| NSF Org: |
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 16, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 16, 2012 |
| Award Number: | 1140336 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Paul Tymann
DUE Division Of Undergraduate Education EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | April 15, 2012 |
| End Date: | September 30, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $111,881.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $111,881.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
24700 MCBEAN PKWY VALENCIA CA US 91355-2340 (661)253-7707 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
24700 McBean Parkway Valencia CA US 91355-2340 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
S-STEM-Schlr Sci Tech Eng&Math, TUES-Type 1 Project |
| Primary Program Source: |
1300XXXXDB H-1B FUND, EDU, NSF |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The New Curriculum to Teach Computer Science Principles to Students in Digital Media Arts at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is developing a replicable model for teaching computer science to undergraduate students in arts schools, art departments, and arts programs. A two-semester course sequence, Applied Introduction to Programming and Algorithms, has been designed and is being offered as part of the core Media Arts curriculum. Using powerful, real-time, open source programming languages, ChucK and Processing, Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) students with little or no computer science background are acquiring foundational programming skills that are immediately applied to their digital arts practice. Students generate code for real-time music compositions and live image synthesis/processing, creating technology-driven art while simultaneously gaining proficiencies in core computer science concepts and Digital Signal Processing (DSP). The project's approach is to teach computer science in a non-traditional computer science context. By providing skills and tools in programming, networking, and basic robotic control through a course designed specifically for artists as a means of furthering their creative work, a model is created for providing computer science curricula specifically, and STEM curricula more generally, to students from a diverse background and degree trajectory. All course material, code examples, syllabus and assignments are being made publicly available online.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Our goal was to develop, implement, and evaluate a new course to teach computer science principles to students in digital arts. Since fall 2012, we have been teaching a two-semester course titled Introduction to Programming for Digital Artists at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Now a fully-integrated part of the CalArts curriculum, the course’s strategy of presenting computer science and digital signal processing (DSP) concepts in weekly assignments that culminate in a final creative project is equipping students with skills that they can use to further their own artmaking through the use of digital technologies. The project’s intellectual merit includes bringing STEM education into a creative context and offering training in computer science to students who would not otherwise receive it in the course of their arts studies.
The project generated the first Symposium for Computer Science in Arts Education, which took place at CalArts and featured 16 invited guest speakers from the US and international institutions, including Stanford University, Princeton University, UCLA, Rhode Island School of Design, New York University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Goldsmiths College of London. Through keynote talks, lectures, demo/performances, and round table discussions, the symposium served as a meeting place for the discussion and planning of future pedagogical collaborations across institutions.
Further, throughout the grant period, the PI and co-PI participated in numerous national and international engagements, such as presenting a keynote address at the Northwestern Conference meeting of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges (CCCS), offering short versions of the course at the Symposium on Laptop Orchestras and Ensembles and at the International Conference for Auditory Display, and conducting a 3-week intensive workshop to students at the Seoul Institute of the Arts in South Korea.
Broader impacts of this project include the development of massive open online courses (MOOCs) which have enrolled over 50,000 students to date and the publication of a textbook (Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists, Creating Music With ChucK, Manning Publishing) in December 2014 by the PIs, in collaboration with colleagues at Stanford University.
Last Modified: 12/18/2015
Modified by: Ajay Kapur
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