Spring 2013
Modeling & Design (CS 4615– UG Section, CS7610– Grad Section)
Computational Creativity (CS4803– UG Section,CS 8803, Grade Section)
Course Description
Ashok'Goel
Maithilee'Kunda
Tuesdays'and'Thursdays,'9:35'– 10:55
Klaus'2456
3 Credits
Course description for Modeling & Design (from the course catalog):
Information-processingtheories of modeling and design; topics include design decision making, problem solving and learning, and knowledge-based modeling and design.
But really this course is about Computational Creativity with a focus on modeling/discovery & design/invention.
Learning Goals:
(1) To become familiar with the literature on Computational Creativity.
(2) To become familiar with the state of the art in Computational Creativity.
(3) To acquire experience in designing an Interactive/Autonomous Creative
technique or tool.
(4) To become an independent thinker in Computational Creativity.
Learning Strategies:
(a) Reading papers
(b) Watching videos
(c) Small group exercises
(d) Quizes
(e) Class presentations
(f) Class discussions
(g) Collaborative project
Learning Outcome:
(h) To think about Computational Creativity like an expert.Outline of the Course:
Theme 1: Human Creativity (~4 weeks)
General Creativity
Creativity in Design
Creativity in Modeling
Team Creativity
Methods for Studying Creativity
Theme 2: Information-Processing Theories of Human Creativity (~5 weeks)
General Information-Processing Theories
Analogical Thinking
Visual Thinking
Knowledge Representation
Systems Thinking
Team Creativity
Information-Processing Theories of Creativity in Design
Information-Processing Theories of Creativity in Modeling
Theme 3: Interactive Tools for Augmenting/Amplifying Human Creativity (~3 weeks)
General Interactive Tools for Creativity
Creativity in Design
Creativity in Modeling
Methods for Evaluating Creativity
Theme 4: Autonomous Computational Systems for Creative Tasks (~1 weeks)
General Computational Systems for Creativity
Creativity in Design
Creativity in Modeling
Instructor will post day-by-day class schedule on the class site.
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Class Format:
We will use “flip teaching” in our class (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_teaching).
In a typical class, the course instructor lectures in the classroom, while students do homework, exercises, projects outside the classroom.
In our class, the instructor will assign readings and videos for viewing outside the
classroom, while class time will be used for presentations, discussions, exercises, quizzes.
Most classes will start with a short quiz, followed by a brief presentation by a student, followed by discussions and exercises.This course will engage extensive reading – on average a long article or a set of shorter articles per class.
There is no textbook to purchase.
Instructor will post readings and videos on the T-square site for the class.
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Class Attendance and Participation
Class attendance and participation are critical in a class like ours.
All students will be allowed two unexcused absences from the class.
For additional absences, each student must make a written request (email is fine) and provide documentary evidence (for example, a letter from a doctor).
All students will be required to make at least one presentation in the class.
Please do not start your laptops or other electronic devices inside the classroom
(unless asked by the course instructor).
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Projects:
There will be one semester-long collaborative project. Students will work in small teams of 3-4 on the projects.
Each project must deeply address a problem in computational creativity: thus, it can study human creativity, or design an interactive tool for augmenting/amplifying human creativity, or design an autonomous system for a creative task. The projects may, but need not, use computer programming.
Students will self-select the topics/themes for the projects.
Students will also self-select the teams.
The instructors will help with the selection of the topics and formation of the teams.
To make sure that each team is making progress, we will set deadlines for specific deliverables at 3-week intervals. Each time will write a final design report and make a presentation to the class.
Instructor will provide a detailed rubric for evaluating each project deliverable.
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Examinations and Grading:
There are will be no traditional examinations.
Grades will be based on class attendance and participation, quizzes, projects, and presentations.
All grades will be normalized (i.e., "curved").Here is the distribution of weights for different activities:
Class attendance and participation: 25%
Individual presentations: 15%
Team presentations: 15%
Projects: 40%
Questionnaires and surveys including the Course/Instruction Opinion Survey: 5%
Undergraduates and graduate students will be graded on different scales.
The class as a whole will help assess the presentations.
The instructors will grade the projects based on the set of deliverables at 3-week intervals.
Members of a team will help assess the contributions of one another.
This course is an experiment in the sense that we are learning what to teach and how to teach it as well.
Thus, we would appreciate your input and feedback.
Course/Instruction Opinion Surveys are confidential but we would like all students to complete them towards the end of the term.
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Instructor: Ashok K. Goel
Office: TSRB 219
Phone: 404-894-4994
Email: goel@cc.gatech.edu (best way to contact me)
Office Hours: Fridays, 9:30 am -12 noon
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Co-Instructor: Maithilee Kunda
Office: TSRB Design & Intelligence Lab (in open space adjacent to TSRB 219)
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Email: mkunda@gatech.edu
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GTA: Nicholas Davis
Email: ndavis35@gatech.edu
Office: HIS 209
Office Hours: Thursdays 3-6 pm
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Grader: Gongbo Zhang
Email: gzhang64@gatech.edu
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The instructor of this course may conduct research that involving the collection of course artifacts (examples of work that students complete and submit). As part of this research, the instructor may correlate these artifacts with students’ major, GPAs, and demographic information. Students are free to “opt out” of this research and not have their artifacts included as well as to have their individual information excluded from the student data that is collected. If you do not wish to participate in this research, please let the instructor know.
Quick Resources:
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design for a short description of design.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention for a short description of invention.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creativity for a short description of creativity.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_creativity for a short description of
computational creativity.
See http://dilab.gatech.edu/C3/index.html for the Georgia Tech faculty consortium for Creativity + Cognition + Computation.
See http://swiki.cs.colorado.edu/CreativeIT/ for the Creativity IT research community.
See http://dilab.gatech.edu/ccc/index.html for a recent ACM conference on Creativity and Cognition.
See http://www.icdc2012.org.uk/ for a recent conference on Design Creativity.
See http://www.computationalcreativity.net/iccc2013/ for the next conference on Computational Creativity.
See http://www.mathematik.uni-marburg.de/~discoveryscience2013/ for the next conference on Discovery Science.
See http://axon.cs.byu.edu/Dan/673/ for another course on computational creativity.
Ashok Goel
January 4, 2013
