Software Visualization

CS 7390
Winter 1998
College of Computing 102
MWF 2:00-3:00

Catalogue Description:
3-0-3. Prerequisites: CS 6490 or permission of instructor
Study the use of visualization to assist program development and computer instruction. Topics include data structure display, algorithm animation, visual debugging, and program visualization.

Instructor:
John Stasko
stasko@cc.gatech.edu
253 College of Computing
894-5617
Office hours: Mon. 3:00-4:30 or by appt.

Newsgroup:
git.cc.class.7390

General Information

This course will introduce students to current research in the area of Software Visualization. This will be a graduate seminar style course with an emphasis on discussion and critical evaluation of existing research, as well as speculation about possible future directions. Our textbook for the course will be Software Visualization: Programming as a Multimedia Experience edited by J. Stasko, J. Domingue, M. Brown and B. Price from MIT Press, 1998. Our readings from the text will be supplemented by a few extra papers.

Grading

Your final grade will be determined by a few different components. The first will be an in-class presentation of a particular topic from the class, potentially involving a chapter or two from the book, plus another article or two. You will be judged on the quality, thoroughness, and insight of the presentation. This component is designed to give you practice in oral presentations, an extremely important component of your graduate education. You must also prepare an overview report of your topic that will be placed on the Web. The second component will be 2 programming problems: the first involves the creation of an algorithm animation, and the second is a final project that can be done as a team or as an individual. Students will be able to choose the topic of their project. The final component will be general class participation and enthusiasm. We expect all students to attend class and get involved in the discussions that occur there. One concrete measure of this final component will be submitting discussion questions for other folks' talks and your evaluations of their talks.

How to make a good oral presentation.

Algorithm animation programming problem

Final project

The table below summarizes these components and how each will contribute to your final grade.

Component Weight
Talk & materials 30%
Programming problem 20%
Final project 40%
Class participation 10%

Course Syllabus and Readings

All chapters come from the course textbook. Chapter titles and authors.

Alternative bibliographic entries by topic
Alternative bibliographic entries alphabetically

Week 1

Jan 7 -- Introduction and Set-up

Jan 9 -- Information Visualization 1

Week 2

Jan 12 -- Information Visualization 2

Jan 14 -- POLKA programming tutorial

Jan 16 -- Software Visualization Overview

Week 3

Jan 19 -- MLK HOLIDAY

Jan 21 -- Algorithm Animation Critique session

Jan 22 **Extra** -- GVU Brown Bag
Guest Lecture: Bill Wright, Visible Decisions Inc.
"Business Information Visualization"

Jan 23 -- SV Techniques

Week 4

Jan 26 -- SV Techniques: Program Visualization

Jan 28 -- SV Techniques: Animation, color, sound, 3-D, UI

Jan 30 -- SV Specification

Week 5

Feb 2 -- SV Specification

Feb 4 -- POLKA Animation demos

Feb 6 -- SV for specific domains (Knowledge/logic programming)

Week 6

Feb 9 -- SV for specific domains (concurrent programming)

Feb 11 -- SV for Software Engineering

Feb 13 -- SV for Software Engineering: Debugging

Week 7

Feb 16 -- SV for Software Engineering: Real World Systems

Feb 18 -- SV for Education

Feb 20 -- SV for Education: Electronic classrooms and teaching

Week 8

Feb 23 -- SV for Education: Software

Feb 25 -- Guest lecture
Owen Astrachan and Susan Rodger
Duke University
"Animations as a Foundation in Computer Science Courses,
Visualizations as an Integral Component to Understanding"

Feb 27 -- Free day (project work)

Week 9

Mar 2 -- Guest lecture
Marian Petre
Open University
"A Glimpse of Expert Programmers' Mental Imagery"

Mar 4 -- Evaluation of SV: Cognitive Questions

Mar 6 -- Evaluation of SV: Experiments and Studies

Week 10

Mar 9 -- Final project demos 1

Mar 11 -- Final project demos 2

Mar 13 -- Review and wrap-up discussion

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