Universiteit Maastricht
Scrabble, Maven, word games, artificial intelligence.
Promotie mr. Brian Sheppard
in de Faculteit der Algemene Wetenschappen.
Promotores: Prof.dr. H.J. van den Herik; Prof.dr. J. Schaeffer, Univ. of
Alberta.
Titel: Towards Perfect Play of Scrabble.
vrijdag 5 juli 2002 12.00 uur
This research has explored the methods that computers can use to play the
Scrabble brand board game. There are several methods which, when combined,
yield a level of skill that surpasses the strongest human players. Further
refinements of these techniques promise to produce practically perfect play.
Some of the methods can be applied only to Scrabble or similar word games,
but other methods have greater generality and applicability. This work is a
good example of how general-purpose techniques can be specialized to exploit
the peculiarities of a problem.