AI Development/Improvement

Personal Information/Introduction

Name: William Abbott

Age: 22

Education: 4 Year Degree, Computer Science

Wesnoth Forum ID: Terratoch

IRC ID: Geoclasm

GNA ID: N/A

Email Address: Terratoch@Gmail.com

Programming Model: Testing-Based

Time Line: I know that I can stay on for at least four months.

Informal Introduction:

My interest in GSoC is not only to help the development of an already great game, but to also help myself develop as a programmer, both socially and professionally. I believe that completing the GSoC Project would make a great addition to my resume.

Experience:

I am at the end of a four year education in computer science. Throughout that time, I have become acquainted with a number of computer programming languages (C++, C, Java, Scheme, Python). My strongest are C++ and Python. As for 'real world' experience, I am afraid that is fairly limited. I have yet to work professionally in a group setting, and was hoping to change that here. However, in many classes I have worked in a group environment, from tinkering with breadboards to creating a Simon game and interface from scratch. If I were accepted, this would be my first time working with GSoC, as well as working with any sort of open-source project.

I am definitely a gamer. My game genres of choice are Real time Strategy Role Playing Games, Simulations, and First Person Shooters. I am actually open to most types of video games, but about the only games I won't play would be sports games.

Social Details:

My primary spoken/written language is English. I have no problems interacting with others in a professional or social environment, and I am able to give as well as receive constructive criticism.

From the project list that I saw, I thought what I would like to participate in most would be the AI development project, mainly because recently I took a class that piqued my interest in Artificial Intelligence, but I would just be happy to be accepted to the project. I chose this project from the GSoC list because I played the game for a little bit, and enjoyed it a lot. It reminded me a lot of Ogre Battle. I am usually awake between 12:00 Noon to 2:00 AM, and would have no problem talking over the phone, internet or otherwise.

I wish to participate in the Google Summer of Code because, as of right now, I am about to graduate, and have no employment opportunities lined up after I do. I am concerned that I will not be able to start a career without some sort of boost, and I thought that this could be the boost I would need to get started. I define open-source as free software developed by individuals or a community. That community can be an organized group of experienced programmers looking to make improvements to something that already exists, or starting on a brand-new project that they feel they and others could put to good use. I think that Open Source is a great concept. I believe that knowledge and information would be free, and I have a growing student loan debt to back that up. My first encounter with Open Source would probably be Bit Torrent file sharing, namely Azureus. This was my program of choice for downloading music and movies, as well as programs.

I hope to gain a good deal of programming experience as well as professional experience that I can use to start my career as a program writer. I love writing programs because many of the programs I have written were posed as problems that needed to be solved, and writing the program to solve the problem proved to be a very fun and truly challenging experience. I have even been on an ACM Programming Competition team, and while we did not do very well, the experience was nonetheless excellent. When something doesn't work right, I can write a program to do what I want. THe same if I cant find a program. to do what I want to do. Otherwise, writing programs, bending them to do what I want to do is an experience that could only be comparable to creating the perfect city in Sim City.

AI Idea

While I have no code to back the idea up, what I was considering as an AI is instead of writing an all-encompassing artificially intelligent player, each unit could be assigned an artificially intelligent agent that colludes and cooperates with all the other agents in order to accomplish the goal. Of course, if this idea is out of the scope of the project, I am willing to work on whatever idea is accepted.