Graham Kendall

(Academic Year 1998/99)

Introduction

This page details the third year individual projects that are/have been supervised by Graham Kendall who is a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Nottingham. This page contains details of projects supervised in the academic year 2001/02.

The main project page can be found here.

Downloadable Dissertations

Some of the projects are available for download, so that you can view them. This facility is for current third year students, being supervised by me, who can use previous dissertations for their own research and also to look at previous dissertations to see how to lay them out etc. (it also saves the inevitable requests I receive asking to see a "good" project from last year, with the risk that I never see it again!).

As such, these files are password protected and, to get the username/password you need to EMAIL me. People outside of the university will not be given access.

In addition, I cannot give access to those students outside of my tutor group. You should approach your own tutor to get copies of previous dissertations they have supervised.

Note : I cannot make the files available in formats other than those already supplied.

3rd Year Projects Supervised in 1998/99

1. Optical Character Recognition via a Neural Network
   Project Never Submitted

2. Computer Draughts Player by John Templeman
   Abstract : This dissertation documents the designing and building an intelligent Draughts playing computer with network capabilities. The computer uses Artificial Intelligence techniques to search large trees typical of game play. These tress are sufficiently large that no brute force evaluation of the entire tree would be feasible.
   
   The aim is to provide an easy to use program that provides a decent standard of play for the novice and intermediate players alike. The program must be aesy to use and configurable. The project requires that the optimal balance of search method, heuristics and evaluation be selected.

3. InfoAgent: An Agent System for the Continuos Updating of Data Over the Internet by Carl Sheldrick
   Abstract : Not Provided

4. ARPS : Advanced Rummy Playing System by Oliver Jauncey
   Abstract : This project investigates the use of genetic algorithms to rpoduce a gin rummy playing agent. The system is written in C++ and comprises several modules. There are modules to create random populations, evolve populations and test the relative ability of populations by playing them against each other.

5. Using Meta-Heuristic Algorithms to solve Generic Timetabling Problems by Neil Davies
   Abstract : This project sets out to achieve three aims. Firstly to conduct a study into timetables, what they are, the scenarios in which they are used and the various research methods used to automate the construction of these timetables. The second aim is to produce a piece of software that uses the most suitable methods from this study to produce generaic timetables for use in everyday scenarios. The final aim of this project is to test such methids for various different timetabling scenarios and present the reader with conclusions regards their functionality in these scenarios.
   
   The concept of a timetable is introduced in section one, along with current timetabling scenarios, research conducted into this field and the software available for automated timetabling. The second section discusses the various types of constraints that can be placed upon the timetable, categorising the constraints by type. The third section discusses the methods of generating these timetables, and a discussion as to what makes one timetable better than another can be found in the fourth section.
   
   Timetable representation within a suitable datatype is discussed in section five, before a specification for the software produced is drawn up in section six. The design and implementation of the software can be found in sections seven and eight, with the results of various timetabling scenarios discussed in section nine.
   
   Finally, a project sumary can be found in the final section ten, including how the software can be improved and extended, along with a personal reflection upon the project's success.

Last Updated 15th June 2001