Monday, May 1, 2017

Sprouts 2017: Overall Awesomeness

I spent all Saturday at Sprouts 2017, and it was excellent!

Craig Tennenhouse organized an amazing experience.  Everyone got a Gamester Pen, a program with a CGT quick-reference-page, a grid-lined notebook decked out with a gamey cover, and a nametag with the logo.

 Official Sprouts Notebook

His students gave amazing talks.  Each had created their own game, complete with actual pieces they had 3-D printed or otherwise manufactured!  It was clear they had spent lots of time analyzing their games, and had learned CGSuite to help get results.  One student had learned about Atomic Weights and applied that theory to their analysis!

Infinitiles

My student, Matt, also gave an excellent talk.  He discussed AI methods to play Chess and Go.  After all the talks, we got into working groups and looked at a few games more deeply.  I am definitely convinced that undergraduates can contribute to this field!

I'll post comments about the individual talks, though that may have to wait until the semester wraps up.  In the meantime, I've already started dreaming about Sprouts 2018.