The Scientific Community Game: Education and

Innovation Through Survival in a Virtual World of Claims

The Scientific Community Game: Education and

Innovation Through Survival in a Virtual World of Claims

Karl LieberherrNortheastern University

College of Computer and Information ScienceBoston, MA

joint work with Ahmed Abdelmeged and Bryan Chadwick

Karl LieberherrNortheastern University

College of Computer and Information ScienceBoston, MA

joint work with Ahmed Abdelmeged and Bryan Chadwick

Supported by Novartis

Why Scientific Community Game(SCG)

• … motives in academic publishing: – desire for recognition and respect from the people

one regards as peers, – desire to have impact (on conclusions being

reached, on the development of the discipline, etc.), and

– desire to participate in significant knowledge-building discourse.

• e.g., Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994)

Intro SCG 2

SCG is Bio-inspired

• Virtual world of scholars based on natural selection– propose, oppose (refute and strengthen) claims– maximize reputation, weak scholars are removed.

• Turn problem-solving software into virtual organisms that fend for themselves and survive in a virtual world inhabited by virtual organisms created by your peers.

Intro SCG 3

SCG is a web-based implementation of Karl Popper’s science ideas

• One of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century.

• Falsifiability or refutability is the logical possibility that an assertion could be shown false by a particular observation or physical experiment.

• Error elimination (refutation), performs a similar function for science that natural selection performs for biological evolution.

Intro SCG 4from Wikipedia

Comparison

• Karl Popper: Conjectures and Refutations• Scientific Community Game: Claims and

Refutations

Intro SCG 5

Recognition in SCG

• Scholars build their reputation by proposing and opposing claims, by defending their own claims and refuting or strengthening the claims of others.

• The higher their reputation, the more recognition.

Intro SCG 6

Impact in SCG

• Second-order environment– what one scholar does in adapting, changes the

environment so that others must readapt.

• Developing novel techniques to find superior solutions, challenges others to catch up.

Intro SCG 7

Knowledge-Building Discourse in SCG

• Communication or debate.• Refutation protocol defines the structure of

the debate and who wins. Claims are defined through a refutation protocol.

• Knowledge-building:– claims that have been defended predominantly

are candidates for truth– claims that have been refuted predominantly are

probably false.Intro SCG 8

Goals of SCG

• Put knowledge-building discourse on the web giving participants the option to gain recognition and to have impact.

• Focus the discourse through precise definition of claims with refutation protocols.

• Make knowledge building discourse fun and educational from the high school to the advanced research level.

Intro SCG 9

SCG = Scientific Community Game = Specker Challenge Game

What do we mean by science?

• Science consists of the formulation and testing of hypotheses based on observational evidence.

• Ours: Science consists of the formulation and testing of constructive claims based on observational evidence. Construction is computable.

Intro SCG 10

What do we mean by Scientific Method

• Hypothetico-deductive method: Formulate a hypothesis in a form that could conceivably be falsified by a test on observable data.

• Ours: Formulate a constructive claim in a form that could conceivably be falsified by a test using a protocol. The refutation protocol is part of the claim to make very explicit when refutation is successful.

Intro SCG 11

SCG claim examples

• SCG Claim– AlgorithmicClaim

• solve problems of kind D with quality q and resource r• have polynomial time algorithm to solve problems of kind D

with quality q

– MathematicalClaim• for all x in X exists y in Y: predicate(x,y)

– SoftwareClaim• solve problems of kind D with maintainability m• you cannot break into a system of kind D using resource r

SCG claim examples

– FinancialClaim• if you pay me k dollars (option premium) today, I will

promise to buy q shares of stock S up to day d at price p (strike price). Purpose: insurance.

– ExperimentalClaim• If I am given raw materials x in X, I can produce product

y in Y of quality q and using resources at most r.

Intro SCG 14

Tartaglia against Fior1535

Tartaglia was famed for his algebraic solution of cubic equations which was published in Cardan's Ars Magna.

Outline

• Introduction– Popper Science, Renaissance History: Tartaglia and Fior

• Definition of SCG– Example (Highest safe rung)

• Applications: Teaching, Software Development, Research• Claims with secrets and other protocol variants• Output of SCG, Equilibrium• Advantages and Disadvantages• Conclusions

Intro SCG 15

Definition of SCG: Domain

• Problem: Set• Solution: Set• valid: relation(Problem, Solution)• quality: function(Problem, Solution)->[0..1]

16Intro SCG

Claim(Domain)

• Problems: Powerset(Domain.Problem)• q: Quality = [0,1]• r: Resource = N+ = positive integer

Alice claims to have a technique to solve problems in Problemswith at least quality q and using at most resources r.

