#A* Was Born

This project was an attempt to implement A* algorithm from scratch in Python...... IN TWO HOURS!!!

Time spent: 2 hours

Authors:

• Evan Bluhm
• Alex French
• Elizabeth Gass
• Samuel Gass
• Margaret Yim

The original list of minimum requirements was:

• Read input problem from file
• Implement basic graph data structure
• Return optimal path from start to finish using A* algorithm

The key challenges identified were:

• Representation of input problems
• Data structure for storing problem
• Implementing A* when none of us know anything
• Graphs r hard guyz

The following improvements were stretch goals:

• Beautiful visuals with the following tiers:
  1. Display maze
  2. Display solution
  3. Animate solution
• Implement sample problems using Python unittest framework

During the project, we discovered several difficulties:

• Really, graphs are hard
• Time limit was optimistic
• Python bootstrapping was more intensive than expected
• Algorithm required complex problem representation in addition to implementation