CSE 1310 - Independent Project Ideas

Here are some projects that students can pursue on their own, after they have completed CSE 1310, so that they can further improve their background and skills.

• Tic Tac Toe.

• Master Mind.

• Graphical User Interfaces.

• The 15 puzzle. Your program should be able to create a solvable puzzle randomly. As the Wikipedia article explains, only half of random arrangements are solvable, but you should be able to write a boolean function that determines if a random arrangement is solvable. Then, your program should be able to allow the user to enter moves so as to solve the puzzle. This program is probably best suited for a graphical interface (where the user clicks on the piece they want to move), it is rather user-unfriendly as a text-based program.

• Other board games, including:
  • The Reversi game, also known as the Othello game. This is actually a board game that I prefer playing on the computer, because it is a pain (and error prone) to keep changing the colors on a real board.
  • The Connect 4 game.
  For each game, you can follow the same development stages as for Tic Tac Toe:
  • First, write a text-based program that allows two humans to play against each other. The program should allow users to enter moves by specifying (with two numbers for Reversi, with one number for Connect 4) the move they want to make. The program should also ensure that moves are legal, should keep track of the score, and should detect when the game is over.
  • Second, extend the program so that the human can play against the computer. Implementing really smart players is beyond the skill sets that we developed in CSE 1310. However, you should be able to implement a player that makes legal moves, and that does at least a bit better than making random choices, and perhaps even a player that can routinely defeat 6-year olds :)
  • Third, you can make a user-friendly graphical interface for your game.

I am always happy to talk to former CSE 1310 students who decide to work on these (or similar) projects. So, if you want to discuss your progress on these projects, or brainstorm for new project ideas, just come by my office, or send me an e-mail.