Karel Competition (adapted from Eric Roberts)
Due: April 24, 2008
In addition to teaching basic programming skills, programming Karel can be a lot of fun. This contest gives you the opportunity to explore Karel's world on your own. It is entirely optional, but gives you a chance to improve your grade in the course.
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to program Karel to solve an interesting and exciting problem of your own choosing. You can program Karel to produce the definitive work of computer art, to illustrate a story, or to tackle a conceptually difficult task. The entries will be judged by a group of sophomore, junior, and senior computer science students. Entries will be judged by their
- Aesthetic merit. This encompasses the literary, artistic, or entertainment value of the program.
- Algorithmic sophistication. This is to be understood as a measure of how challenging is the task solved, and how interesting is the solution.
Prizes
The first prize will be an A+ on the final exam. The second place prize will be a 10% bump on your final exam. (This is equivalent to a one grade rise; e.g. a B- becomes an A-.) All other contest entries will receive a consolation prize of an additional 5% on your lowest homework, assuming that the entry is of sufficient quality. (Talk to the instructor if you are unsure about your idea.) Best of luck!
Official rules:
- Only students registered in CSCI 170 are eligible to submit entries in the Karel contest.
- Only one entry per student will be accepted.
- All entries must be submitted to MikeyG by 4:00P.M. on Tuesday, April 24, 2008. Late entries will not be accepted.
- The work must be your own -- conceived, written, and debugged by you. You may talk to your classmates about Karel issues, but not your specific entry. You may talk to your instructor about your entry though he/she reserves the right to limit help.
- Each submission must consist of a USB memory stick, or CD containing an Karel world and program. Memory sticks will be returned to you. In addition, you must submit a short narrative, not to exceed 250 words, describing what the program is doing.
- Contest entries should be sensitive to Xavier's individual and cultural diversity. Programs or narratives that have the effect of perpetuating negative stereotypes will not be considered.
- Contest entries will be evaluated by a group of computer science students. The student evaluators will choose the grand prize winner and runners-up. The instructor reserves the right to award no grand prize if the entries are not sufficiently clever or artistic.
Past contest winning ideas
- A digital clock
- A dynamic word speller
- A Von Neumann based-computer simulator
- The game Battleship
- Pac-Man
Michael Goldweber