17Intro SCG

makes predictionsabout the future

Implied Protocol of Claim(Domain)

• Alice claims (problems,q,r), Bob refutes• Bob provides problem prob in Claim.Problems. • Alice solves problem prob providing sol in

Domain.Solution.• check: valid(prob,sol) and quality(prob,sol)>=q and

sol.resource<=r.• sol.resource returns Alice’ resource consumption to

solve problem prob.

18Intro SCG

Karl Popper: Only hypotheses capable of clashing with observation reports are allowed to count as scientific.

Claim

• Problems: subset of problems• quality in [0,1]

Intro SCG 19

0

1

quality(how wellproblems inProblems can be solved)

Claim

Intro SCG 2020

0

1

qualitystrengthening

correct valuation

over strengthening

Bio-inspired computing: Virtual World of SCG-Avatar

• SCG-Avatar (Claim(Domain))– State: Reputation = positive rational number– Activity

• propose new claims• oppose claims of others

– refute claim(Problems, q, r)– strengthen claim(Problems, q’, r’), q’>q or r’<r

• Reputation gain: refute others’ claims and defend own claims (counter refutation attempts)

• Reputation loss: unsuccessful refutation of other’s claim and refutation of own claims

21Intro SCG

Tournament 1. round-robin2. Swiss-style3. elimination

1. single2. double

22Intro SCG

Summary of SCG Definitions

Domain Problem Solution valid(Problem, Solution) quality(Problem, Solution) →[0,1]

23Intro SCG

Claim(Domain) Problems: PowerSet(Domain.Problem) q: Quality = [0,1] r: Resource = N+

Rules of the Scientific Community: propose and oppose,be an active scholar, rules for reputation accumulation.

Tournaments

Highest Safe Rung

• You are doing stress-testing on various models of glass jars to determine the height from which they can be dropped and still not break. The setup for this experiment, on a particular type of jar, is as follows.

Intro SCG 24

Highest Safe Rung

Only two identical bottles to determinehighest safe rung

Alice Bob

25Intro SCG

You have a ladder with n rungs, and you want to find the highest rung from which you can drop a copy of the jar and not have it break. We call this the highest safe rung. You have a fixed ``budget'' of k > 0 jars.

Highest Safe Rung

Only two identical bottles to determinehighest safe rung

HSR(9,2) ≤ 4 I doubt it: refutation attempt!

Alice Bob

Alice constructsdecision tree T ofdepth 4 and gives itto Bob. He checkswhether T is valid.Bob wins if he findsa flaw.

26Intro SCG

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Highest Safe Rung Decision TreeHSR(9,2)=5

27Intro SCG

Formal: HSR

• Domain: – Problem: (n,k), k <= n.– Solution: Decision tree to determine highest safe

rung.– quality(problem, solution): depth of decision tree /

number of rungs– valid(problem, solution): at most k left branches, ...

28Intro SCG

Formal: HSR

• Claim(Domain): – Alice claims ({(25,2)},9/25,5 seconds)

• {(25,2)}: set of problems (singleton)• 9/25: quality• 5 seconds: resource

• Refutation Protocol:– Bob refutes: only one problem: (25,2)– Alice: solves problem by providing decision tree t.– predicate: t is a valid decision tree for (25,2) of depth 9

Intro SCG 29

SCG(HSR)

Karl Lieberherr

04/18/23 SCG(HSR) 30

Overview

• Showing Scientific Community game in action as a board game.

• Want to play the game in class.

04/18/23 SCG(HSR) 31

Highest Safe Rung

• You are doing stress-testing on various models of glass jars to determine the height from which they can be dropped and still not break. The setup for this experiment, on a particular type of jar, is as follows.

SCG(HSR) 3204/18/23

Highest Safe Rung

Only two identical bottles to determinehighest safe rung (k=2)

Alice Bob

33SCG(HSR)

You have a ladder with n rungs, and you want to find the highest rung from which you can drop a copy of the jar and not have it break. We call this the highest safe rung. You have a fixed ``budget'' of k > 0 jars.

04/18/23

Highest Safe Rung

Only two identical bottles to determinehighest safe rung

HSR(9,2) ≤ 4 I doubt it: refutation attempt!

