Rule-tris introduction to programming

Client: Luke Tunmer, Qualcomm <ltunmer@qti.qualcomm.com>

All kids love Tetris, so why not help them learn programming by making a Tetris-playing robot? You need to start with a simple Tetris port on the Raspberry Pi (code your own, or use an open source version), then add facilities allowing kids to "play" it automatically with the assistance of an interpreted rule language. This language can be applied by users to define piece rotations and movements based on queries of the current game state and simple algebraic expressions. The rule condition queries and actions must be sufficiently constrained that it would take significant coding effort to make an optimal player, but should also be simple enough to provide incremental feedback for students, so that each new rule (if correctly specified) produces satisfying improvements.