EBoard 33: Project Kickoff (Section 1)

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Approximate optimistic overview

• Quiz!
• Administrative stuff
• Questions! (admin)
• About the project
• Questions! (project)
• Group formation
• Work time

Administrative stuff

Introductory notes

• Welcome to our guest!
• Please please please submit mentor and evening tutor evaluations.
  • https://grinnell.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1YUJY7nJqaj9AtU
  • A token for everyone if at least 30 people fill it out by the end of today.
• Reminder that we’ll have too many propsies on Friday.
• I’m visiting a class on Thursday, so office hours will only be 10:00–10:45.
• I’ll be guest teaching classes next Tuesday, so office hours will only be 8:30–9:45.
• If you’d like to meet to me at other times, let me know.

Upcoming activities

Scholarly

• Thursday, 24 April 2025, 4pm, HSSC 2231. Annual McKibben Lecture: Love in a Time of Bankruptcy: Calculations in Catullus
• Tuesday, 29 April 2025, noon–1pm, White PDR. CS Table: ???

Artistic

Multicultural

• Wednesday, 23 April 2025, 4:15 p.m., HSSC S1325. Holocaust Memorial Day Program with Andre Holtan
• Friday, 25 April 2025, 4:00–5:00 p.m., HSSC N1170 (Global Living Room). Middle of Everywhere: Road Trip Around Spain
• Sunday, 27 April 2025, 1:00–8:30 p.m., Cleveland Beach. (Estimates.) Holi

Peer

Musical, theatric, sporting, and academic events involving this section’s students are welcome.

• Read articles by your fellow CSC-151 students and comment on them online.
• Through this afternoon. Bucksbaum Basement. Art Exhibit: If you woke up and you were a ghoti, what would you do?
• Saturday, 25 April 2025, Noon, Baseball field. Baseball vs. Ripon
• Saturday, 25 April 2025, 2:30 p.m., Baseball field. Baseball vs. Ripon
• Sunday, 26 April 2025, Noon, Baseball field. Baseball vs. Ripon

Wellness

• Where and when they occur. Badminton Club, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, _HIIT Training, Nerf at Noyce, Yoga.
• Thursday, 24 April 2025. 4:30–6:30 p.m., Off Campus. Forest Bathing.
  • Sign ups are required.
• Tuesday, 29 April 2025, 5:00–6:00 p.m., HSSC Atrium. Therapy Dogs.
• Tuesday, 29 April 2025, 7:15–8:15 p.m., HSSC Atrium. Therapy Dogs.

Misc

• Wednesday, 23 April 2025, Noon–1:00 p.m., HSSC A2231 (Auditorium) Community Forum
  • “Weekly discussion on legal protections and recourse on issues that higher education and Grinnell College face.”
  • Also online.
  • This week: Disability and Accessibility
• Sunday, 27 April 2025, 7:30–8:30 p.m., Science 3819. Mentor Session: Quizzes and Projects
• Tuesday, 29 April 2025, 7:00–8:00 p.m., Science 3820. Mentor Session: Quizzes

Other good things

These do not earn tokens, but are worth your consideration.

• Saturday, 25 April 2025, 1pm, Softball field. Softball vs. Cornell_
• Saturday, 25 April 2025, 3:30 p.m., Softball field. Softball vs. Cornell_

