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鈥淚f I like something, I just make time for it.鈥�

That鈥檚 what Robert DuPont 鈥�20 has to say about why he keeps writing computer code鈥攅ven when there鈥檚 no class assignment or academic credit on the line.

Thanks to work they did together over the summer, DuPont and Dr. Ramoni Lasisi, assistant professor of computer and information sciences, recently learned that a paper they co-authored, 鈥淎ugmenting Stochastic Local Search with Heuristics,鈥� has been accepted for presentation at the 9^th IEEE Annual Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics, and Mobile Communication Conference, to be held Nov. 8-10 at Columbia University in New York City. Both DuPont and Lasisi plan to attend the conference, where DuPont will demonstrate simulations of the code he鈥檚 written and Lasisi will present the paper.

Another paper that the two wrote together, also over the summer, 鈥淭eam Exploration of Environments Using Stochastic Local Search,鈥� has been accepted for publication as a book chapter.

Although he鈥檚 now only in the fall of his 2^nd Class year at VMI, DuPont caught Lasisi鈥檚 attention early in his cadetship because of his intense interest in and talent for programming. By his 3^rd Class year, DuPont was enrolled in Lasisi鈥檚 data structures and algorithms class, one that Lasisi described as 鈥渢he most challenging programming course鈥� at VMI.

鈥淚t was an easy class for him,鈥� said Lasisi.

That was in the fall of 2017. By the time the spring semester rolled around, DuPont had signed up for an independent study with Lasisi鈥攐ne having to do with the real-world problem of gerrymandering. 鈥淢anipulation of District-based Elections: Algorithms and Experiments鈥� is currently under review for publication.

When summer came, DuPont was looking for a new project. He already had an internship having to do with machine learning lined up at West Point, but he was looking for an even bigger challenge. That鈥檚 when he decided to keep working with Lasisi on another project, one having to do with using artificial intelligence鈥擫asisi鈥檚 research specialty鈥攖o enhance searching capacity through minefields or areas in which an airplane might have crashed.

鈥淪earch is a huge problem in computer science, especially in the area of AI, artificial intelligence,鈥� said Lasisi. 鈥淲e need to find out a systematic way, an intelligent way, of [searching] without wasting time or resources. 鈥� We have to devise some systematic way of navigation in that environment so we can get the result on time.鈥�

Attempting to do this, DuPont designed an environment in which large areas are marked off in small squares, like a sheet of graph paper. Each small block of nine squares, a 3x3 area similar to a tic-tac-toe grid, is marked off and defined as a state, while the 3x3 grids nearby are defined as neighborhoods.

Rather than jumping randomly among the states, the agent or seeker in DuPont鈥檚 program uses heuristics, which DuPont defined as 鈥渆xploiting some information about the environment to guide the agent toward the goal.鈥� This, he noted, makes for an orderly and faster search.

Lasisi noted that DuPont鈥檚 project carried no academic credit whatsoever鈥攊t was undertaken for the joy of learning and nothing else. 鈥淗e鈥檚 been doing something way beyond his mates,鈥� said Lasisi. 鈥淭his is not homework stuff. We don鈥檛 know the solution.鈥�

 - Mary Price -