\u201cIt\u2019s a labor of love and also a vehicle for finding projects for my students, especially master\u2019s students,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it\u2019s more than that too. It\u2019s honest-to-goodness artificial intelligence.\u201d The event, sponsored by the International Computer Games Association, pits computer programs against each other to play games ranging from chess and checkers to backgammon, bridge, Scrabble and the traditional Japanese game Go to more obscure games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to find ways to make computers act intelligently,\u201d
\nLorentz explains.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
![\"Lorentz_Kenrokuen_Kanazawa.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/ecs\/pics\/spectra2011\/Lorentz_Kenrokuen_Kanazawa.jpg\" "\\"Lorentz_Kenrokuen_Kanazawa.jpg\\"")
In the most recent Olympiad, held September 24 to October 10, 2010, Lorentz competed in two games, Amazons and Havannah. \u201cI wanted games that computers can\u2019t play well so I could exercise the artificial intelligence part and also that don\u2019t have major teams at universities and companies,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, he was definitely up for the challenge. Although he attended the competition on his own, his work built on that of some former students, one of whom continued to collaborate with him remotely during the meet. In the end, he proved to have the winning formula, capturing a gold medal for Amazons and a silver medal for Havannah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It attracts just a tiny fraction of the attention its famous namesake commands, and most people have never heard of the games it features. But for some of the world\u2019s most elite\u2014and dedicated\u2014artificial intelligence game programmers, the annual International Computer Olympiad, held this past fall in Kanazawa, Japan, is a big deal, attracting contestants from around the world. And for the last six years, one of the most dedicated\u2014and successful\u2014contestants has been CECS\u2019s own Richard Lorentz, a professor of computer science. \u201cIt\u2019s a labor of love and also a vehicle for finding projects for my students, especially master\u2019s students,\u201d he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":456,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/spectra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lorentz_Nemesis.jpg\"](\"http:\/\/www.ecs.csun.edu\/ecs\/pics\/spectra2011\/Lorentz_Nemesis.jpg\" "\\"Lorentz_Nemesis.jpg\\"")
It attracts just a tiny fraction of the attention its famous namesake commands, and most people have never heard of the games it features. But for some of the world\u2019s most elite\u2014and dedicated\u2014artificial intelligence game programmers, the annual International Computer Olympiad, held this past fall in Kanazawa, Japan, is a big deal, attracting contestants from around the world. And for the last six years, one of the most dedicated\u2014and successful\u2014contestants has been CECS\u2019s own Richard Lorentz, a professor of computer science.<\/p>\n