Nothing gets students more motivated than the possibility of prizes and eternal
fame and fortune—that, or possibly free beer—and two competitions have kicked off to get students developing game
AI.
Microsoft's Imagine Cup, a worldwide
technology competition, encourages students to enter one of several categories to win cash prizes: the Project
Hoshimi Programming Battle pits teams of 1-2 programmers against each other to see who has the best code in a
fictional scenario. There's a total of $15,000 prize money in the Project Hoshimi section alone.
EA have also announced their Tank Wars
competition, open to computer science students from selected schools in the US, Canada and the UK. The rules
explain that students will have to write tank programs which will battle each other for ultimate supremacy—the ultimate
prize is a workstation for both you and your university, as well as a set of EA games.
It looks to be an interesting way to get into AI or games programming, if you fit the criteria and have time to spare,
so good luck to anyone who does enter.
Engadget
TUAW