Past Event

201 – Teach your Computer to Paint

This mini-course offering can be taken by anyone with an interest in art or interest in computers.

In this course, we will learn how to make digital drawings, paintings and animations by programming within the “processing” environment. “Processing” is an interactive system specially created for digital artists—artists can work inside it to get some computer help in making animations, graphics, and even artificial life. The course will include lots of hands-on practice where participants can experiment with making their computer art and animations.

Instructor: Jason Hinek
School or Department: Computer Science
Grades: Min: 8 – Max: 11
Location: 4155HP and 5345HP

204 – Exploring Artificial Life

You may be surprised to learn how mathematics, physics, and computer science together can help us to display almost every phenomenon in the living world; the movement of two bacteria, the growth of a tree, and a diving hawk, can be generated artificially.

In this mini-course, you will learn how to program in the Processing environment, which is a flexible language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. It’s popular among artists and other people who are not programmers, yet want to make simple animations and graphics. You will learn the basic instructions of this language, and you will see how you can give life to objects that can move and interact with each other.

Instructor: Rosa Azami
School or Department: Computer Science
Grades: Min: 8 – Max: 11
Location: 3115HP

209 – Programming with Arduino (There is an extra cost to take this course)

NOTE: THIS COURSE WILL REQUIRE YOU TO PURCHASE Arduino KIT FOR ABOUT $80.00

Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer. Arduino can run standalone without being connected to a computer, which is useful for a wide range of Arduino projects from a Love-O-Meter to home automation device or even your Halloween costume! It’s an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board and a development environment for writing software for the board that simplifies the process of working with microcontrollers, but it offers some advantage for teachers, students, and interested amateurs over other systems:

• Target Audience – if you are a boy or a girl, geek or a scientist, there is so much you can do with Arduino!
• Inexpensive – Arduino boards are relatively inexpensive
• Cross-platform – The Arduino software runs on Windows, Macintosh OSX, and Linux operating systems (such as Android).
• Open source and extensible software – The Arduino software is published as open source tools, available for extension by experienced programmers.
• Open source and extensible hardware – The Arduino is based on Atmel’s ATMEGA8 and ATMEGA168 microcontrollers.

The plans for the modules are published under a Creative Commons license, so experienced circuit designers can make their version of the module, extending it and improving through shields and boards that can be plugged on top of the Arduino extending its capabilities

---

REQUIREMENTS: Please purchase before attending the class first day of the class.

The following is the link to the hardware to buy for this mini course:

http://www.sainsmart.com/starter-kits/uno-r3-smartkits/sainsmart-uno-r3-basic-starter-kit-for-arduino-uno-r3.html

The kit should include the following (we won’t use the optional parts during the course):

• 1x SainSmart UNO R3 (or Arduino Uno R3 equivalent)
• LM35 Temperature Sensor
• Infrared Receiver (optional)
• 1×1 Photoresistor
• 1x Potentiometer (optional)
• 1x RGB (optional)
• 1x Buzzer
• 1x USB Cable
• 4x buttons
• 1x 74HC595 (optional)
• 1x Infrared Remote (optional)
• 2x Tilt sensor (optional)
• 1x Flame Sensor (optional)
• 1x Cell Box (optional)
• 5x Red LEDs
• 5x Yellow LEDs
• 5x Green LEDs
• 2x 1-digital 8 segment
• 1x 4-digital 8 segment
• 1x Dot Matrix Display 8×8 (optional)
• 8x 220ohm Resistors
• 5x 1K Resistors
• 5x 10K Resistors
• Breadboard & Jumper wires

I highly recommend everyone to have the same hardware to avoid any issues during the course (such as hardware driver problems).

Instructor: Abdolriza Shirvani
School or Department: Computer Science
Grades: Min: 8 – Max: 11
Location: 5115HP