Nan C. Schaller

Game playing as a technique for teaching parallel computing concepts

Blackboard tracing of algorithms, while an effective tool for the teaching of sequential programming, is singularly ineffective and confusing when applied to parallel computing. The use of classroom games to illustrate concepts and pathologies proves to be a useful alternative technique. Games in which students play the role of processors can be used to illustrate simple parallel algorithms as well as more complex concepts. Live demonstrations are stimulating for both the participants and the class as a whole. This paper discusses guidelines regarding the development of such exercises and presents several examples.

Graphics education for computer science: panel report

Workshop goals The workshop was aimed at describing the diversities and commonalities of college/university courses in scientific visualization (SV) and making useful recommendations for educators in this field. The diversity of SV courses is rooted in • the diverse audience (e.g. computer science versus science students; students knowledgable about concepts and algorithms in computer graphics versus students new to computer graphics) • the diverse goals for such a course (e.g. preparing students for the use of visualization software versus preparing students for research in visual izat ion versus preparing students to work on an interdisciplinary team to find solutions for computational science problems through visualization) • the diverse background of the instructors (e.g. computer graphics, sciences, graphical design, perception).

Integrating usability engineering into the computer science curriculum: a proposal

The authors propose a model for incorporating usability engineering into the undergraduate computer science curriculum using an example curriculum from an accredited undergraduate computer science program in the United States. This model proposes that human-computer interaction and usability engineering concepts be integrated throughout the computer science curriculum rather than treated as disjoint topics.

Experiences in teaching parallel computing—five years later

Since 1990, the Computer Science Department at Rochester Institute of Technology has offered a concentration in parallel computing. This concentration is available both to undergraduates and to students studying for the masters degree.This paper documents our experiences with the selection of hardware and software to support our parallel computing program. We describe our concentration, and we report on the networking established between Rochester Institute of Technology and other colleges and universities, designed to provide support for educators who are attempting to introduce parallel computing into their curricula. Finally, we look at what we might do differently if we were starting today.

Using Java in computer science education (panel)

The Java programming language burst onto the scene in May 1995 and became an instant celebrity. Development of this platform independent programming language began at Sun Microsystems in 1991 as part of a research project for consumer electronic devices with the design goals that Java be small, fast, efficient and easily portability to a wide range of devices. Although originally intended for use in programming such devices, Java has turned out to be a useful language for distributed network environments as well. It is well known as a tool for creating applets that run inside World Wide Web (Web) pages, but is also a powerful, general purpose, object-oriented language useful for a wide variety of applications. This panel discussed approaches to using Java in computer science education and, in doing so, considered the following questions:

Panel: parallel computing in the undergraduate computer science curriculum

No abstract available

Dynamical Systems and Control: Visualization of strange attractors

This paper discusses the development of the Dynamic Modeling System (DMS), a tool which can be used on a Sun 360 scientific workstation for the visualization of strange attractors.

Using photography as a metaphor for teaching image synthesis

The camera has long served as a metaphor for teaching three-dimensional graphics in introductory computer graphics courses. We extend this metaphor to include the complete photographic pipeline as a framework for teaching image synthesis in a second graphics course. We present the correspondence between photographic processes and areas of study in image synthesis, and discuss the success of using this framework in an image synthesis course at our university for the past 3 years.

Experiments with interdisciplinary projects and scientific visualization applications at the undergraduate level

The author describes the interaction between computer graphics students from the computer science department at Rochester Institute of technology and faculty from various disciplines, in their attempts to utilize state-of-the-art computer graphics techniques for the visualization of physical systems. The structure of a computer graphics course designed to act as the vehicle for this interaction is also described.<<ETX>>

Virtual photography: a framework for teaching image synthesis

The camera has long served as a metaphor for teaching three-dimensional graphics in introductory computer graphics courses. We extend this metaphor to include the complete photographic pipeline as a framework for teaching image synthesis in a second graphics course. We present the correspondence between photographic processes and the areas of study in image synthesis, and discuss the success of using this framework in an image synthesis course at our university for the past two years.