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February 10, 2003 Vol.73, no. 4S
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| THE GAMESMEN: A group of students
are working on a game-solving software program that anyone can use
for free over the Internet. Photo by Angela Privin. |
Undergraduate
engineers prove that all work and no play makes for a dull research
project
They call themselves the
gamesmen, and it took 23 of them three semesters to create one Gamesman,
a computer program that plays games and teaches strategy. Last semester
it was finally unveiled at the undergraduate research poster session
in Wozniak Lounge.
The Gamesman was the thesis project of EECS professor Dan Garcia, who
wanted to continue developing it with the help of Berkeley students
from the EECS, math and CS departments.
“The software project started with just a few of us and we just
kept on recruiting more people,” says EECS student and group member
Sunil Ramesh.
Unlike some grad students, none of the participants in the Gamesman
project are getting paid, but rather barter their time and effort for
academic credit.
The Gamesman has the ability to make you either the most popular or
unpopular kid on the block (depending on whether people dislike or respect
you for always winning games). For those serious about their game playing,
the Gamesman can teach strategy and show which moves are or are not
optimal to win.
“It’s the perfect player,” says Ramesh. Not only is the
Gamesman always up for playing, but it won’t be a sore loser, even
if it shows you how to beat it.”
The Gamesman works with any game, after the rules are programmed into
the system. As a player starts a game like Tic-Tac-Toe, the computer
makes its move, then shows potential winning moves in green and losing
moves in red.
It also allows players to play against their friends, coaching both
participants along the way.
The group has plans to disseminate this product once all the quirks
are ironed out, but no one is seeing dollar signs, despite the lucrative
nature of the games market.
“We aren’t going to charge for this product. It’s open
source, so people will be able to download it for free, use it and change
it in any way they like,” adds Ramesh.
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