Alice Bob

Alice constructsdecision tree T ofdepth 4 and gives itto Bob. He checkswhether T is valid.Bob wins if he findsa flaw.

34SCG(HSR)04/18/23

SCG Scenario

• Interactions between scholars Alice and Bob. Admin Nina gives grade to performance of Alice and Bob.

04/18/23 35SCG(HSR)

HSR(n,k) ≤ q

• There exists a valid decision tree DT-HSR(n,k) of depth q to solve HSR(n,k) so that for all ladders with n rungs and for all secret rungs s, the decision tree DT-HSR(n,k) correctly identifies s.

04/18/23 36SCG(HSR)

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depth is 3

Linear Search: HSR(4,1)=4

04/18/23 SCG(HSR)

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Binary Search: HSR(4,2)=2

1

04/18/23 SCG(HSR)

Pos. HSR Use Case: HSR(n,k) <= q

• Name: HSR• Participating actors: Alice, Bob and Nina.• Entry condition: n,k,q are given; k<=n, q<=n,

refuter defined: Bob.• Flow of events

04/18/23 39SCG(HSR)

Pos. HSR Use Case (continued)

• Flow of events– Alice claims HSR(n,k)<=q.– Bob tries to refute. Bob asks for

program/algorithm for (n,k) (ProvideProblem).– Alice provides program/algorithm (SolveProblem).– Bob/Nina check correctness of

program/algorithm.– Nina gives grade based on whether

program/algorithm is correct and of predicted quality.

04/18/23 40SCG(HSR)

Pos. HSR Use Case (continued)

• Exit condition: winner and loser are determined.

• Quality requirements: programming language, computational model: decision tree

04/18/23 41SCG(HSR)

Neg. HSR Use Case: HSR(n,k) > q

• Name: HSR-neg• Participating actors: Alice, Bob and Nina.• Entry condition: n,k,q are given; k<=n, q<=n,

refuter defined: Bob.• Flow of events

04/18/23 42SCG(HSR)

Neg. HSR Use Case (continued)

• Flow of events– Alice claims HSR(n,k)>q.– Bob tries to refute. Alice asks for program/algorithm

for (n,k) (ProvideProblem).– Bob provides program/algorithm (SolveProblem).– Alice/Nina check correctness of program/algorithm. If

depth of decision tree is <= q, refutation is successful.– Nina gives grade based on whether

program/algorithm is correct and of predicted quality.

04/18/23 43SCG(HSR)

Neg. HSR Use Case (continued)

• Exit condition: winner and loser are determined.

• Quality requirements: programming language, computational model: decision tree

04/18/23 44SCG(HSR)

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HSR(x,1)<=x

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04/18/23 SCG(HSR)

Bob has the following claims

• HSR(4,1)<=4• HSR(9,2)<=4• HSR(9,2)<=3• HSR(8,3)<=3• HSR(4,2)<=2• HSR(11,2)<=4• HSR(12,2)<=4

Alice makes a decision for each claim:defendable/refutable (refute function)

defendable:Alice provides decision tree and Bob cannot finda bug.

refutable:Bob provides decision tree and Alice finds a bug.

To make the game more interesting:defendable claims are treated first

04/18/23 46SCG(HSR)

If defendable, can it be strengthened?

Play Game in class(abbreviated rules)

• Role Alice (1-3 students from class)• Role Bob (the rest of class)• Role Nina (3 students from class)• Alice chooses two claims: HSR(9,2)<=3,

HSR(11,2)<=4 that she thinks she can refute.• Now play!

Intro SCG 47

Who is the winner?

• Nina keeps score.• Initially Alice and Bob have 10 points.

Intro SCG 48

Bob has the following claims

• HSR(4,1)<=4• HSR(9,2)<=4• HSR(9,2)<=3• HSR(8,3)<=3• HSR(4,2)<=2• HSR(11,2)<=4• HSR(12,2)<=4

Alice makes a decision for each claim:defendable/refutable (refute function)

defendable:Alice provides decision tree and Bob cannot finda bug.

refutable:Bob provides decision tree and Alice finds a bug.

To make the game more interesting:defendable claims are treated first

04/18/23 49SCG(HSR)

Focus on

• HSR(11,2)<=4– Alice provides decision tree.

• HSR(12,2)<=4

04/18/23 50SCG(HSR)

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Highest Safe Rung Decision TreeHSR(9,2)=5

51SCG(HSR)04/18/23

Bob, Nina check: refutation by Bob successful. Alice loses.Alice: 2 points, Bob 10 points

How could Alice have won?

