Ms. PRIMANITA, Anggina (2nd year doctoral student in Iida Laboratory of Entertainment Technology Area) received Best Paper Award in Sriwijaya International Conference on Information Technology and Its Applications (SICONIAN2019).

SICONIAN2019 has emerged as the foremost world-wide gathering of academic researchers, Ph.D. and graduate students, top research think tanks and industry technology developers. This event Bridging to Industry Revolution 4.0 through Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, and loT Trends.
Best Paper Award is presented to the papers judged by SICONIAN awards committee to have written the best paper in their respective tracks in the SICONIAN 2019.

SICONIAN2019 was held in Palembang, Indonesia,on November 16 2019.

■Date Awarded
November 16, 2019

■Title
Nature of Probability-based Proof Number Search

■Author
Anggina Primanita and Hiroyuki Iida

■Abstract
Probability-based Proof Number Search (PPN-Search) is a best-first search algorithm that possesses a unique nature. It combines two kinds of information from a tree structure, namely, information from visited nodes and yet to be visited nodes. Information coming from visited nodes is determined based on winning status. On the other hand, information from yet to be visited (unexplored) nodes is determined by employing play-out technique in leaf nodes.
All of the information is combined into a value called probability-based proof number (PPN). In this paper, PPN-Search is employed to solve randomly generated Connect Four positions. Its results are compared to two other well-known best-first search algorithms, namely Proof Number Search and Monte-Carlo Proof Number Search. The limitation of PPN-Search related to the use of real numbers is identified based on the experiment. To increase the performance of PPN-Search while preserving its strength, an improvement technique using precision rate is introduced. Analysis from further experiments shows that the addition of the precision rate value accentuates the nature of PPN-Search, especially in its ability to combine information into PPN, which leads to increased performance. It is marked by reduced number of nodes needed to be explored up to 57% compared to implementation without precision rate.

■Comment
It is a great honor for us to receive the Best Paper Award at the Sriwijaya International Conference on Information Technology and Its Applications (SICONIAN 2019).
We would like to extend our gratitude to the SICONIAN 2019 organizing committee for this award as well as Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for the support during our research activities. We think that the research is a step forward in achieving our research goal and receiving this award motivates us to do better in the future.

December 3, 2019