giangd / chemotaxis

Chemotaxis

Chemotaxis is when an organism moves toward or away from a chemical stimulus like food. Biologists write software using random walks to model and study how very small organisms like bacteria search for food. In this assignment you will create a simulation of organisms moving away from a starting position using a random walk. To start the assignment, fork this repository. You may find slides 241 - 307 on apjava1.pptx helpful. NOTE: you must use Math.random() for all the random numbers in this assignment.

Requirements

This assignment will have a Bacteria class. The class Bacteria will have the following members:

• 3 ints which hold the x and y coordinates of the bacteria position, and the bacteria color.
• A constructor which initializes the 3 ints
• void move() which moves the bacteria in a random walk pattern.
• void show() which draws the bacteria in the correct position

Extensions

If you have extra time, you might try to have the bacteria move in a "biased random walk" towards some stimulus like a piece of food or the mouse. You can modify your class so the bacteria have a finite lifespan and can reproduce. You can also simulate a predator and prey. Your simulation doesn't have to look like any other. Have fun and be creative.

Samples of Student Work

Zachary
Averal
Jingbin
Erika
Eric
Annie
Celena
Teresa
Christine