Cavan students use game theory to develop winning strategy

Being a game player sometimes has negative connotations but not if you are Emma O'Reilly and Ciara Finan from Loreto college in Cavan. They think that game playing or more accurately game theory should be studied at school.

“We think this is such an interesting topic we would love to see a module included in the transition year curriculum,” says Ciara.

The two are 16-year-old fourth year students and heard about game theory and how it could be used. The more they looked at the subject, the more interested they became, says Emma.

They decided to study game theory as applied to a simple game called Pick-Up, where you and a competitor pick up from one to three sticks per turn. The winner is the person picking up the last sticks.

They pursued a mathematical study of how to use game theory to develop a wining strategy for Pick-Up, actually reducing this down to a mathematical formula.

They are certain to win - almost - provided they can apply the maths as the game progresses.

They challenged visitors to their stand to compete, with any successful player given a sweet as a reward. Needless to say they seldom had to give out a sweet because of their winning formula.

They looked at applying game theory to other games such as the counting game 21, says Emma.

They also studied the maths and probabilities behind the “Monty Hall Problem”, where a person is invited to open one of three doors to win a car. On their stand the winning door hid a sweet.

Game theory is so interesting because it has many applications outside of game playing, says Ciara. “Game theory is a method behind making decisions. It can be used in many life situations.”

Adding a module to the TY curriculum would help with maths and probability but it could also contribute in other disciplines such as economics and biology, they believe.