal, I will need to implement textures,
    lighting, 3Dshapes, polygons, and basic C
    structures. II. Introduction The problem of
    creating a 3D first person shooter from scratch
    is a large task. To accomplish this task, I am
    breaking down the problem into simple blocks,
    such as getting a camera to work so that I can
    view the world from a person's perspective and
    move around.

58
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • The reason I chose this pro ject is because
    computer games interest me immensly and creating
    one of my own would give me some experience and
    pleasure, even if it is very primitive. My pro
    ject will probably be finished very near the end
    of the year as there will always be another
    upgrade to add. The maximum scope of this program
    would be to have multiple users playing on the
    same computer or over a network and models of the
    users and different ob jects. Multiple weapons
    would be available to pick up and different
    levels to play. However, the multiple user aspect
    nor the models will be accomplishable by the end
    of the year.

59
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • III. Theory and Discusion and Workplan
  • I will go over the two main features that I have
    completed so far the camera and collisions. The
    camera is the user's point of view. Using
    keyboard input to change velocity, the user moves
    around. The largest task was create a realistic
    system to use mouse input to rotate the camera
    up, down, and side to side. To do this,
    horizontal and vertical movement is calculated in
    pixels for each iteration and used to modify two
    angles. One for up and down and the other for
    side to side.

60
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • Using both of these angles, I calculate a unit
    vector in the opposite direction the user is
    looking to input into an openGL function. The
    distance the user looks up is the sine of the
    angle up. The maximum distance forward is the
    cosine of this angle. The forward distance is
    further broken up into x and z components. The x
    component is the max distance multiplied by the
    sine of the angle to the side and the y component
    is the max distance multiplied by the cosine of
    that angle.

61
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • As a result, my code looks like such with a unit
    vector of length 2 temp2cos(angleDown)
    centerXeyeX-tempsin(angleLeft)//puts center
    point 2 units centerZeyeZ-tempcos(angleLeft)//i
    n front of the eye centerYeyeY-2sin(angleDown)
    An up vector is also generated very similar to
    this to make the camera right side up. The other
    large chunk of code is collisions. My collisions
    are very simple. When a pro jectile hits an ob
    ject, it stops and moves back a little (so it
    doesn't get stuck in the ob ject). The
    acceleration due to gravity then pulls the ob
    ject down. If it hits the ground or the top of an
    ob ject it just stops and stays.

62
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • After a certain amount of time, the pro jectile
    will be deleted. That way, there won't be
    hundreds of pro jectiles bogging down on
    processing power. To detect collisions, I check
    to see if the pro jectiles is inside the bounds
    of the ob ject plus the radius of the pro
    jectile. This currently only works for
    rectangular prisms or flat rectangles. Circles
    and spheres are also workable with this
    algorithm. To do more complicated ob jects,
    multiple smaller, undrawn ob jects will have to
    be used to approximate the larger shape and
    acheive accurate collisions.

63
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • Another large piece of the program will be
    textures. I will have to load in a texture for
    each different type of surface I am going to use.
    To do this I must read a bitmap image into
    memory. I do this by first reading in the bitmap
    header which contains information about the file,
    and then I read in 4 values for every pixel. Each
    value is the size of a byte, so I read these
    values into an array of unsigned chars. This
    array is then plugged into a texture function
    (glTexImage2D) which stores the image in video
    memory. I then delete the array from memory.

64
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • For some reason, the read in textures are not
    staying in video memory, even though I have
    debuged and found I interpreted the bitmap
    correctly. Textures will only be accomplished if
    time permits because I have decided to push back
    fixing the problem until later. The other main
    aspect of collisions are the actual ob jects. I
    have created a "class" ob ject and I have a
    pointer list of these ob jects. When a
    destroyable ob ject gets hit enough, it will be
    destroyed and I will take it out of the list so
    it isn't drawn and doesn't use processing power.
    Currently, I am working on a system to read in ob
    jects and put them in the list.

65
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • When I finish, I will be able to load in an
    environment from a text file, allowing for
    multiple levels. After accomplishing muliple text
    input levels, I will work on a HUD (heads up
    display) which will show life, time, and score. I
    will also add different weapons that cause
    different damages that the player can pick up in
    the level. Lighting will be added last, such as a
    muzzle flash effect and lighting throughout the
    level. My basic system of operations is to code,
    test, and debug. I do this for every single
    aspect of the pro ject. When I added the camera
    code, I had to fix alot of errors.

