We've moved!

This is no longer the current website for information on the Penn Dining Philosophers or the PClassic.

Please visit the new Dining Philosophers website

PClassic 2012 will be on February 18, 2012. Email pclassic@gmail.com if you are interested in participating.

PClassic 2010 Winners:

In first place, with 37 points, was Horace Mann's Fluffy Bunnies, consisting of:
Gabi Rivkin
Greg Heon
Brandon Sosa-Lederhouse
Robert Davies

In second place, with 15 points, was Horace Mann's Horace Mann A, consisting of:
Erika Whitestone
Zach Rivkin
Pam Mishkin
Aaron Orwasher

In third place, with 13 points, was Friends Select's Falcons, consisting of:
Haydn Dufrene
Min-hee Lee
Jenn Shen
Arman Dezfuli-Arjomandi

All of us here at Penn really loved hosting all teams this year, we had a great time, and we hope to see you all again next year!

Snakeathon Results

Bright and early at 2PM on a Saturday, teams of Snakeathoners descended upon the Moore 100 Lab. Instructions were given out, a short demonstration and algorithm walk-through was held, and the Snakeathon begun.

3 rounds, 8 and a half hours of coding, 6 pizzas and 20-some ounces of coffee later, the winners emerged - the few, the proud, the top Snake Bot in each category. The Dining Philosophers and WICS officially congratulate:

Alen Kubati and Preetam D'Souza for their AlenPreenamBot, which took First Place in both the Single Player and FFA Vector Snake rounds,

Robert Mead, whose SexyGameBot took First Place in the Multi-Player Round, and

Jim Grandpre, whose JBot took second place in both the Single Player and Multi-Player rounds.

How it Went:
Contestants (in teams of one or two) were given a Snake-Playing Framework and a simple API to plug their bot in, in Java. In the allotted 3 hours, contestants had to implement a Snake-Playing bot and submit it to the live leaderboard, in a netflix-on-steroids style AI hackathon. As contestants began hacking away at the problem, the provided SampleBot dominated the charts for the initial hour. As submissions began pouring in, contestants watched the leaderboard to see whether some new fix or tweak to their algorithm would give their bot the necessary edge. As the deadline approached and Pizza arrived, cries of "just give me a couple more minutes" were sympathized with but ultimately ignored, as AlenPreenamBot, in a come-from-behind spectacle, took a new high score and the lead just as time expired.

Round Two added a multi-player component; players' snakes no longer just ate candy but also needed to avoid other players and, if possible, attempt to trap them (earning additional points). As participants adjusted their algorithms for the appearance of others, the live leaderboard began taking a fairly large amount of time to refresh results, since every contestant now had to play every other contestant to get a fair ranking of 'top bot'. This was fixed in the third-round by changing to an FFA (Free-For-All) format.

As contestants struggled to add some rational expectation of others' moves to their Algorithms, a number of interesting situations began to emerge. In one, two snakes stubbornly attempted to eat the same candy repeatedly but were unable, since the interfered with one another's movements. In another, the famous Twitter 'Fail Whale' seemed to emerge spontaneously. SexyGameBot, who had been leading this round took first place with 29734 points, a comfortable 7,000 point margin ahead of its nearest competitor.

Round Three changed the multi-player format to a free-for-all and removed restrictions on directions players could move. The result was Chaos. Jim Grandpre's JBot appeared to lead up to the end, despite only moving in the four cardinal directions. Two last-minute submissions by Jim and the team of Alen & Preenham, however, tilted the scales decidedly towards the latter, giving them the second victory in a row. "If I hadn't gone with my new bot, I may have won," said Jim. Touche.

Full results of the final scores can be found here.

For more information contact alexeym[at]seas.upenn.edu

Upcoming Event: Snakeathon

It looks like we haven't used this blog in a little while.  Nevertheless, if you're wondering "whoa, I was subscribed to this via RSS?" we're still here.

And we're hosting a Snakeathon Game AI programming competition two weeks from now.  Details are available at git.to/snake.  Also, check out our flier:

Winners of PClassic 2009

In first place, with 47 points, was Holy Ghost Prep's team, consisting of:
Michael Conway
Martin Mena
Stefan Bossbaly
Thomas Cleary

In second place, with 40 points and an earlier submission time, was The Dalton School #1:
Will Mayner
Sarah Meyohas
Juliana Cherston
Alex Gliedeman-Adler

In third place, also with 40 points, was Friends Select:
Miles Frain
Nick Halbert
Haydn Dufrene
Jennifer Shen

Everyone at Penn is very thankful for the attendance of all teams this year.

Pictures from PClassic 2009

Philadelphia Classic 2009

PClassic 2009!

High School Teachers and Administrators,

I'd like to personally invite you to register a team for this year's
Philadelphia Classic (PClassic) Programming Contest to be held at the
University of Pennsylvania, on Saturday, February 21st, 2008. The
contest is designed and run by Penn undergrads in the Dining
Philosophers Computer Science Club. The contest is open to any high
school that can transport students to the Penn campus. The event is
tentatively scheduled for schools to arrive between 9am and 10am, and
for the contest to be complete by 4:30 or 5pm. A more detailed
schedule will be available as the date approaches.

The contest consists of teams of 4 students from a high school. (If
you are interested in bringing more than one team, please let us know)
There will be 8 programming questions, to be answered in Java. Points
are awarded for correct responses and speed is used to break ties. To
encourage teamwork and critical thinking, only one computer is used
for each team – students are encouraged to work out solutions on paper
first. Examples of questions can be found on our website,
http://dp.seas.upenn.edu/ In addition to the contest, we provide a
simple breakfast, lunch, t-shirts, and a tour and talk about Penn's
Computer Science and Engineering departments. Prizes and trophies will
also be awarded to the winners.

To register for the contest, please fill in the form located at
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pEHkWRTDiXT0XJv-3FHJgGg&hl=en

(If the form does not work, contact us at pclassic@gmail.com)

Also, keep an eye on our website http://dp.seas.upenn.edu/ for updates
and more information about the contest. (This website now contains the
feed from our blog located at penndp.blogspot.com)

If you are not the relevant contact for this message at your school, I
ask that you please forward this message to the appropriate teacher or
department head. In addition to Computer Science/Programming teachers
and students, we have seen registrations from math teachers, business
teachers, and technology departments in the past. If you know any
personnel at other schools who may be interested, feel free to forward
along this invitation.

A registration fee of $50 per team of 4 students is required on the
day of the contest. If this fee prevents your school from attending
the contest, please let me know at pclassic@gmail.com and we
may be able to make arrangements.

Questions? Feel free to contact our contest email address at
pclassic@gmail.com.
I'd be glad to help you with any concerns.

Matt Evans
President, Penn Dining Philosophers

Microsoft Techfest

Come check out Microsoft's Techfest on Tuesday 10/21 from 7-8pm in Wu-Chen Auditorium. Microsoft employees will be here showing off the newest and most exciting work that is being done at Microsoft and also to just hang out, meet, and chill with students.

New Member Event

Are you new to computer science and the department here at Penn?

Come join us on Thursday, October 16th at 8pm in Levine 315. We'll have food, drinks, and a good time waiting for you. Members of the Dining Philosophers, the premier computer science major club here at Penn, will be on hand to chat, explain what our club does, and how you can get involved.

Meeting Time

We will be meeting at 9pm in the Rodin mezzanine (usually sitting on the couches) every Wednesday for the Fall 2008 semester.