Algoritmi e serpenti digitali – Exploring Reinforcement Learning at Festival della Scienza

What is reinforcement learning, and how does it work? UniGe’s MaLGa Center returns to Festival della Scienza with Algoritmi e serpenti digitali, an interactive workshop running from October 24th to November 3rd, where participants will dive into this captivating branch of artificial intelligence through a hands-on gaming experience.

Reinforcement learning, a machine learning approach inspired by biological brains, teaches systems to learn from both positive and negative reinforcement—like the way we respond to pleasure or pain. Although less familiar to the general public, this technique has achieved remarkable milestones, such as AlphaGo, the first AI to defeat a world champion at the game of Go. At the heart of this workshop is a unique video game where a digital snake navigates a two-dimensional world, aiming to eat food that appears randomly on the screen. With each bite, the snake grows longer, adding a new challenge: it must avoid colliding with itself. In this engaging activity, participants will compete against the AI, challenging it to devise strategies for the snake to survive as long as possible—who will prevail, human or machine?

Hosted in the historic Palazzo della Borsa, Algoritmi e serpenti digitali welcomes participants of all ages starting at 11 years old. The workshop runs weekdays from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and weekends and holidays from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM. Both school groups and individual attendees are invited to join in.

Organized by the MaLGa Machine Learning Genoa Center, this workshop is supported by the European Union’s ERC RIDING research and innovation program.

To participate, check availability and reserve your spot through the Festival della Scienza website, at the link below.