Bryn Mawr College
CS 110: Introduction to Computing
Spring 2008
Course Materials
Prof. Deepak Kumar

Information
Texts  Important Dates  Assignments  Lectures  Grading Links

General Information

Instructor: Deepak Kumar, 246 Park Hall, 526-7485
E-Mail: dkumar at cs brynmawr dot edu
WWW: http://cs.brynmawr.edu/~dkumar

Lecture Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays , 2:30 p.m. to 4:00.m.
Room: Park 338
Lab: TBA in Room 231 (additional lab hours will also available, see below)

Laboratories:

Lab Assistants: The following Lab assitants will be available during the week (names and schedules will be posted by the end of this week) for assistance on lab assignments.

  1. Michelle Beard: Tue & Wed 8-10p
  2. Emily Somach: Mon 3-5p and Wed 12:30-2:30p
  3. Val Kirilova: Mon 4-6p and Tue 9-11a
  4. Rachel Newman: Wed 4-6p and Sunday 7-9p. On Feb 10, March 2, and April 13 the Sunday hours will be 6-8p.

These are the hours when the Lab will not be available:

TBA

Texts & Software

Learning Computing With Robots: by Deepak Kumar, Institute for Personal Robots in Education. Available at the Campus Bookstore.

Python Software + IDLE + Myro (This software is already installed in the Computer Science Lab). The software is also available for your own computer from the CD included in your text.

Scribbler Robot Kit: These will be handed out to you in Week#2.

Important Dates

January 22: First lecture
March 20: Exam 1
May 1: Last lecture/Exam 2

Assignments+Robot Videos

  1. Assignment#1: (Due on Tuesday, February 5): Do the following exercises:
    Chapter 1: Exercise 9 (Hand in the drawing)
    Chapter 2: Exercise 2 (Hand in the written answer)
    Chapter 2: Exercise 3 (Hand in the program as well as the drawing)
    Chapter 2: Exercise 4 (Hand in the program). If possible, post a video of your robot's performance on YouTube (send link to me).
  2. Assignment#2 (Due on Thursday, february 14): Write a program for your Scribbler to draw a 5-point star. [Hint: Each vertex has an internal angle of 36 degrees]. Your program should include a function called, drawStar(sideLength), so that you can use it over and over again to draw stars of different sizes. Write a main program to use drawStar to draw at least 3 stars (use a loop) of different sizes (say sides of length 3-10 inches) on the same sheet of paper. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, can you write a program for your Scribbler to draw a heart? Alternately, write a program for your Scribbler to create some abstract art. Hand in the two programs, and sheets that show your robot's drawings. For the second program, try and be creative, include repetition, use different colors etc. HINT: For how to write general scribbler commands for turning a specific amount and traveling a specific distance, you may want to read the first 5 pages of Chapter 4.
  3. Assignment#3: (Due Tuesday, February26): Light follower: Write a program for your robot to follow a bright light. I.e, the robot goes towards the light. Extra Credit: Make a video of your robot's behavior and either send it to Deepak and/or post it on You Tube.

    Videos: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
  4. Assignment#4 (Due Tuesday, March 4): Implement Braitenberg vehicles 1, 2a, and 2b as discussed in Chapter 6 of your text. Additionally, implement any one of the suggested vehicles/robot applications from Chapter 6 (Choose from: Refrigerator detective, burglar alarm, Hallway cruiser, follower, Timid, Indecisive, Paranoid). Hand in all the programs you wrote. Also, write a short (1-page) essay on designing insect-like behaviors based on the robots you designed. Extra Credit: Make a video of your robot's behaviors and either send it to Deepak and/or post it on You Tube.

    Videos: #1 (Alive), #2 (Vehicle 2a: Coward), #3 (Vehicle 2b: Aggressive), #4 (Timid), #5 (Vehicle 2a: Coward), #6 (Vehicle 2b: Aggressive), #7 [Submissions by June, alida, Taneisha, and Amy]
  5. Assignment#5 is posted (Due on Thursday, April 3): Click here for details.
  6. Assignment#6 is posted (Due on Thursday, April 24): Click here for details.

Robot Videos and other demos from out there!

  1. Scribbler Dance (from Rachel)
  2. Another Scribbler Dance (from Samar)
  3. SONY Robots dancing
  4. Another humanoid robot dance
  5. SONY Rolly Dance
  6. Dancing Penguin robots
  7. A Penguin robot (sort of dancing)
  8. Sync. Dance: Sarcoman Robot
  9. Keepon Dance
  10. A kid dancing with a robot
  11. A Robot Ballet (Nutcracker)
  12. Dabcing Vacuum Cleaner Robots
  13. Robot Artist (3:21)
  14. Hektor: The graffitti drawing robot: Several videos
  15. AARON The Cybernetic Artist (visit the web page and even download a version for your computer)
  16. An interactive Scribbler
  17. Braitenberg Style: Wiggle: A Robot Stalker
  18. Braitenberg Style: A Spider Robot
  19. Braitenberg Style: Timid (using LEGO Midnstorm)
  20. Braitenberg Style: Indicisive (using LEGO Mindstorm)

Lectures

Grading

All graded work will receive a grade, 4.0, 3.7, 3.3, 3.0, 2.7, 2.3, 2.0, 1.7, 1.3, 1.0, or 0.0. At the end of the semester, final grades will be calculated as a weighted average of all grades according to the following weights:

Exam 1: 20%
Exam 2: 25%
Labs & Written Work: 55%
Total: 100%

Links

The graphics.py file

HTML documentation of graphics.py

A database of color names

 

Created on January 18, 2008.