1. CS1315 Introduction to Media Computation
121 students in Spring 2003, with 303 in Fall ‘03 and 389 for Spring ‘04
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
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
But could be taught for CS

2. 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)

3. Rough overview of Syllabus
Defining and executing functions
Pictures
Psychophysics, data structures, defining functions, for loops, if conditionals
Bitmap vs. vector notations
Sounds
Sampled sounds vs. synthesized, MP3 vs. MIDI
Text
Converting between media, generating HTML, database, and networking
Trees, hash tables
Movies
Then, Computer Science topics (last 1/3 class)

4. Computer science topics as solutions to their problems
“Writing programs is hard! Are there ways to make it easier? Or at least shorter?”
Object-oriented programming
Functional programming and recursion
“Movie-manipulating programs take a long time to execute. Why? How fast/slow can programs be?”
Algorithmic complexity
“Why is PhotoShop so much faster?”
Compiling vs. interpreting
Machine language and how the computer works

5. Does the class work? Success Rate Average GT’s CS1 72.2%
In Spring 2003, 121 students (2/3 female), 3 drops
Fall 2003, 303 students, 8 drops
Women had higher grades and fewer drops than men
60% of students surveyed at end of course say that they want a second course.
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%
Media Computation Spring 2003
88.5%
Media Computation Fall 2003
87.5%

6. Were Students Motivated and Engaged?
Homework assignments suggest they were.
Shared on-line in collaborative web space (CoWeb)
Some students reported writing programs outside of class for fun.
HOMEWORK: Many students turned in more complex code than was required,
some over 100 lines in length!
OUTSIDE PROGRAMMING: to reverse popular songs and find out if there are hidden messages
to create an online scrapbook

7. Were Students Motivated and Engaged?

8. Were Students Motivated and Engaged?
Soup
Stephen Hawking

9. Latest: Spring 2004
“Well, I looked at last years’ collages, and I certainly can’t be beat.”