CS1315 Introduction to Media
Computation
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121 students in Spring 2003,
with 303 in Fall ‘03 and 389 for Spring ‘04
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2/3 female in Spring 2003 MediaComp
Required in Architecture, DCOM, Ivan Allen, and Biology
Focus: Learning programming and CS concepts within
the context of media manipulation and creation
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Converting images to grayscale and negatives, splicing and
reversing sounds, writing programs to generate HTML,
creating movies out of Web-accessed content.
Computing for communications, not calculation
def clearRed(picture):
for pixel in getPixels(picture):
setRed(pixel,0)
def greyscale(picture):
for p in getPixels(picture):
redness=getRed(p)
greenness=getGreen(p)
blueness=getBlue(p)
luminance=(redness+blueness+greenness)/3
setColor(p,
makeColor(luminance,luminance,luminance))
def negative(picture):
for px in getPixels(picture):
red=getRed(px)
green=getGreen(px)
blue=getBlue(px)
negColor=makeColor(255-red,255-green,255-blue)
setColor(px,negColor)
Rough overview of Syllabus
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Defining and executing functions
Pictures
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Sounds
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Psychophysics, data structures, defining functions, for
loops, if conditionals
Sampled sounds vs. synthesized, MP3 vs. MIDI
Text
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Psychophysics, data structures, defining functions, for
loops, if conditionals
Bitmap vs. vector notations
Converting between media, generating HTML, database,
and networking
Trees, hash tables
Movies
Then, Computer Science topics (last 1/3 class)
Computer science topics
as solutions to their problems
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“Writing programs is hard! Are there ways to make it
easier? Or at least shorter?”
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“Movie-manipulating programs take a long time to
execute. Why? How fast/slow can programs be?”
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Object-oriented programming
Functional programming and recursion
Algorithmic complexity
“Why is PhotoShop so much faster?”
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Compiling vs. interpreting
Machine language and how the computer works
Does the class work?
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In Spring 2003, 121 students
(2/3 female),
3 drops
Fall 2003, 303 students,
8 drops
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60% of students surveyed
at end of course say that
they want a second course.
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Women had higher grades and
fewer drops than men
These are non-majors, who
have already fulfilled their
requirement
We are getting transfers into
the CS major.
Success
Rate
Average
GT’s CS1
72.2%
(2000-2002)
Media
Computation
Spring 2003
Media
Computation
Fall 2003
88.5%
87.5%
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?
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Homework
assignments
suggest they were.
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Shared on-line in
collaborative web
space (CoWeb)
Some students
reported writing
programs outside of
class for fun.
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?
Were Students Motivated and
Engaged?
Soup
Stephen Hawking
Latest: Spring 2004
“Well, I looked at last years’
collages, and I certainly can’t
be beat.”