Magic for now

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HSR(11,2)<=4

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Principle of Algorithm Design

• Instead of focusing on what changes from level to level, focus on what stays the same.

• Find the invariant.

Initial Project Description

• http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/lieber/courses/se-courses/cs5500/sp11/projects/problem-statement.html

04/18/23 SCG(HSR) 54

Outline

• Introduction– Popper Science, Renaissance History: Tartaglia and Fior

• Definition of SCG– Example (Highest safe rung)

• Applications: Teaching, Software Development, Research• Claims with secrets and other protocol variants• Output of SCG, Equilibrium• Advantages and Disadvantages• Conclusions

Intro SCG 55

Applications: Software Development

• Software Development• Teaching Constructive Domains

Intro SCG 56

Gamification of Software Development etc.

• Want reliable software to solve a computational problem? Design a game where the winning team will create the software you want.

• Want to teach a STEM domain? Design a game where the winning students demonstrate superior domain knowledge.

Intro SCG

Doesn’t TopCoder already do this?

STEM = Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

57

SCG and TopCoder

• SCG is an abstraction and generalization of what TopCoder does.

Intro SCG 58

The Traditional Approach

Solver A

Static Benchmark

Solver B

Solver C

Team A

Team B

Team C

Parameterized by the domain.

Software: Solving HSR Problem:construct decision tree of min. depth

measure how closeto minimumHSR(9,2)=4

HSR(25,2)=7

Ranking

60Intro SCG

The Bio-Inspired Approach

Team ASolver A

prop-opp A

Team CSolver C

prop-opp C

Team BSolver B

prop-opp B

VirtualWorld

(Game)Ranking

Parameterized by the domain.

AvatarA

AvatarC

AvatarB

DynamicBenchmark

61Intro SCG

A Virtual WorldAvatar’s View

Administrator

Avatar

Opponents’ communication,Feedback

Claims,Problems,Solutions

Results

• Problems: Benchmark output• Solutions: Software output• Claims: statements about algorithms

62Intro SCG

What Scholars think about!

• If I propose claim C, what is the probability that– C is successfully refuted– C is successfully strengthened

• If I try to refute claim C, what is the probability that I will fail.

• If I try to strengthen claim C, what is the probability that I will fail?

63Intro SCG

SCG = Scientific Community Game

• Make software development more scientific.• Software developers build reputation

– propose and defend claims about their software– oppose claims made by others

• refute claims• strengthen claims

• claim includes refutation protocol

Intro SCG 64

Who are Alice and Bob?

• They are avatars developed by real Alice and real Bob.

• Alice and Bob compete with 10 other avatars in a full-round robin tournament.

• Who is the winner: The avatar with the highest reputation, i.e., the avatar who has the strongest, not successfully opposed claims (like in a real scientific community).

Intro SCG 65

Why a web application with avatars? Fair Evaluation.

What is SCG(X)

Intro SCG 66

no automationhuman plays

full automationavatar plays

degree of automation used by scholar

our focus

some automationhuman plays

0 1

more applications:test constructive knowledge

transfer to reliable, efficient software

avatar Bob

Alice

Real Scholars and Avatars:Same rules

• Are encouraged to 1. propose claims that are not easily strengthened.2. offer claims that they can successfully support.3. strengthen others’ claims, if possible. 4. stay active and propose new strong claims or

oppose others’ claims.5. become famous!

67Intro SCG

What we want

• Engage software developers– let them produce software that models an

organism that fends for itself in a real virtual world while producing the software we want. Have fun. Focus them.

– let them propose claims about the software they produce. Reward them when they

• defend their claims successfully or • oppose the claims of others successfully.

Intro SCG 68

Clear Feedback Sense of Progress

Possibility of Success

Authenticity (Facebook)

SCG

• Gamification of software development for computational problems

• A Sociotechnical System for knowledge dissemination, innovation, and integration

69Intro SCG

Software Engineering Properties fostered by SCG

• Reliable (otherwise the avatar is removed from the game)

• Flexible, modular (otherwise the avatar cannot be easily updated between tournaments)

• Efficient (otherwise you cannot defend your claims and oppose the claims of others)

Intro SCG 71

Adaptive and Aspect-Oriented Software is relevant!

State of SCG-Avatar: Our Vision

• Companies come to SCG website and define a competition by defining a claim domain X.

• Participating teams get baby avatars generated from X that participate in daily competitions.

