A friend of a couple of us from the CUNY Games Network will be speaking at New York City College of Technology. Way cool!
(from the CUNY Events Calendar)
Games such as chess and checkers have always been considered an excellent testbed for developments in computer science, particularly artificial intelligence. It had been proposed that if one could get a computer to play chess at the level of top human players, the very core of human creative endeavors would be challenged. Top chess programs today play on a par with human World Champions, but not be the same methods. This talk will lend insight into the differences between how strong chess is played by humans and machines. Checkers was one of the earliest advanced games tackled by computer programs starting with the work of Arthur Samuel in 1959. The significance of Samuel’s work leading to Schaeffer’s CHINOOK program’s conquest of the Checker’s World Championship will be discussed, culminating in the solving of the game of checkers in 2007. The state of the art in other advanced computer games that will be discussed include Backgammon, Othello, Bridge and Poker. Dr. Daniel Kopec has published more than 80 academic articles on computer chess, AI, intelligent tutoring systems, computer science education, medical errors and complex system failures. He was greater New York high school chess champion at 14, master at 17 and international chess master (1985). He was Scottish chess champion (1980, 1981) and placed second in the Canadian Chess Championship (1984). He is the author or co-author of six chess books and eight instructional chess DVDs totaling 18.5 hours. He has been organizing and running summer chess camps since 1994. He speaks French, German, Russian, Slovak and English. Education: Ph.D., University of Edinburgh – 1983 (Computer Science) B.A., Dartmouth College – 1975 (Psychology modified with math)
Date: October 25, 2011
Time: 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
College: New York City College of Technology
Address: 300 Jay Street, Brooklyn
Building: Namm
Room: 718
Address:
300 Jay Street
