Teaching Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Via Games

Abstract

The Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California recently created two new degree programs, namely a Bachelor's Program in Computer Science (Games) and a Master's Program in Computer Science (Game Development). In this paper, we discuss two projects that use games as motivator. First, the Computer Games in the Classroom Project develops stand-alone projects on standard artificial intelligence topics that use video-game technology to motivate the students but do not require the students to use game engines. Second, the Pinball Project develops the necessary hardware and software to enable students to learn concepts from robotics by developing games on actual pinball machines.