66
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • For example, I found out on the opengl.org site
    that the "center" values determine a point a unit
    away from the camera in the direction it is
    looking rather than a unit vector. The "up"
    values actually do determine a unit vector in the
    "up" direction. Only I am working on this pro
    ject. I need no money and therefore have no
    budget. The only equipment I am using is a
    computer, implementing OpenGl and C. I may also
    use a graphical modeler later on. I have mainly
    used the OpenGL website to get all of my
    information for my pro ject.

67
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • However, as I am now getting into some more
    complicated aspects (not just camera and drawing
    basic ob jects), I will need more and more
    sources. I have begun to research texturing,
    which I have researched outside the opengl.org
    site. I will have to research elsewhere for most
    of the remaining tasks as well. Tasks to be
    completed include adding textures, lighting,
    additional ob jects, and a more complicated
    environment.

68
Creating a 3D Game With Textures and Lighting
John Fitzsimmons
  • Sources OpenGL - The Industry Standard for High
    Performance Graphics. http//www.opengl.org/.
    January 27, 2005. Spacesimulator.net - OpenGL
    Texture mapping. http//www.spacesimulator.net/tut
    3 texturemapping.htm January 26, 2005. OpenGL
    Texture Mapping An Introduction.
    http//www.gmonline.demon.co.uk/cscene/CS8/CS802.h
    tml. January 23, 2005.

69
Paintball Frenzy!Minimax Agent AIThe purpose
of this project is to create an innovative and
enjoyable graphical game and program a minimax AI
agent that performs optimally.
69
70
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • 0.1 Abstract
  • Paintball Frenzy is a unique turn-based game of
    my creation. The game is played on a four by four
    grid layout that is initially a neutral grey
    color. Two to four players that are either human
    or computer controlled posess one colored
    paintball that originates at one of the board's
    four corners. The players take turns moving about
    the grid one horizontal or vertical space at a
    time.

71
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • Players also have the option to jump over one
    player's paintball in an adjacent space. There is
    a time limit that each player must choose their
    move before. Whenever a paintball moves into a
    space on the grid, that space becomes the color
    of that paintball. Whichever player has the most
    colored spaces at the end of the turn limit wins
    the game. My final pro ject was the creation of
    this game Paintball Frenzy. First, I had to
    invent the game and all of it's particularities
    and balance issues.

72
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • Of course, I had to program this game's
    framework, first with a standard terminal display
    and keyboard input, and later with graphical
    gameboard display and mouse controls.
    Additionally, I had to program several artificial
    intelligence agents for my game including an
    agent that moves randomly and an agent that
    performs optimally. To design the agent that
    moves optimally, I researched the minimax
    algorithm and used it to search through all the
    possible game-choice options and choose the best
    one. Combining all of these aspects together
    yielded a fully enjoyable and informative senior
    research project.

73
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • 0.2 Introduction and Background
  • I am pleased to introduce Paintball Frenzy in all
    its glory. Originally, I had a massively
    ambitious pro ject proposal to design a computer
    programming language designed specifically for
    the creating of video games. I was quick to
    dispatch this proposal towards the end of my
    junior year. Also in my junior year I took the
    Artificial Intelligence class and I learned of my
    deep interest in the Artificial Intelligence
    field and the difficult minimax algorithm in
    particular (I was never able to master it in the
    class).

74
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • Therefore, I was quick to consider the minimax
    algorithm for my final pro ject. But I wanted to
    do more than just Artificial Intelligence, I also
    wanted to design my own game. So I did, and
    Paintball Frenzy was born. Background on game
    design.
  • Background on graphics.
  • Background on game AI.
  • 0.3Theory
  • My research was a three-pronged proccess. First,
    I chose to formulate an innovative turn-based
    game.

75
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • Game Design Theory. 1 Graphics Theory
  • Intitially, I delved into my artificial research
    with impressive haste. I acquired a green
    artificial intelligence book from Mr. Torbert and
    I've been researching the minimax algorithm ever
    since. The turn-based, deterministic style of my
    program makes the minimax algorithm ideal.
    However, the multiplayer asect of the game will
    greatly slow down the algorithm and it'll most
    likely force it to use a cut-off test before the
    entire tree has been searched. This means,
    unfortunately, that at the faster time limits, my
    AI agent won't operate optimally.

