Pedagogical Possibilities for the 2048 Puzzle Game

In this paper, we describe an engaging puzzle game called 2048 and outline a variety of exercises that can leverage the game’s popularity to engage student interest, reinforce core CS concepts, and excite student curiosity towards undergraduate research. Exercises range in difficulty from CS1-level exercises suitable for exercising and assessing 1D and 2D array skills to empirical undergraduate research in Monte Carlo Tree Search methods and skilled heuristic evaluation design

Spartan Daily, April 14, 1959

Volume 46, Issue 104https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/3883/thumbnail.jp

Considerations for Rapidly Converging Genetic Algorithms Designed for Application to Problems with Expensive Evaluation Functions

A genetic algorithm is a technique designed to search large problem spaces using the Darwinian concepts of evolution. Solution representations are treated as living organisms. The procedure attempts to evolve increasingly superior solutions. As in natural genetics, however, there is no guarantee that the optimum organism will be produced. One of the problems in producing optimal organisms in a genetic algorithm is the difficulty of premature convergence. Premature convergence occurs when the organisms converge in similarity to a pattern which is sub-optimal, but insufficient genetic material is present to continue the search beyond this sub-optimal level, called a local maximum. The prevention of premature convergence of the organisms is crucial to the success of most genetic algorithms. In order to prevent such convergence, numerous operators have been developed and refined. All such operators, however, rely on the property of the underlying problem that the evaluation of individuals is a computationally inexpensive process. In this paper, the design of genetic algorithms which intentionally converge rapidly is addressed. The design considerations are outlined, and the concept is applied to an NP-Complete problem, known as a Crozzle, which does not have an inexpensive evaluation function. This property would normally make the Crozzle unsuitable for processing by a genetic algorithm. It is shown that a rapidly converging genetic algorithm can successfully reduce the effective complexity of the problem

Economic Choices and Status: Measuring Preferences for Income Rank

In this paper we report on the trade-offs that 1,068 Australian university students make between absolute income and the rank of that income in hypothetical income distributions. We find that income rank matters independently of absolute income, with greater weight given to rank by males, migrants, and individuals from wealthy families. Rank-sensitive individuals require as much as a 200 per cent increase in income to be compensated for going from the top to the bottom of the income distribution. In terms of reference groups, we find migrants who reside abroad for longer periods of time, and with more affluent job titles, are more likely to compare themselves to others at the destination. This allows us to derive a dynamic choice model of compensating incomes that allows for endogenous tastes and rates of assimilation. The model predicts the average respondent to need a permanent increase in income of up to $10,000 when moving from a society with a mean income of$14,000 (e.g. Mexico) to a society with a mean income of $46,000 (e.g. the USA).relative utility, status, income rank, stated-preferences, migrants

Comparison of individual and paired learning for the measurement of retention

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study was to measure and compare retention between children working alone and with a partner using S.R.A. (Scientific Research Associates) reading materials. The S.R.A. laboratory is a series of graded reading experiences intended to be used by individual children working alone and at their own rate of speed. Its general purpose is to improve many reading skills but in this study the retention factor will be the only concern

Spartan Daily, March 6, 2006

Volume 126, Issue 22https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10222/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, March 20, 2006

Volume 126, Issue 30https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/10230/thumbnail.jp

Learning to love the movies : puzzles, participation, and cinephilia in interwar European film magazines

Most scholars would agree that cinephilia results not simply from a spontaneous love of movies but historically has also been inseparable from processes of legitimization, audience training, and formations of taste. Yet we still know little about the deeper history of cinephilia's emergence: how audiences learned to love the movies and why. This article considers one site for thinking about this question during the “first wave” of cinephilia in the 1920s, namely the puzzle contest as it developed and proliferated in the new landscape of popular magazines in England, France, Germany, and other European countries. Culminating in a discussion of the Viennese magazine Mein Film, this article examines the media-historical and cultural contexts of photographic puzzles to show how they figured in a broader program of participatory and playful pedagogy by which readers could learn to frame film knowledge, film affect, and film experience in the context of an emerging European star system.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe