Robot starts at the top!

 Premise

We were inspired by the Algorithm Meetup featured this week on Robot Paths in a Lattice Graph!

Imagine an n by m grid with a robot in the upper left square. If the robot can only move right or down, how many different paths are there for the robot to get to the bottom right corner?

 

and then the robot needs to move to the bottom!

 

Giant Whiteboard

we pulled out a massive whiteboard to end all massive whiteboards

Sometimes these algorithms feel like real life. There are many ways to get to the same point, sometimes you have to steer past obstacles and time wasters.

 

tweaking variations of the algorithm

 

 

Our robot looked over from the background…Lots of people diagramming stuff. we need to put this on a github!

 

Things we discussed:

• Djikstra’s Algorithm
• Algorithms used in Pathfinding (including A* search algorithm)

Learning

The learning was very social and using an entire whiteboard was really fun. It was especially important to get people away from their computers, where hidden dangers like web surfing and social networks lurked. It was also a great way to get to know other people, and create and draw and visualize complex problems.

Ending Poem

We’d had the idea to end each session with a poem, which was more challenging than we thought.

However, it is a little useful to write a short piece to assess what you’ve learned that night.

Start out by learning from examples,

Build upon the basics and progress slowly, absorbing all,

Surround yourself with smart people,

Begin with simple recursion problems, 

Tweak the code,

then dip your toes into the advanced theory like djikstra 

 

Get the hell away from a computer

Learning is life!