Teaching Genetic Algorithm-based Parameter Optimization Using Pacman

Previous artificial intelligence education research (DeNero and Klein, 2010) has used the classic video game Pacman to teach introductory artificial intelligence concepts. One of the advantages of the work proposed in (DeNero and Klein, 2010) is that the same framework, in this case using the video game Pacman, can be used for different student assignments covering different artificial intelligence algorithms and methods. The issue of how to use the same practical framework is an important one, because if students have to learn a different framework for every assignment they will often feel discouraged. For this reason, the main contribution of this paper is to present a practical assignment to teach students about genetic algorithm based parameter optimization using the Pacman framework.