• Competition generates a wealth of information: educated employees, good (undefeated) software, good algorithms, good potential employees. Reward is paid to the winner.

Intro SCG 72

State of SCG-Avatar: Our Vision

• Not only companies but faculty members who want to give their students a rich learning experience for computational problem X.

• Or editors of special issues in journals who want to use a competition to get a real world comparison of all approaches to solve computational problem X.

Intro SCG 73

Avatars propose and oppose

Intro SCG 74

CA1

CA2

CA3

CA4

egoisticAlice egoistic

Bob

reputation 1000 reputation 10

CB1

CB2

opposes (1)

provides problem (2)

solves problem

not as well as she expected based on CA2 (3)WINS!LOSES

proposed claims

transfer 200

social welfare

Life of an avatar: (propose+ oppose+ provide* solve*)*

What is SCG(X)?

TeamsDesign Problem Solver

Develop SoftwareDeliver Avatar

Avatar Alice Avatar Bob

Administrator SCG police

I am the best No!!

Let’s play constructively

75Intro SCG

TeamAlice

TeamBob

competitive / collaborative

Intro SCG 76

Avatar Alice: claim C

Avatar Bob: opposes C, refutes: providesevidence for !C

loses reputation r wins knowledge k

wins reputation r makes public knowledge k

Outline

• Introduction– Popper Science, Renaissance History: Tartaglia and Fior

• Definition of SCG– Example (Highest safe rung)

• Applications: Teaching, Software Development, Research• Claims with secrets and other protocol variants• Output of SCG, Equilibrium• Advantages and Disadvantages• Conclusions

Intro SCG 77

Protocol Variants

• secrets: approximation problems• involving trusted third party

– renaissance: exchange of problems

Intro SCG 78

Example: Triple HSR

• Alice claims ({(25,2,0), (25,2,1), (25,2,2), (25,2,3), … ,(25,2,25)},9/25, 5 seconds)

• Refutation Protocol:– Bob refutes (25,2,17)– Alice solves problems (25,2,*) by providing

decision tree to trusted third party which reveals path p from root to 17.

– predicate: p is valid and length(p) <= 9

79Intro SCG

Highest Safe Rung

Protocol Variation Secrets

• problem has public and private part, private part is a secret solution

• predicate has secret as argument

80Intro SCG

Protocol Variation Secret Program for SCG-Avatar

• problem has public and private part, private part is a secret solution and goes to administrator

• Alice gives her algorithm to administrator who applies it to public part of problem

• predicate has secret as argument

81Intro SCG

Example Claims involving secrets

• My algorithm can solve more problems using resources r than your algorithm using r.

• If I create problems for you for which I have a solution, you cannot recreate or approximate the solution with quality q using resources r.

82Intro SCG

Output and Equilibrium

• Rich tournament history• What is an equilibrium in SCG?

Intro SCG 83

Soundness Theorem

• SCG is sound: The avatar with the best algorithms / knowledge wins (there is no way to cheat)– best: within the group of participating avatars– issues:

• Does an avatar win because she is good at solving? Or good at proposing, opposing and providing? Answer: proposing, opposing and providing all reduce to solving.

Intro SCG 84

SCG Equilibrium

• reputations of scholars are stable• the ranking of the scholars is invariant from

tournament to tournament• the science does not progress; bugs are not

fixed, no new ideas are introduced• extreme example: All scholars are perfect:

they propose optimal claims C(ps,q) that can neither be strengthened nor refuted.

Intro SCG 85

• [Scientific Innovation in X] Avatars get skills programmed into them by clever scientists in domain X. Scientists use data mining to learn from competitions and manually improve the avatars.

• [Machine Learning Innovation in X] Avatars get skills programmed into them by an avatar caregiver programmed with learning skills and data mining skills for domain X. Avatar gets updated automatically.

Survival in SCG(X)

86Intro SCG

second-order environment!

Blame assignment

• Where is the proposer to blame?– Bad claim that is refuted.

– Bug in problem finding algorithm?

– Bug in problem solving algorithm?

87Intro SCG

How to use SCG(X)• Company AB needs new ideas about how to

solve optimization problems in domain X.• Define claims language for X

– X-problems– claims, includes protocol

• Submit claims language definition to SCG server.

88Intro SCG

How to use SCG(X)• Offer prize money for winner with conditions,

e.g., performance must be at least 10% higher as performance of avatar XY that AB provides.

• 10 teams from 6 countries sign up, committing to 6 competitions. Player executables become known to other players after each competition. One team from company AB.

