Undergraduate research at Lewis & Clark College, part 5: Mathematics and Computer Science

The following summer undergraduate research projects in Computer Science and Mathematics were funded by grants from the National Science Foundation:

Title: Computer Go: Enhancing Monte Carlo Tree Search
Faculty mentors: Peter Drake, Yung-Pin Chen, Jens Mache
Students: Walt Javins ‘11, Jessica Mullins ‘10, Seth Pellegrino ‘10, Bobby Dygert (University at Buffalo), Travis Mandel (Carnegie Mellon University), Drew Tillis (Hendrix College)
Abstract: The Asian game of Go has simpler rules than Chess, but writing a Go-playing program that can compete with strong human players has proven exceedingly difficult. In fact, Go is considered one of the "grand challenges" of artificial intelligence. The Monte-Carlo approach has significantly strengthened the performance of computer Go programs. The team examined and improved the RAVE (Rapid Action Value Estimation) algorithm proposed by Gelly and Silver in 2008, and enhanced the Monte Carlo tree search with two revised RAVE algorithms. Click here for Lewis & Clark’s Orego page and here for more information about the NSF grant that supported this work.

Title: Towards Contour Tracking with Wireless Sensor Networks.
Faculty mentor: Jens Mache
Student: Samuel Bock '11
Abstract: An emerging class of small computers, outfitted with sensors and linked by radio transceivers, can form perceptive sensor networks that will connect more intimately the virtual and physical worlds. This work focuses on making these new technologies accessible to undergraduates through the use of activity based labs and a web accessible collaborative environment. The team explored communication, localization, power management, security, data aggregation and contour tracking. Click here for information about the NSF grant that supported this work.