[Excalibur] Fwd: [compsci] PhD Studentship on AI for "Magic:The Gathering" card game

Wed Jun 9 12:24:33 EDT 2010

HAVE AT IT FOLKS!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Lee Spector <lspector at hampshire.edu>
Date: Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 9:15 AM
Subject: [compsci] PhD Studentship on AI for "Magic:The Gathering" card game
To: Computer Science and related topics discussion list <
computerscience at lists.hampshire.edu>

Awfully cool that they have funding for this!

 -Lee

Begin forwarded message:

> From: None <P.I.Cowling at bradford.ac.uk>
> Date: June 9, 2010 10:32:03 AM EDT
> To: Computational Intelligence and Games <cigames at googlegroups.com>
> Subject: EPSRC PhD Studentship (Univ. Bradford): Monte Carlo Tree Search
in Uncertain Environments - Application to the Magic:The Gathering Card Game
> Reply-To: cigames at googlegroups.com
>
> University of Bradford:  School of Computing, Informatics and Media.
>
> Supervisor: Professor Peter Cowling (www.scim.brad.ac.uk/~picowlin).
>
> Financial Information: This studentship will pay PhD fees (UK/EU or
> worldwide) and a tax-free stipend of  £13,290 per annum, for a period
> of 3 years.
>
> Start Date: 1st October 2010 (or later by agreement).
>
> Background: The desire for better Artificial Intelligence (AI) in
> board games, card games and, more recently, video games have been a
> constant driver for AI research. There is considerable current
> excitement over the potential of Monte Carlo Tree Search algorithms
> (particularly UCT (http://senseis.xmp.net/?UCT)), which have produced
> professional-level computer Go players in the past year, a significant
> step towards addressing one of the major outstanding research
> questions of Artificial Intelligence (http://oase.nutn.edu.tw/
> FUZZ_IEEE_2009/result.htm). We have received substantial funding from
> EPSRC to investigate the full potential of Monte Carlo Tree Search
> (see http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/ViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/H049061/1), in
> a collaboration between the University of Bradford,  Imperial College
> London, the University of Essex, the University of Reykjavik
> (Iceland), AI Factory Ltd., Introversion Software Ltd. and Nestorgames
> Ltd.
>
> Project: For the majority of problems where game/decision tree models
> are appropriate, particularly real-time video games and industrial
> decision problems, the tree is nondeterministic, with both hidden
> information and randomness. This PhD project will investigate Monte
> Carlo Tree Search in a situation of hidden information and randomness,
> focussing specifically on one of the most popular card games in the
> world, Magic: The Gathering (www.magicthegathering.com). The student
> will investigate how to design AI to handle uncertainty in card draws
> and opponent plays, and the hidden information of the opponent's cards
> in hand, using Monte Carlo Tree Search, starting from simple sets of
> cards and increasing in complexity to deal with the fact that many of
> the rules of Magic:The Gathering are only introduced as cards are
> played (making Magic in some sense an exercise in General Game Playing
> (see http://games.stanford.edu/)).
>
> The PhD student: The PhD student will work closely with Prof Peter
> Cowling and a post-doctoral research assistant (to be appointed), as
> well as another PhD student already in post, to read and synthesise
> research papers, design algorithms, write computer codes, conduct
> experiments, present their work to other consortium members and at
> international scientific conferences, and write high-quality journal
> and conference papers.
>
> Good programming skills are required, preferably in a range of
> languages including C# or C++, as well as good training (and
> preferably research/project experience and publications) in artificial
> intelligence, discrete mathematics and the design of algorithms and
> data structures. An enthusiasm for games and a knowledge of game tree
> search is desirable. Knowledge of parallel programming techniques is
> also desirable.
>
> The University, School and City:  The School of Computing Informatics
> and Media at the University of Bradford has a strong research focus,
> as evidenced by our population of over 100 PhD students and the fact
> that 45% of our research was rated "Internationally Leading" or "World
> Class" by the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. In 2010, all research
> staff and students were relocated to purpose-built facilities within
> the University's city-centre campus. One of the UK's largest cities,
> set amongst some of the most spectacular countryside in England and
> yet one of the most affordable places to live in Britain, Bradford's
> wonderful paradoxes create a student city that is hard to beat.
> Bradford also has excellent transport links via Leeds/Bradford airport
> to London, Europe and the rest of the world, and via excellent UK road
> and rail connections.
>
> General Information
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Eligibility:  This studentship is open to all nationalities (UK/EU and
> worldwide).
>
> Academic Requirements: A First class or 2.1 honours degree or
> equivalent in a scientific discipline with substantial experience of
> discrete mathematics and programming.
>
> English Language Requirements: Candidates whose first language is not
> English need to have IELTS 7.0 or equivalent.
>
> Start Date: 1 October 2010 (or later by agreement).
>
> Duration: 3 years.
>
> For informal enquiries: Contact Prof Peter Cowling (email:
> p.i.cowling at bradford.ac.uk, tel.: +44 (0) 1274 234005).
>
> To Apply: The following documents should be sent in a single email to
> Prof Peter Cowling (p.i.cowling at bradford.ac.uk) before the application
> deadline (7th July 2010):
> • Covering statement (500 words maximum) outlining your suitability
> and motivation for the PhD position.
> • Academic CV including marks transcript.
> • Two academic references.
> • Evidence of English language ability for candidates whose first
> language is not English (IELTS 7.0 or equivalent).
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"Computational Intelligence and Games" group.
> To post to this group, send email to cigames at googlegroups.com.
> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
cigames+unsubscribe at googlegroups.com<cigames%2Bunsubscribe at googlegroups.com>
.
> For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/cigames?hl=en.
>

--
Lee Spector, Professor of Computer Science
School of Cognitive Science, Hampshire College
893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002-3359
lspector at hampshire.edu, http://hampshire.edu/lspector/
Phone: 413-559-5352, Fax: 413-559-5438

Check out Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines:
http://www.springer.com/10710 - http://gpemjournal.blogspot.com/

_______________________________________________
ComputerScience mailing list
ComputerScience at lists.hampshire.edu
https://lists.hampshire.edu/mailman/listinfo/computerscience

-- 
Best,

Zachary
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.hampshire.edu/pipermail/excalibur/attachments/20100609/5380c72e/attachment.htm>