• The SCG server sends them the basic avatar and the administrator for testing.

89Intro SCG

How to use SCG(X)

• Game histories known to all. Data mining!• First competition is at 23.59 on day 1.

Registration starts at 18.00 on same day. The competition lasts 2.5 hours.

• Repeat on days 7, 14, … 42.• The final winner is: Team Mumbai, winning

10000 Euro. Delivers source code and design document describing winning algorithm to AB.

90Intro SCG

Benefits for company AB of using SCG(X)

• Teams perform know-how retrieval and integration and maybe some research. – Participating teams try to find the best knowledge in

the area.– Claims language gives control!

• The non-refuted claims give hints about new X-specific knowledge.

• A well-tested solver for X-problems that integrates the current algorithmic knowledge in field X.

91Intro SCG

Outline

• Introduction– Popper Science, Renaissance History: Tartaglia and Fior

• Definition of SCG– Example (Highest safe rung)

• Applications: Teaching, Software Development, Research• Claims with secrets and other protocol variants• Output of SCG, Equilibrium• Advantages and Disadvantages• Conclusions

Intro SCG 92

Benefits/Disadvantages

• Benefits– competitive / collaborative– structured feedback, game history– Teaching– Research– Software Development

• Dynamic testing and evaluation

• Disadvantages– addictive

Intro SCG 93

Disadvantages of SCG

• The game is addictive. After Bob having spent 4 hours to fix his avatar and still losing against Alice, Bob really wants to know why!

• Overhead to learn to define and participate in competitions.

• The administrator for SCG(X) must perfectly supervise the game. Includes checking the legality of X-problems.– if admin does not, cheap play is possible– watching over the admin

94Intro SCG

How to compensatefor those disadvantages

• Warn the scholars.• Use a gentleman’s security policy: report

administrator problems, don’t exploit them to win.

• Occasionally have a non-counting “attack the administrator” competitions to find vulnerabilities in administrator.– both generic as well as X-specific vulnerabilities.

95Intro SCG

Benefits of SCG

• Social Welfare – Supported knowledge

• Claims are refuted and strengthened.• Better supported knowledge comes from better

algorithms and software.96Intro SCG

Advantage: Democratic

• Problem to be solved: Develop the best practical algorithms for solving computational problems in domain X.

• Issue: There are probably hundreds of papers on the topic with isolated implementations. What are the best practical algorithms?

• Our solution: Use the scientific community game SCG(X) with a suitably designed claims language to compare the software. The winning avatar has the best practical algorithms/software.

97Intro SCG

Experience with MAX-CSP

• MAX-CSP Problem Decompositions• T-Ball (one relation), Softball (several

relations, one implication tree), Baseball (several relations).

• ALL, SECRET

98Intro SCG

Stages for SECRET T-Ball

• MAXCUT – R(x,y)= x!=y– fair coin ½ – maximally biased coin ½ – semi-definite programming / eigenvalue

minimization 0.878

99Intro SCG

Stages for SECRET T-Ball

• One-in-three– R(x,y,z) = (x+y+z=1)– fair coin: 0.375– optimally biased coin: 0.444

100Intro SCG

Stages for ALL Baseball

• Propose/Oppose/Provide/Solve – based on fair coin– optimally biased coin

• correctly optimize polynomials

– correctly eliminate noise relations– correctly implement weights– …

101Intro SCG

References

• Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge (1963).

• Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter, C. (1994). Computer support for knowledge-building communities. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 3(3), 265-283.

• Renaissance: Tartaglia and Fior challenge (1535).

Intro SCG 102

Conclusions• To address a problem domain X:

– “map it to second life”: define a scientific community game for X on the web: SCG(X)

– let the game SCG(X) run a few times and choose the winner

• Benefits– Evaluates fairly, frequently, constructively and

dynamically. Encourages retrieval of state-of-the-art know-how, integration and discovery.

– Challenges humans, drives innovation, both competitive and collaborative.

– Avatars point humans to what needs attention in problem solution / software.

Intro SCG 103

Conclusions

• Broad applicability, e.g.,• SCG(X) provides a software process for

developing software for computational problems.

• Benefits– Social Engineering: makes it fun through game.– Fair: Only hard work makes you win.– Engage a large community on one domain X.

Intro SCG 104

end

Intro SCG 105

State of Avatar SCG

• Domain is hard-wired to Constraint Satisfaction Problems

• One Master student worked on making it generic but work is not complete.

Intro SCG 106