The Faculty Notebook, December 2005

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

The Faculty Notebook, March & May 2006

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

The Faculty Notebook, September 2005

The Faculty Notebook is published periodically by the Office of the Provost at Gettysburg College to bring to the attention of the campus community accomplishments and activities of academic interest. Faculty are encouraged to submit materials for consideration for publication to the Associate Provost for Faculty Development. Copies of this publication are available at the Office of the Provost

Teaching stochastic local search

Abstract This paper outlines an experiential approach to teaching stochastic local search. Using the Tale of the Drunken Topographer as a running analogy, students are led from the implementation of a hill descent algorithm through small, motivated modifications to a simple implementation of simulated annealing. Supplementary applets allow students to experiment with temperature and gain understanding of its importance in the annealing process. Challenge problems complete this brief but rich introduction to stochastic local search