Programming Competition

[mtrawls]

Originally Posted by SilverStar

But, this is what I don't know:
- What type of problems?
- Robot-related or general algorithms?
- Everything (almost)!

Anybody have any ideas?

Hrm... I don't know how good participation would be. It sounds interesting to me (though I'm not indicative of others). I do have a few suggestions: traveling salesman problem, showing NP=P. An award of, oh say a million dollars seems reasonable!

On a more productive note, though ... I'd suggest something robotic related, but not necessarily related to this year's challenge. A maze algorithm, some other sort of autonomous program, various sensor inputs, etc. Maybe your robot starts randomly inside a field with a X (reflective tape) in it, and you have to find it somehow. Anything really. Now, the real challenge is to program a simulation system that takes submitted code (say in the form of a Robot_XX class that has some method Do_Whatever()) that interacts with the system, thereby making a consistent testing base for all involved. Wow, that sounds fun ... yeah, I really like that sort of thing, that's how bad I am. (I'd be more than willing to help out the design of such a system if you'd like ... after shipping the robot, of course )