daniel shiffman

Note, this is an old syllabus. The current one is here.

Course Mailing List: http://forums.nyu.edu/cgi-bin/nyu.pl?enter=itp-noc
Course Wiki (for homework posting): http://www.shiffman.net/coursewiki
Course Presentation Schedule: http://www.shiffman.net/coursewiki/index.php?title=Presentations_NOC_F06
Office Hours Sign-Up: http://www.shiffman.net/coursewiki/index.php?title=Office_Hours
Class del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/tag/natureofcode/

Syllabus (Fall 2006)

Week 1 — Random Numbers and Probability (Sep 11)

Class Intro / Overview

Processing review

Probability Basics

Distributions of Random Numbers (Uniform, Non-Uniform, Normal)

Perlin Noise

PART I: Motion

Week 2 — Vectors (Sep 18)

Review of object oriented programming

Motion 101 — Location, velocity, and acceleration

Week 3 — Forces (Sep 25)

Attraction/Repulsion

Friction/Drag

Week 4 — Oscillations (Oct 2)

Trigonometry

Polar vs. Cartesian Coordinates

Pendulum

Graphing waves (perlin noise waves)

2D trig equation graphing (”graphing inequalities”)

Week 5 — Particle Systems (No class Oct 9th! Make-up 3:30 to 6:00 in 442 Friday, Oct 13th)

ArrayLists

Advanced Object Oriented Programming — Inheritance and Polymorphism

Week 6 — Review, Midterm Workshop (Oct 16)

PART II: Life, the Universe, but not Everything

Week 7 — Simple Rule-Based Systems (Oct 23)

Recursion and Fractals

1D Cellular Automata — Wolfram

2D Cellular Automata — Conway’s Game of Life

Week 8 — Steering Behaviors (Oct 30)

Autonomous Agents

Craig Reynolds’ Boids — Alignment, Cohesion, Separation

Week 9 — Genetic Algorithms Part I (Nov 6)

Searches

Week 10 — Genetic Algorithms Part II (Nov 13)

Interactive evolution

Week 11 — Neural Networks (Nov 20)

Final Project Proposals

NO CLASS ON WED, NOV 22

Week 12 — Final Project Proposals

Week 13 — Final Project Presentations (Dec 4)

Week 14 — Final Project Presentations (Dec 11)

Description:
Can we capture the unpredictable evolutionary and emergent properties of nature in software? Can understanding the mathematical principles behind our physical world world help us to create digital worlds? This class will focus on the programming strategies and techniques behind computer simulations of natural systems. We’ll explore topics ranging from basic mathematics and physics concepts to more advanced simulations of complex systems. Subjects covered will include forces, trigonometry, fractals, cellular automata, self-organization, and genetic algorithms. Examples will be demonstrated using Processing with a focus on object oriented programming.

Homework
Students are required to complete a programming exercise each week (assignments to be specified on the weekly handouts linked above). Links to each assignment should be posted to the course wiki http://www.shiffman.net/coursewiki . Please come prepared each class to demo your work.

Presentations
Each student is required to make a “research” presentation once during the course of the semester to supplement the material presented in class the previous week. 3 or 4 people should sign up for one of the available weeks and create a presentation as a group. The format for the presentations is extremely open (feel free to think creatively here). They should be brief (15-20 minutes) and could include any of the following: information on related projects, live physics demonstrations, instructional videos, links to online sources and tutorials, book reviews, source code examples, diagrams, etc. You should include a link to documentation of your talk on the presentation schedule wiki.

Requirements: (no incompletes)

40% homeworks

30% final project

10% presentation

20% class participation, attendance

Reading Materials

The Computational Beauty of Nature, Gary William Flake (required)

Mathematics and Physics for Programmers, Danny Kodicek.

Algorithmic Beauty of Plants, Przemyslaw Prusinkiewicz

Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds (Complex Adaptive Systems), Mitchel Resnick

Creative Code, John Maeda

Just about any book by Ian Stewart