Algorithm design discussion:

This discussion is about computational thinking and how a computer scientist may design an algorithm to win a game. There is not going to be one algorithm that will win in all situations, but different algorithms that have various advantages/disadvantages and will win under different situations. If you are unfamiliar with what an algorithm is, see: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question717.htm . In summary, it is a set of steps that a computer will follow to solve a problem.

Imagine that you are part of a team of computer scientists who were just asked to modernize two common children games from the 1990s. To modernize these, you teams tasked with designing an algorithm which will act as the computerized opponent and have the best chance of winning the game.

You need to contribute to the team (the class) by either proposing a new algorithm (by creating a new discussion post) to win the game, by criticizing a proposed algorithm (by responding to an existing discussion post), or correcting an existing algorithm (by responding to an existing criticism post with a new improved algorithm).

If you propose a new algorithm, you should be specific in the steps of the algorithm. Keep in mind this class is diverse, and not everyone has programming experience. Therefore, you should post the steps in a clear way which anyone can understand. There is no need to write any computer language, instead use language anyone could understand. You can elaborate on the steps if you think it will help clarify things. The algorithm does not need to be the best but just a different idea than any other algorithms. For those unfamiliar with programming, it might help if you understand conditional statements (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_(computer_programming) ) as well as loops (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/While_loop).

If you respond to an algorithm with a criticism, you need to explain this criticism with a hypothetical example where your criticism would be true.

If you correct an algorithm, make sure to only correct for the criticism you are responding. We do not want to confuse things by introducing unexplained steps.

As you all can tell, this will be an iterative process. You only need to contribute to one of the three games listed below:

Game 1) Develop an algorithm what will beat a person playing Battleship. (If you are not familiar with the game and the rules, see the description section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_(game). This algorithm will search through the opponents grid by selecting one target square at a time and efficiently win the game.

Game 2) Develop an algorithm that will decide when to buy properties in the game of Monopoly (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)). This algorithm needs to decide if they should buy a vacant property which they land on. It needs to take into consideration, for example, the amount of money the computer has as well as probabilities of someone landing on the property and how much money they would gain from this as well as the probabilities of itself (the computer) landing on other squares and going bacnrupt.