Poker Academy Donates $13,000 of Texas Hold’em Software to Lehigh University for Continued Research and Development in Artificial Intelligence
Poker Academy, a leading software developer of poker products, has donated $13,000 in software to Lehigh University for students in computer science and engineering to use in artificial intelligence (AI) research projects.
Minneapolis, MN (PRWEB) February 21, 2005 -- Poker Academy, a leading
software developer of poker products, has donated $13,000 in software to Lehigh
University for students in computer science and engineering to use in artificial
intelligence (AI) research projects.
Hector Munoz-Avila, assistant
professor of computer science and engineering, said the donated software will be
used in “Artificial Intelligence: Game Programming,” a course offered last fall
for the first time that will be taught again next fall.
The goal of the
students using the donated software in the new class, which Munoz-Avila teaches,
will be to make better, more challenging computer games that adapt to a player’s
behavior, style and level of skill.
“Only a few games currently employ
adaptive artificial intelligence, which is also called machine learning,” said
Munoz-Avila, who has a grant from the Naval Research Laboratory to study game
programming. “Most are ‘hard-coded’ to operate at a fixed level or
levels.
“Adaptive AI is code that allows computer software to adapt over
time to a players’ skill levels and even to improvements they make,” said
Munoz-Avila. “A chess game equipped with adaptive AI will ‘dumb down’ in a few
moves against an inexperienced player, but play tougher against a
grandmaster.”
“We are pleased to be part of this on-going research and
development initiative of artificial gaming intelligence,” said Kurt Lange,
president of Poker Academy (www.poker-academy.com). “The AI gaming platform for our poker
product, which was developed over more than 10 years, has computer opponents
that actually think like humans. Since the game gets better as the player
improves, the game is always challenging and thus a very effective learning
tool. We look forward to seeing what the CSE students come up with.”
The
students in Munoz-Avila’s game-programming class study and develop algorithms,
which are methods of encoding programs that tell computers how to solve
problems. The students will use their algorithms to study the software robots,
or bots, that are created to replace human beings in poker, hearts and other
online games.
Other goals of the students will be to determine how
“smart” computers can be made and whether AI gives unfair advantages to the bots
or machines against which humans play computer games.
Munoz-Avila said
that Jarret Raim, a graduate student in computer science, found the Poker
Academy online, looked at its API (application program interface, a way in which
programs communicate), and found it could “talk” to other programs, making it a
good fit for the Lehigh game programming course.
“Our interest is that
this game has a very nice API that we can interface with our machine learning
programs,” said Munoz-Avila.
About Poker Academy
Poker Academy is a
leading software developer of poker products. The company develops the world’s
most advanced Texas Hold’em poker learning tool, Poker Academy Pro, utilizing
world renowned artificial intelligence developed over 10 years, designed to help
users learn, adapt and improve their poker skills. Poker Academy Pro includes No
Limit, Limit and Tournament play along with many feature-rich components. Poker
Academy is headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, and has U.S. office in
Minnetonka, MN. For more details, please visit www.poker-academy.com.
About Lehigh
University
Lehigh University, a nationally ranked teaching and research
institution, offers distinctive interdisciplinary and hands-on programs, at the
undergraduate and graduate levels, in colleges of arts and sciences, business
and economics, education, and engineering and applied science. Lehigh is small
enough for faculty to give students personal attention in classrooms and labs
and large enough to maintain internationally recognized research centers and
institutes in traditional disciplines and emerging fields. Lehigh is located in
Bethlehem, Pa., less than 75 miles from New York City and Philadelphia. For more
details, please visit lehigh.edu.
Media Contacts:
Poker
Academy
Anthony Giombetti
612-269-1894
Lehigh University
Kurt
Pfitzer
610-758-3017
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb210182.htm