76
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • More AI Theory. 0.4
  • Design Criteria
  • The progress of my pro ject is three-pronged. In
    the first quarter, I researched game design and
    programmed a working version of Paintball Frenzy
    withoutgraphics or an AI Agent. I used C to
    program. My Main function first initializes
    global variables like the board matrix. It then
    calls functions to display the title and generate
    the menus. After that, Main runs a do-while loop
    until the number of turns has expired. In this
    loop, Main calls functions to display the board
    and prompt the current player's move. Then Main
    repeats the loop with the next player,
    incrementing the turn counter as required.

77
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • After the loop, Main calls a function to evaluate
    and display the results of the game. In the
    second quarter, I used OpenGL graphics to make my
    program more aesthetically pleasing. I needed to
    make several design modifications to allow for a
    graphical interface. My main function is only
    responsible for initilizing variables and
    initiating the OpenGL display cycle. My display
    function (RunGame) regulates the game loop with a
    series of if else statements that assess the
    current game progress via mouse clicking history.

78
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • In my main game loop, I designed to have a second
    set of if statements to track the state of each
    particular turn. First, I start a timer, then I
    get mouse input until the timer has expired. At
    the end of the time, I excecute the players' move
    and signal the change in player or turn. I store
    the mouse clicking history by saving phases of
    the game as integers in a global variable. I also
    designed DispBoard to display the gameboard in
    the left part of window. The upper right side
    displays the current turn and player.

79
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • Below that is directional pad that records mouse
    input. I created three auxilary functions to
    handle mouse clicking, the mouse menu, and text
    output. I also designed the menu screen layout
    that would allow for alterable data and buttons.
    The second semester is consumed with my attempts
    to add an AI agent to my program. This includes
    the research of Game AI and more specifically the
    minimax algorithm. Techniques such as alpha-beta
    pruning where also researched. In the end, an
    optimized AI Agent was produced. I've redesigned
    my RunGame function to call the AgentMove
    function at the start of its time limit to allow
    for the most time.

80
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • I designed the first version of a recursive
    minimax function that I call maximax. My
    AgentMove function now simply sets some variables
    and calls maximax to get the new board position.
    First, maximax tests the turn limit and time
    limit constraits. If the time is up or the
    simulated game is over, the program calls the
    terminal function entitled EvalFunc. Next, I
    increment the simulated player or turn to delve
    further into the maximax tree. Then, I determine
    if the four directional moves are possible, and
    recurse in each of the legal directions. Then, I
    decide which one is the best move, and return the
    changed board. I also programmed the EvalFunc.

81
Paintball Frenzy Graphical Turn-Based Game With
a Minimax AI AgentChristopher Goss
  • 0.5 References
  • (this is merely a reference list right now, not a
    bibliography) http//www.latex-pro ject.org/
    http//www.vancouver.wsu.edu/fac/peabody/game-book
    /Coverpage.html http//www.msoe.edu/eecs/cese/reso
    urces/stl/string.htm http//www.tjhsst.edu/
    rlatimer/ http//www.opengl.org
    http//www.tjhsst.edu/ rlatimer/assignments2004/in
    dependenceday.txt The AI book http//ai-depot.com/
    LogicGames/MiniMax.html

82
Modeling Evolutionary BehaviorThe purpose of
this project is to attempt to model evolutionary
behavior in agents in an environment by
introducing traits and characteristics that
change with the different generations of
agents.I hope to create an environment where
certain agents will prosper and reproduce while
others will have traits that negatively affect
their performance. In the end, a single basic
agent will evolve into numerous subspecies of the
original agent and demonstrate evolutionary
behavior.
82
83
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • 1 Abstract
  • With the creation of Epstein and Axtell's
    Sugarscape environment, increasing emphasis has
    been placed on the creation of "root" agents -
    agents that can each independently act and
    interact to establish patterns identifiable in
    our everyday world. Models created for traffic
    patterns and flocking patterns confirm that these
    conditions are caused by each participating agent
    trying to achieve the best possible outcome for
    itself.