Upcoming work

• Wednesday, 23 April 2025
  • Quiz: Data abstraction / structs
  • Makeup quiz: Dictionaries
  • Makeup quiz: Diagramming structures (paper only)
  • Makeup quiz: Tracing (paper only)
  • Don’t forget that you can bring a page of hand-written notes for each quiz.
• Thursday, 24 April 2025
  • No lab writeup from Wednesday
  • Reading:
    • Binary trees
    • Submit reading response for binary trees reading on Gradescope
  • SoLA 3 due
    • Topics from phase one: Decomposition, Primitive types, Collaboration, Lambda-free anonymous procedures (aka cut and compose)
    • Topics from phase two: Conditionals, Documentation, Testing, Lists (and “the big three”), Program Style, Ethical Considerations
    • Topics from phrase three you’ve done quizzes on: List recursion, Local bindings
    • New topics from phase three: Numeric recursion, Vectors, Randomness
• Friday, 25 April 2025
  • Submit pre-reflection for MP9 on Gradescope
• Sunday, 27 April 2025
  • Submit Friday’s lab on Gradescope
  • Readings
    • Tree recursion
    • Binary search trees
    • Submit reading responses on tree recursion on Gradescope
  • Mini-projects!
    • Submit first redo for MP6 on Gradescope
    • Submit second redo for MP4 on Gradescope
    • Submit second redo for MP5 on Gradescope
• Wednesday, 30 April 2025
  • Our last quiz day!
  • Quiz: Higher-order programming
  • Makeup quiz: Data abstraction
  • Makeup quiz: Diagramming structures (paper only)
  • Makeup quiz: Tracing (paper only)
  • Don’t forget that you can bring a page of hand-written notes for each quiz.
• Sunday, 4 May 2025
  • Submit first redo for MP7 on Gradescope
• Friday, 9 May 2025
  • Submit post-reflection for MP9 on Gradescope
• Friday, 16 May 2025
  • Submit final redo for MP1 on Gradescope
  • Submit final redo for MP2 on Gradescope
  • Submit final redo for MP3 on Gradescope
  • Submit final redo for MP4 on Gradescope
  • Submit final redo for MP5 on Gradescope

Questions

Administrative

About the project

• Conceptual background: Which we can apply our CS skills to tasks from other disciplines.
  • Perhaps being able to make images computationally helps us better understand (abstract) art.
• Often, when analyzing a picture, we want to think about why the artist made the decisions they did (color, ratios, …).
• With computers, we can make lots and lots of variants of the same image and consider whether there are particular characteristics that stand out.

Goals:

• Pick a piece of art by Hilma af Klint.
• Write a program that makes variations of that piece of art.
• Your procedure will be called (image-series n width height)
  • The n lets us choose which element of the series we get. It affects color, sizes, shapes, ….
  • You should support an n between 0 (inclusive) and 1000 (exclusive).
• You must write two recursive procedures.
• You must use at least two “image making and manipulation techniques”.
• You should spend at least five hours on the project (including time in class today and next Wednesday).
  • You should not spend too much time on the project. Please don’t spend more than ten.
• You will present on your work on Wednesday of week 14, but your slides (powerpoint deck) are due on Sunday.
• You should work in groups. But you can work in a group of one if you’d prefer.
• You post-assignment reflection will be about the process.
  • If you don’t turn in the post-assignment reflection, you get an I or an R.

Questions and Clarifications

Can we simplify the images?

Yes. That may be necessary.

How big can the groups be?

One to four.

Project skills

TPS: What are characteristics you’d like at least one team member to have?

Some group members (at least one)

• Leader: Able to herd cats. (Aka “manage a group of Grinnellians”.) [RED]
  • Perhaps more than one.
  • Or not.
  • Needs to set meeting times and make people show up.
• Timekeeper.
• Debugging / troubleshooting. [YELLOW]
• Good at problem solving / idea generation. [YELLOW]
• Understands abstract art.
• Use Math.
• Really good coder. [GREEN]
• Formulates good questions.
• Gadfly: Observes what’s happening and speaks about it. [PURPLE]
• External communicator [BLUE]
  • Writer. [BLUE]
  • Presentation designer. [BLUE]

All group members

• Cooperative.
• Responsive.
• Punctual.
• Cares about the project.
• Able to write Racket code.
• Universally miserable.
• Willing to ask for help.

Group formation

Please grab the cards that represent your skills. (See above.)

Try to form a group with five or six cards.

Work time

We’ll also have work time next Wednesday.

Initial tasks:

• Make sure you have each others’ contact info.
• Set up meeting times.
• Pick a team name.
• Look through af Klint’s work (hardcopy, online) to see if there are some that speak to you (or at least that you want to do).
• Start considering variations you might make.
• Start considering how you might achieve different parts of the image.