Colloquium Archive

Solving The Knight's Tour With A Genetic Algorithm

Vahl Scott Gordon, California State University, Sacramento

11/20/2003

In this follow-on to last year's presentation, a genetic algorithm is used to to solve the 8x8 knight's tour problem, and its performance is compared against standard depth-first search with backtracking. Depth-first search finds more solutions undercertain conditions, but the genetic algorithm finds solutions more consistently for arbitrary initial conditions.

The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (User Interface Design)

Matt Dewar, Manager Litecraft Group, Alcatel, Petaluma

12/04/2003

One thing all software in use today has in common they all have some sort of userinterface. The user interface is a crucial part of the software package. A product with a good user interface can be more successful than one with a poor user interface even though the latter may be more robust. Today where time-to-market grows shorter and shorter, it is important the user interface be right the first time as we all know there is no second chance to make a first impression. We will discuss: user requirements, usability, color/layout, portability and the semantics therein. Examples will also be shown (some of which you may have already had the pleasure or the pain of using).

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