A Simplified Simulation of Population Genetics in a 3-D Gaming Environment

Introduction:

Studies have shown that people learn better when they are having fun while doing it. Teachers use this phenomenon in the classroom all the time by creating different games or fun activities to get their students interested in the material. Since the recent explosion in popularity of computer gaming, developers are attempting to create games where the players will learn as they enjoy. The word "Edutainment" has been coined to describe this education oriented entertainment. One successful example is the Jump Start Series by Knowledge Adventure

The Scicentr group at the Cornell Theory Center is researching the educational benefits of 3-D gaming environment. The combination of the methods of communication, exploration, and visualization are unique to the virtual world. This creates another way that information can be portrayed. In the future, perhaps playing an education game module can supplement the traditional learning by lecture and textbook. The game aspect of the project would provide the motivation to explore the worlds and learn the information presented.

Goals:

For this Particular Project

*Give a visual representation of the results of natural selection, mutations, and gene expression in the 3-D environment

*Demonstrate the effects of environment on the rates of mutation of genetic material and the selection process.

*Set up the user interface that is conducive to a multi-player environment

*Place information in a way that utilizes the unique aspects of the 3-D virtual environment

*Explore gaming possibilities of the world the application resides in

Long Term Goals of Research:

*Bring the 3-D virtual reality technology into the mainstream classroom

*create interest in computer science for those who might not otherwise have access to computers and computer games

Implementation:

This project was started as a 1 credit CS 490 in FA02 under direction of Margaret Corbit, who does research at the Cornell Theory Center. Since then, I've been working on it on and off. The 3-D client-server software we use is called Active Worlds. The activeworlds software provides an sdk for developing interactive applications that can communicate with their servers.

My project is written in C++. The underlying algorithm is a regular genetic algorithm with a fitness function that changes with the environment. Currently, the environment only takes temperature and moisture content into account. The genetic material then determines the fitness, appearance, and behaviour of an organism that will appear in the world. The fitness determines whether the animal will be selected to pass on its genetic material to the next generation. Appearance changes with the color or shape of the body segments. Behavioural changes have not been implemented yet.

The user interface is a control panel that allows one person to change the conditions of an environment at a time. Everyone in the space can see the changes and will see the results in the population.

Future Work

Increase Complexity of the Population Genetics Model: As of now, the level of biology is geared towards high school or junior high students. The project barely scratches the surface of the field of population genetics. A program that can encompass most of the factors and parameters in the field could potentially be a valuable learning tool on the university level.

Increase Complexity of the Resulting Organism: Perhaps we can realistically model animals or plants by selecting a set of traits to manipulate. If not, adding more traits to the existing organism or expanding the range of change in a trait would make the organism more interesting.

Increase Complexity of the Environment: Right now the factors are temperature and moisture. There are countless other factors that exist in nature such as weather, presence of food, presence of predators, etc. that can still be included.

Include a gaming aspect to the Application: Right now, one can only observe effects of changing the environment on the appearance of certain traits. It would be nice to create a goal or a puzzle that would have people coming back to figure it out.