Delivering Freight, ASAP! Una applicazione mobile per l'apprendimento dei concetti di base sugli Automi a Stati Finiti

Abstract

Finite State Automata (FA) are a family of automata quite popular in the context of computational intelligence, as they allow representation of complex information and behaviour via graphs that are easy to design and execute. Every Theoretical Computer Science curriculum, be it administered to pure computer scientists or engineers alike, has a module on FAs that teaches how to design, build and run them, on top of some important theorems highlighting fundamental results. Despite that, students often find difficult to absorb FAs properly, and often they resort to learn their basic usage and example by memory. Delivering Freight ASAP! is a mobile game with a mission: promote the correct learning of basic principles underlying FAs by presenting under the guise of a computer game the three main abilities needed for their fruitful use: execution, comprehension, design.