Dianna Xu

Creative coding and visual portfolios for CS1

In this paper, we present the design and development of a new approach to teaching the college-level introductory computing course (CS1) using the context of art and creative coding. Over the course of a semester, students create a portfolio of aesthetic visual designs that employ basic computing structures typically taught in traditional CS1 courses using the Processing programming language. The goal of this approach is to bring the excitement, creativity, and innovation fostered by the context of creative coding. We also present results from a comparative study involving two offerings of the new course at two different institutions. Additionally, we compare our results with another successful approach that uses personal robots to teach CS1.

Games, robots, and robot games: complementary contexts for introductory computing education

Using games to teach introductory computing courses provides another context with which to exploring the possible attraction, retention, and education of a new generation of computer science (CS) students. At Bryn Mawr College, we have been actively exploring these contexts and have identified four that have great promise for use in teaching introductory computing courses: visualization, multimedia, robotics, and, most recently, games. We are currently using and analysing robots and have some preliminary results. We believe that much of what we have learned in using robots in the classroom can be applied to the other contexts, especially gaming. In addition, many aspects of gaming can also be used in an introductory course using robots. This paper will explore robotics, gaming, their interactions, and provide suggestions on how best to proceed in making the most out of games in the classroom.

Quadrilateral meshes with bounded minimum angle

We present an algorithm that constructs a strictly convex quadrilateral mesh for a simple polygonal region in which no newly created angle is smaller than D(18.43) (=arctan(1/3)). This is the first known result on quadrilateral mesh generation with a provable guarantee on the minimum angle.

Technical Section: A new construction of smooth surfaces from triangle meshes using parametric pseudo-manifolds

We introduce a new manifold-based construction for fitting a smooth surface to a triangle mesh of arbitrary topology. Our construction combines in novel ways most of the best features of previous constructions and, thus, it fills the gap left by them. We also introduce a theoretical framework that provides a sound justification for the correctness of our construction. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our manifold-based construction with a few concrete examples.

A guide to the classification theorem for compact surfaces

The Classification Theorem: Informal Presentation.- Surfaces.- Simplices, Complexes, and Triangulations.- The Fundamental Group, Orientability.- Homology Groups.- The Classification Theorem for Compact Surfaces.- Viewing the Real Projective Plane in R3.- Proof of Proposition 5.1.- Topological Preliminaries.- History of the Classification Theorem.- Every Surface Can be Triangulated.- Notes.

Quadrilateral meshes with provable angle bounds

In this paper, we present an algorithm that utilizes a quadtree data structure to construct a quadrilateral mesh for a simple polygonal region in which no newly created angle is smaller than

The Fundamental Group, Orientability

{{18.43}}^{\circ} ({=}\hbox{arctan}(\frac{1}{3}))

Engaging Students with Algorithms (Abstract Only)

or greater than