EA Sponsors Tank Wars Competition

Electronic Arts is sponsoring a Tank Wars competition for university students who are enrolled in qualified computer science programs at invitation only campuses. The schools who have been invited to this competition are: University of Central Florida, University of Florida, Florida Institute of Technology, University of Southern California, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Carnegie Mellon University, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan. The contest involves the development and writing of an A.I. (artificial intelligence) program that will direct a tank to defeat an enemy tank. The last tank standing, or rolling in this case, is the winner. The test of A.I. codes will be held in a virtual world measuring 100m by 100m. The loser is determined when its fuel supply is depleted or until its 1000 hit point allotment reaches zero. The A.I. tanks will have to do certain tasks extremely well in order to be successful such as: accurately detect the presence and location of the enemy tank, knowing where its own location is in relationship to the virtual world, fuel management and choosing an effective defensive or offensive strategy to out maneuver and defeat the other tank. The A.I. programs will have to do literally millions of calculations concerning many other details in addition to the basics. E.A. will provide the software code that the entrants will use to assemble their A.I. tank programs free of charge. All the individual participants and school teams will own all intellectual property of their programs. The individual and school team awards will win computer equipment workstations. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!