Compsci.ca's own contest, would you like to have one?

[MysticVegeta]

Ok here i go, I was lying down and I was thinking about school's wonderfull days when we used to have Math, Programming contests (programming mainly). So many of them CCC, Dwite, ECOO, Pascal, Fermat, etc.

Then i thought, well i could still participate in topcoder.com but found out that an average person there had a X100 more better problem solving capability than mine. Futhermore, it used C++ (which i happen to know very little of) (dont laugh) using some public stucts and classes and whatnot (stuff that goes over my head, weeeee)

Then it thought, wouldn't it be nice to compete our own friends? *click* compsci.ca

Then, I talked to Tony about it, he told me he would think about it if the contest followed a better format than CCC/Dwite's old boring way. A format that would not only attract people from compsci but also the outside people.

So, if you have a good idea as to how to improve the contest format in any way, to make it more creative, please feel free to post it here! because to a grand success...

- "It only takes an idea"

Oh, please vote in the polls, and any type of comments/suggestions are welcome!!

Lets make this contest a reality!!!! W00T!!

[Notoroge]

... Lay off the sugar man.

[Delos]

Lay off the blueberries.

[[Gandalf]]

Lay off the psychedelic br0wnies.

It seems like a pretty good idea, but it would take some work. Let's not have too much math in it though (I've never been too good )

[Andy]

this was actually thought of about an year ago, but think about it, who has the time and money to start one, and how many schools will actually participate?

[MysticVegeta]

Quote:

money

eh...? why money...? We have lotsa geniuses here to make questions, and it shouldn't be like a formal school vs school contest, individual contest!

besides the judges will mark it over a few days period depending on how mnay ppl participate. we already have 50% saying yes. I think it will rise soon.

code:

sugar

Whats that supposed to mean?

code:

bluberries

was that a counter to his post or mine?

[Hikaru79]

I think it's a neat idea. I was planning on posting something similar where I challenge everyone here to write a decent Chess AI and then at the end of two months or whatever, we play them off and crown a winner.

Andy, money? Nah, we do it for the prestiege And no need to get schools involved, just have it be inter-forum.

MysticVegeta, if you want help organizing, writing, etc, this contest, PM me. I think it's a good idea, if everyone will stop being so cynical about it

[Tony]

MysticVegeta wrote:

we already have 50% saying yes.

And only 10 users bothered to answer the poll. I'm not putting together a contest for 5 people. Sorry.

I think you need a more solid idea then just "lets have a contest".

As I said before - put together a plan.

Who's writing the questions?
What kind of question will there be?
Who's marking the answers?
How are they marking the answers?
What do participants get out of this?

[Dan]

And who is paying my laywers bill's when i get sewed form this some how?

[Delos]

MysticVegeta wrote:

was that a counter to his post or mine?

Neither.

[MysticVegeta]

Hikaru : Woot thanks a lot, if the contest bill is passed i will sure as hell talk to you about it. Chess A.I is a pretty neat idea since it hasnt been made in Turing (none that i know) But there is only one problem, to make chess A.I, one has to be good in chess, so people who are not good/dont play might not participate.

Tony wrote:

MysticVegeta wrote:

we already have 50% saying yes.

And only 10 users bothered to answer the poll. I'm not putting together a contest for 5 people. Sorry.

I think you need a more solid idea then just "lets have a contest".

As I said before - put together a plan.

Who's writing the questions?
What kind of question will there be?
Who's marking the answers?
How are they marking the answers?
What do participants get out of this?

yea, all valid questions, i think we should wait for more polls meanwhile i will prepare a list of ppl who will answer your questions, and if the poll reaches a successful point, i will ask them to do a favour.. *kindly* lol

[[Gandalf]]

Quote:

Hikaru : Woot thanks a lot, if the contest bill is passed i will sure as hell talk to you about it. Very Happy Chess A.I is a pretty neat idea since it hasnt been made in Turing (none that i know) But there is only one problem, to make chess A.I, one has to be good in chess, so people who are not good/dont play might not participate.

Well, the reason it hasn't been done is because it would be hard - really hard to make. You don't really have to be good at chess to make an ai, you just have to know the rules and know how chess values work. Then you have to make an amazing move search algorithm and you still have some stuff to do... Optimize how long it takes to move, have some opening move databases, etc...

Well, good luck getting ideas for the contest.

[MihaiG]

i will volunteer martin to pay youire bills dan

[MysticVegeta]

[Gandalf] wrote:

You don't really have to be good at chess to make an ai, you just have to know the rules and know how chess values work. Then you have to make an amazing move search algorithm..

Hmm, move search algorithm depends on where you want your program to think about making a move and that requires a basic strategy of killing the king, which in turn requires some good knowledge of chess. Ex: If queen is on c6, and bishop on e5 then queens next move will be to kill the pawn to checkmate. Well, in that case, thats a very common strategy, so the person who has programmed the AI has to make a function to avoid that move, which means he has to be experienced (or should play other ppl a lil)

Or maybe we should ask alikhan about this, he made an AI chess in java, he might know something.

[lyam_kaskade]

Maybe we could make a chess AI that learns from each game that it plays. And why stop at chess? Imagine the possibilities of having a program that can rewrite itself...


Seriously though, a Chess AI sounds like a lofty goal. I better get to work.