Date of Award

5-2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Computer Science

First Advisor

Dr. Victor Winter

Second Advisor

Dr. William Mahoney

Third Advisor

Dr. Hesham Ali

Abstract

Board games have been challenging intellects and capturing imaginations for more than five thousand years. Researchers have been producing artificially intelligent players for more than fifty. Common artificial intelligence techniques applied to board games use alpha-beta pruning tree search techniques. This paper supplies a frame- work that accommodates many of the diverse aspects of board games, as well as exploring several alternatives for searching out ever better strategies. Techniques examined include optimizing artificial neural networks using genetic algorithms and backpropagation.

Comments

A Thesis Presented to the Department of Computer Science and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Science. Copyright 2011 Ben Horner.

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