Graham Kendall
Title: Where games meet hyper-heuristics
Abstract: Hyper-heuristics have been successfully applied in solving a variety of
computational search problems. We discuss how a hyper-heuristic can be used to
generate adaptive strategies for games. Based on a set of low-level heuristics (or
strategies), a hyper-heuristic game player can generate strategies which adapt to both
the behaviour of the co-players and the game dynamics. By using a simple heuristic
selection mechanism, a number of existing heuristics for specialised games can be
integrated into an automated game player. We have developed hyper-heuristics for three games: iterated
prisoner’s dilemma, repeated Goofspiel and the competitive traveling salesmen problem. The results
demonstrate that a hyper-heuristic game player outperforms the low-level heuristics, when used individually
in game playing and it can generate adaptive strategies even if the low-level heuristics are deterministic. This
methodology provides an efficient way to develop new strategies for games based on existing strategies.
Professor Graham Kendall is the Vice-Provost for Research and Knowledge Transfer at the University of
Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC). He has been in Malaysia since August 2011 and is responsible for
developing and delivering the strategic aims of the University in the areas of Research and Knowledge
Exchange. He is the Chief Executive Officer of MyResearch Sdn Bhd. This company has MIDA R&D status,
enabling companies to invest in Research and Development in a tax efficient way. He has published over 80
refereed journal papers (the vast majority in ISI ranked journals) and over 220 peer reviewed papers in total.
He has edited 11 books and authored 20 book chapters. Graham is an Associate Editor of ten journals,
including the IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Cognitive Neurodynamics and Computational
Intelligence. He is the current editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Computational Intelligence and AI
in Games. He is a Fellow of the British Computer Society (FBCS) and a Fellow of the Operational Research
Society (FORS). As a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham he is a member of the
Automated Scheduling, Planning and Optimisation Group (ASAP). He was awarded a BSc (Hons) First Class
in Computation from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), UK in 1997
and received his PhD from The University of Nottingham (School of Computer Science) in 2000. His research
interests include Operations Research, Scheduling, Logistics, Vehicle Routing, Meta- and Hyper-heuristics,
Evolutionary Computation and Games.
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