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Spring 2015
Computational Creativity
CS 4803 – UG Section; CS 8803, Grad Section
Course Description
Teaching Team
Instructor: Ashok Goel (goel@cc.gatech.edu)
Teaching Assistant: Bryan Wiltgen (bryan.wiltgen@gatech.edu)
Occasional Guests : Spencer Rugaber, Keith McGreggor (Venture Lab), Richard Darden (IBM), others.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:35 – 10:55
CCB 53
3 Credits
Course description: Information-processing theories of human creativity, interactive tools for aiding/augmenting/amplifying human creativity, autonomous creative systems. Case studies of computational creativity. Focus and emphasis on computational modeling/discovery and computational design/invention.
Learning Goals:
(1) To become familiar with the literature on computational creativity (concepts, methods, tasks).
(2) To become familiar with the state of art in computational creativity (systems, techniques, tools).
(3) To learn about the processes of designing, developing and deploying interactive/autonomous creative systems from ideation to realization.
(4) To acquire experience in designing an interactive creative tool.
(5) To become an independent thinker in computational creativity.
Learning Strategies:
(a) Personalized learning (reading, analyzing, critiquing papers in computational creativity)
(b) Collaborative learning (presenting, discussing, critiquing papers on computational creativity)
(c) Learning by example (case studies of computational creativity)
(d) Learning by doing (small group exercises)
(e) Project-based learning (collaborative project)
(f) Peer-to-peer Learning (sharing and critiquing work)
(g) Learning by reflection (documenting and critiquing own work)
Learning Outcomes:
(i) To be able to analyze/critique developments in computational creativity like an expert.
(ii) To be able to identify problems in addressing creative tasks.
(iii) To be able to design, develop, and document creativity tools from ideation to realization for addressing creative tasks.
Learning Assessments:
(i) Daily quizzes
(ii) Two presentations (one individual, one team)
(iii) Project deliverables (four, monthly project deliverables)
Outline of the Course:
Six interleaved themes.
Theme 1: Human Creativity (~2 weeks)
General Creativity
Creativity in Design
Creativity in Modeling
Team Creativity
Methods for Studying Creativity
Measures of Creativity
Theme 2: Information-Processing Theories of Human Creativity (~3 weeks)
General Information-Processing Theories
Knowledge Representation
Analogical Thinking
Visual Thinking
Systems Thinking
Information-Processing Theories of Creativity in Design
Information-Processing Theories of Creativity in Modeling
Theme 3: Interactive Tools for Aiding/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
Theme 5: A Detailed Case Study in Computational Creativity: IBM Watson (~2 weeks)
Theme 6: Entrepreneurship in Computational Creativity (~2 weeks)
Instructor will post day-by-day class schedule on the class site on T square.
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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 papers for readings outside the classroom, while class time will be used for quizzes, videos, presentations, discussions, exercises.
Most classes will start with a short video, then a short quiz on the reading of the day, followed by a brief presentation by a student, followed by discussions and exercises. Note again: most classes will have an early quiz on the reading of the day. So please come prepared and please come on time.
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 up to two unexcused absences from the class.
For up to two more absences, each student must make a written request (email is fine) and provide documentary evidence (for example, a letter from a doctor).
For any additional absences, each student must provide an approval from the Office of the Dean of Students.
All students will be required to make at least one individual presentation in the class, and one team presentation.
All students are expected to actively participate in the class discussions and exercises.
Please do not start your laptops or other electronic devices inside the classroom
(unless asked by the course instructors).
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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.
Here is the general nature, structure, and deliverables of the projects.
Deliverable 1: We will introduce you to biologically inspired design as an example of human creativity. We will provide access to a digital library of case studies of biologically inspired design. We will ask you to work in a small team and identify one biologically inspired design problem that may be amenable to solution using IBM's Watson tool. The deliverable will be a 1-page problem description.
Deliverable 2: We will provide access to IBM's Watson system. The class as a whole will seed Watson with biological knowledge needed for biologically inspired design. We will ask you to work in a team and use Watson to support the biologically inspired design problem. The deliverable will be a 5-page assessment of the use of Watson for biologically inspired design.
Deliverable 3: We will ask you to work in a small team and identify a subproblem in the process of biologically inspired design for which you may want to build an interactive tool. For example, the interactive tool may enhance Watson in some way or work in conjunction with Watson. The deliverable will be a 3-page report on the design subproblem and the interactive tool.
Deliverable 4: We will ask you to work in a small group and develop a mock-up/storyboard of the interactive tool. The deliverable will be the mock-up and a 5-page report on the interactive tool. The deliverable will also include a team presentation to the class.
Students will self-select the teams.
The instructors will help with the formation of the teams.
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: 15%
Quizzes: 15%
Individual presentations: 10%
Team presentations: 10%
Projects: 50%
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 221A
Phone: 404-894-4994
Email: goel@cc.gatech.edu (best way to contact me)
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays from 10am – 11am, at TSRB (Technology Square Research Building) 221A
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GTA: Bryan Wiltgen
Email: bryan.wiltgen@gatech.edu
Office Hours: Mondays from 12pm – 1pm and Wednesdays from 10am – 11am, both at TSRB (Technology Square Research Building), the couch/desk area near 218-B. This is near Dr. Goel's office in TSRB 221A.
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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 https://www.designsociety.org/event/159/icdc2014-3rd_international_conference_on_design_creativity_12-14th_january_2015 for a recent conference on Design Creativity.
See http://computationalcreativity.net/iccc2014/ for the recent 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 5, 2015
(Last updated: Bryan Wiltgen on January 14, 2015)
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