Planning algorithms are impacting technical disciplines and industries around the world, including robotics, computer-aided design, manufacturing, computer graphics, aerospace applications, drug design, and protein folding. Written for computer scientists and engineers with interests in artificial intelligence, robotics, or control theory, this is the only book on this topic that tightly integrates a vast body of literature from several fields into a coherent source for teaching and reference in a wide variety of applications. Difficult mathematical material is explained through hundreds of examples and illustrations.

Race Cars is a picture book that serves as a springboard for parents and educators to discuss race, privilege, and oppression with their kids.

Bestselling Irish author Michelle Jackson returns with a new name, Michelle Walsh Jackson and a fresh voice. After travel writing for the last eight years she has written a road trip book set in Oklahoma, Dublin and Oxford. This spiritual journey into America's Heartland brings the reader on "A thought provoking Odyssey to fill the soul and grip the reader," according to Niamh Greene, Irish Author. This is the story of the fragile love between Roz Waters and her visually impaired father, Patrick, a love that is revived on an extraordinary road trip through Oklahoma in America's heartland. The journey is an opportunity for Patrick to impart knowledge and wisdom that Roz is finally ready to hear.Unexpectedly, Roz's world is rocked when she meets an army officer, Michael Williams, along the way. But his wedding band isn't the only obstacle that makes their love forbidden. The prairies pale in comparison to the touching journey into each other's hearts.As time unfolds Roz discovers that she and her father are intrinsically linked to Michael and together maybe they will all find the real Heartland.

“McGonigal is a clear, methodical writer, and her ideas are well argued. Assertions are backed by countless psychological studies.” —The Boston Globe “Powerful and provocative . . . McGonigal makes a persuasive case that games have a lot to teach us about how to make our lives, and the world, better.” —San Jose Mercury News “Jane McGonigal's insights have the elegant, compact, deadly simplicity of plutonium, and the same explosive force.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother A visionary game designer reveals how we can harness the power of games to boost global happiness. With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world-from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change-and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality Is Broken shows that the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games. Jane McGonigal is also the author of SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient.

Everyone knows that you are supposed to “follow your dream.” But where is the road map to help you discover what that dream is? You have just found it. In Springboard, award-winning author and teacher G. Richard Shell helps you find your future. His advice: Take an honest look inside and then answer two questions: What, for me, is success? How will I achieve it? You will begin by assessing your current beliefs about success, including the hidden influences of family, media, and culture. These are where the pressures to live “someone else’s life” come from. Once you gain perspective on these outside forces, you will be ready to look inside at your unique combination of passions and capabilities. The goal: to focus more on what gives meaning and excitement to your life and less on what you are “supposed” to want. Drawing on his decades of research, Shell offers personalized assessments to help you probe your past, imagine your future, and measure your strengths. He then combines these with the latest scientific insights on everything from self-confidence and happiness to relationships and careers. Throughout, he shares inspiring examples of people who found what they were meant to do by embracing their own true measure of success. Eric Adler: one of Shell’s former students who walked away from a conventional business career to help launch a revolutionary new concept in public education that has placed hundreds of inner-city high school students in top colleges. Kurt Timken: a Harvard-educated son of a Fortune 500 CEO who found his true calling as a hard-charging police officer fighting drug lords in southern California. Cynthia Stafford: an office worker who became one of her community’s leading promoters of theater and the arts. Get ready for the journey of a lifetime—one that will help you reevaluate your future and envision success on your own terms. Students and executives say that Richard Shell’s courses have changed their lives. Let this book change yours.

Designed to meet the needs of the Common Core State standards for English Language Arts. It helps students develop the knowledge and skills needed for advanced placement as well as for success in college and beyond without remediation.

Three heroes join forces to save Phlan in this action-packed fantasy novel based on the Dungeons & Dragons computer game of the same name A possessed dragon commands the undead armies of Valhingen Graveyard and the beasts from the ruins of Phlan. In the midst of this chaos stand three heroes: Shal Bal, a spellcaster, seeks to avenge the death of her wizard master, while Ren—a ranger thief—sets out on a revenge quest of his own, intent on evening the score between himself and the assassin who murdered his beloved Tempest. And then there’s Tarl Desanea, a cleric-warrior who has seen just what kind of devastation the army of Valhingen Graveyard can wreak. He has witnessed far too many friends die at the hands of the undead horde. When fate brings the trio together at the Laughing Goblin Inn, they are brought before the head of the Council of Ten. Under the command of Porphyrys Cadorna, they embark on dangerous missions throughout the realm, only to discover their newfound advisor is not who they presumed him to be. Now, it's up to Shal, Ren, and Tarl to deliver Phlan—and the entire Moonsea—from the possession of evil reincarnate: Tyranthraxus.