Computer Simulations and Interactive Media is a course on design and prototyping. This course will introduce students to the concepts of web app development, game design, and artificial intelligence through basic programming and mathematics. The course will provide a general overview of simulations, interactivity, and prototyping, with emphasis on culture, history, real world practices, and applications. Students will journal their explorations, develop and build a final team project, and present their projects via live demo. After the course, each student will have their own online design and programming portfolio.
Instructor: Sherol Chen
Teaching Assistants
Topics and Schedule are subject to change
Lecture | Assignment | Reading | |
---|---|---|---|
Tue | Introduction and Setup | Wordpress and Github signup, JS Math Quiz | Cookbook ch 1 |
Wed | History and Foundations of Computing | JS Interactive Fiction | Cookbook ch 2 |
Thr | Algorithms and Data Structures | Twine IF, Processing, JS Mole Game | Cookbook ch 3 |
Fri | Guest Speaker, Finite State Machines | Field Trip: Tech Museum | |
Weekend | |||
Mon | AI, Searching, Sorting, Animations | Processing Sort, JS Tile Game | Turing Paper, Cookbook ch 4 |
Tue | Graphs, Search | Processing TSP, JS Platformer | Design Book, Cookbook ch 5 |
Wed | Field Trip: Exploratorium | Field Trip: Exploratorium | |
Thr | OOP and A* | Processing A*, JS Fighter | Gates Letter, Cookbook ch 6 |
Fri | Logic and Arduino, Guest Speaker | Arduino | |
Weekend | |||
Mon | Game Theory and Game Studies | Processing Tic Tac Toe, JS Shooter | Cookbook ch 7 |
Tue | Cellular Automata | Processing CA, JS FPS | Cookbook ch 8 |
Wed | Field Trip: Computer History Museum | Final Project, JS RPG | Cookbook ch 9 |
Thr | Final Projects, Guest Speaker | Guest Speaker, Final Projects | |
Fri | Final Project Presentations | Final Project Presentations |
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
In general, make your links clickable! Put at least 1 photo on every page/post. PAGES and POSTS are NOT THE SAME!