84
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • The purpose of this project is to attempt to
    model evolutionary behavior in agents in an
    envionment by introducing traits and
    characteristics that change with the different
    generations of agents. Using the modeling package
    MASON programmed in Java, I will be able to
    create an environment where agents will pass down
    their genetic traits through different
    generations. By adding certain behavioral traits
    and a common resource to the agents, I hope to
    create an environment where certain agents will
    prosper and reproduce while others will have
    traits that negatively affect their performance.

85
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • In the end, a single basic agent will evolve into
    numerous subspecies of the original agent and
    demonstrate evolutionary behavior. This pro ject
    will show that agents which possess the
    capability to change will change to better fit
    their environment.
  • 2.1 Body Matter Introduction
  • Computer modeling, simply defined, is the process
    of programming the conditions of an environment
    into a computer and adjusting parameters of the
    model to see how they affect the results of the
    model. Today, though, many computer models are
    merely used to verify behavior that we already
    suspect is accurate. Many models created today
    focus on topics such as disease, population
    growth, and traffic, where the results of the
    models were already well known.

86
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • The models are used primarily to see how adding,
    subtracting, or otherwise changing any parameters
    in the environment affect the outcome of the
    groups in the environment or the environment as a
    whole. This opens the doors for many scientists
    and researchers to simple, cost-efficient
    experimentation. For example, analyzing traffic
    patterns requires a large committment to
    observation and analysis over months and even
    years. Such research is not undertaken lightly.
    With computer modeling, this information can be
    programmed into a model and used to estimate how
    the real-world system will react to changes in
    its stimuli.

87
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • Also, computer modeling allows us to perform
    "experiments" in areas of science where
    experimentation is not normally possible. This is
    especially true in astronomy, where the sheer
    vastness of space and our relative insignificance
    to the universe means that experimentation is
    simply not possible. You can't reset the universe
    and watch over five billion years of history.
    However, computer models of planetary orbits and
    systems allows us to try and find explanations
    for phenonoma we have observed.

88
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • In short, the majority of computer modeling is
    used to verify existing theories. Social
    behavioral patterns, although well-researched in
    general, have thus far been used to demonstrate
    how one individual interacts with his social
    environment as a whole. This pro ject, based off
    of such personality research pro jects as the Dr.
    John A. Johnson's IPIP-NEO and using evolutionary
    behaviors first established in Epstein and
    Axtell's famous Sugarscape models, attempts to
    use computer modeling as a form of research in
    and of itself into the evolutionary aspects of
    social behavior.

89
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • In particular, my pro ject attempts to analyze
    the behavioral patterns of introverted agents and
    extroverted agents over a long period of time.
    With any luck, insights will be made into this
    exciting, riveting, and brilliant field of the
    human psyche.
  • 2.2 Background
  • Conway's Game of Life was the first prominent
    agent-based model. Each cell was an "agent" that
    contained either a 0 or a 1 (alive or dead)
    depending on how many neighbors it had, and acted
    independently of the environment. Conway's Game
    of Life didn't lead to any profound insights, but
    it did pave the way for future agent-based
    modeling.

90
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • The advantage of agent-based modeling, as many
    found out, is that it did not assume prior
    conditions. It was a method of building worlds
    "form the bottom up", where independent agents
    were able to create complex worlds without any
    overseers. One popular psychological game,
    Prisoner's Dilemma, spawned a series of games
    where agents tried to maximize their outcome,
    often at the expense of other agents. Eventually,
    these agent-based models were incorporated in
    studies of flocking. The models created to show
    flocking behavior in birds did not incorporate
    flock leaders, as many presumed. Instead, the
    birds all acted for their own best interests, and
    directions and resting points were chosen as
    compromises of sorts.

91
Modeling Evolving Social BehaviorStephen J.
Hilber
  • Using the theory that independent agents can
    create organized structures such as flocks,
    Epstein and Axtell created the Sugarscape world
    in an effort to discover if social behaviors and
    human characteristics could emerge through
    independent actions. The Sugarscape model had
    agents able to breed, fight, trade, and die, and
    the core of the model was the resource sugar.
    Each agent had a metabolism rate which burned off
    its sugar if it ran out of sugar, the agent
    died. Instead of isolated behavior, however, the
    agents soon used their resources to work
    together.
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