HOUSTON,
May 11, 2005 – Building and controlling a team of
nanobots to seek and destroy infected tissue within
a simulated terminally ill patient, a University
of Houston computer science student and his teammate
have advanced to the 2005 Microsoft Imagine Cup world
semifinals.
With
two consecutive wins so far, Jonathan Dowdall,
a UH graduate student, and Mike Hall, his collaborator,
have advanced to round three of four in the visual
gaming category with their Team ContAInment, the "AI" capitalized
to represent artificial intelligence. An annual competition,
the Microsoft Imagine Cup challenges participants
to excel in one of nine IT-related categories and
is designed to recognize students who demonstrate
excellence in a diverse range of technical and artistic
pursuits. According to Microsoft, entries are expected
to address the competition theme to "imagine a world
where technology dissolves the boundaries between
us."
Out of about 2,000 participants in the world qualifying
round March 15, Dowdall and Hall tied with eight
others for first place, with Team ContAInment being
the only U.S. team in that top group. In the national
elimination round April 15, they were the top-scoring
team in their division. Now, advancing to the third
of four rounds, they will compete in the world semifinals
May 15. The first two rounds of competition took
place online, as will the third, which will narrow
the playing field to six teams that will travel to
Japan July 27 to compete in the world finals for
a grand prize of $8,000.
As visual gaming participants, Team ContAInment
had to write an algorithm to build and control a
team of nanobots within the simulated human body
of a terminally ill patient. The nanobots are injected
into the blood stream to locate and collect infected
tissue. While attempting to deliver medicine to these
sites, the nanobots are attacked by white blood cells
in the patient's immune system. For each round of
competition, Microsoft adds another challenge, such
as a virus that attacks the nanobots.
"The visual gaming challenge is actually a logistics
problem that you are solving, and path planning is
a big part of it," Dowdall said. "The strategy involves
a collaborative multi-agent programming system of
nanobots, and you must give them intelligence – the
algorithm – so they know how to react in their environment."
To put it very simply, a computer program written
by Team ContAInment tells the nanobots to move up,
down, left or right or to follow any other variety
of instructions in reaction to what they encounter
in the simulated environment.
As head software developer for Associate Professor
Ioannis Pavlidis' Computational Physiology Laboratory
at UH, Dowdall is well prepared for this challenge.
Pavlidis has gained a reputation for his work in
medical imaging, bioinformatics, robotics, computational
biomedicine and biometrics that have various medical
applications. Being part of this research group has
given Dowdall a solid background in applying computer
science to medicine.
"Projects like this where students are given an
opportunity to harness their imaginations often provide
the type of forum where ideas are born," said John
Bear, dean of the UH College of Natural Sciences
and Mathematics. "It's great to see ingenuity of
this caliber receiving worldwide recognition."
For a related story, see http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/nr/2004/09sept/090704Ioannispavlidis.html .
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas' premier metropolitan research and teaching
institution, is home to more than 40 research centers and institutes and
sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate, civic and governmental
entities. UH, the most diverse research university in the country, stands
at the forefront of education, research and service with more than 35,000
students.
For more information about UH, visit the university's
Newsroom at www.uh.edu/newsroom .
To receive UH science news via e-mail, visit www.uh.edu/admin/media/sciencelist.html .
|
