Making Things Interactive 2020 Syllabus

Syllabus for Making Things Interactive, Fall, 2020

Course Overview

48-339 Making Things Interactive, Fall, 2020

Instructor:  Jet Townsend, Adjunct Professor, School of Architecture; Designer, Fabricator, Hacker

Class/Lab Location: T/R 19:00pm-20:20pm, remote only

Office Hours: As needed, make request via a email, use Skype or Zoom

Course Blog: https://courses.ideate.cmu.edu/48-339/f2020

Course Description

From the CMU catalog (written before COVID-19)

In this hands-on design-build class you will learn the skills to embed sensors and actuators (light, sound, touch, motion, etc.) into everyday things (and places etc.) and to program their interactive behavior using a micro controller. You’ll also dive into the fields of VR/AR/MR and experiment with combining these disciplines with physical computing. Through weekly exercises and a term project the class will introduce basic analog electronics, micro controller programming, projection mapping and virtual reality; as well as exploration into using kinetics and materials to make the things you design perform. Emphasis will be on creating innovative experiences. The graduate edition of this course will require additional work including a paper that can be submitted to a peer-reviewed interaction design conference such as CHI, UIST, or TEI. Students from all disciplines are welcome: but please note that the class demands that you master technical material. Experience in at least one of: programming, electronics, or physical fabrication is strongly recommended. (Participants will provide their own supplies and materials.)

Making Things Interactive (MTI) is a project-based course where physical computing and interaction design are used to create new forms of technology-mediated interaction. This course covers aspects of conceiving, designing, developing, and improving software and hardware interactions. The course is organized around a series of practical exercises and studies which lead to the use of more complex circuits, software, sensor processing, kinematics, actuation, and time-based interaction.

The capstone of this class is a final project where students can show they understand both the design, development and fabrication steps of creating an artifact and the software development and design skills of creating an interaction.

This course is part of the Integrative Design, Arts, and Technology program at Carnegie Mellon University. However, due to COVID-19, we can no longer easily use the IDeATe@Hunt Collaborative Making Facility in the lower level of Hunt Library. In Fall, 2020, this class will be taught remotely.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:

  • understand the fundamentals of tangible (physical) interaction design
  • develop and apply an aesthetic view of interactions
  • analyze existing interaction systems and provide a response / critique
  • respond to a generic request for a set of features with the software, hardware, and environment to implement those features
  • understand and leverage the capabilities of embedded systems, laptops, and cloud services and how they are used in interaction
  • develop and appreciate for why things are done as well as how they are done

Teaching Philosophy

This course operates under the following principles from IDeATe: [JET THIS NEEDS HELP]

Immersion: Language shapes thought; thinking clearly about engineering and computing requires precise use of language. The course emphasizes correct use of technical terminology from the start, even as the meaning incrementally becomes understood.

Experiential Learning: We learn by doing. The course emphasizes immediate application of theory into practical demonstration; it is the success and especially the failure of the experiment which creates a vivid understanding of the principles.

Cooperative Learning: We teach each other. Articulating an explanation develops and tests knowledge and hones the skill of knowing the bounds of one’s own knowledge. Sometimes we will teach each other incorrectly, but careful attention to further evidence will correct this over time.

Self-motivation: Students are responsible for their own progress. Wherever possible, the driving motivation will be a self-chosen goal, divided into manageable subproblems. The desire for the goal prompts autonomous exploration. If you ever find the course dull, that is an opportunity to reflect on what you are trying to achieve and choose a new objective.

Critical Thinking, Reflection and Writing: Understanding develops through reflection, and the best discipline for reflection is writing and drawing. Mere repetition of the examples does not build skill; it is the process of reflection which integrates experience into knowledge which can be applied to novel situations.

Collaboration: The aim of IDeATe is to train each student to be excellent in one area of technology or arts and be able to collaborate within diverse cohorts of technology and arts experts. Collaborative skill requires excellence in one’s own areas of expertise, an ability to translate ideas across disciplinary bounds, and a proficiency in negotiation and compromise.

Class Resources

IDeATe Program

IDeATe Library

Textbooks:

required: Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction, Nathon Shedroff and Christopher Nossel. Available from amazon: https://amzn.to/3b8lkO3

Essential Skills

The activities, exercises and graded projects in this course address a wide range skills and mindsets needed to work in the ever evolving field of tangible interaction. [ELABORATE]

Group Work

Because this class is 100% remote, group work will be both difficult and interesting. As the semester evolves, we will investigate ways that a group project can happen mediated by the Internet and mobile communication.

Grading

Grades are important to the university, how a student is performing in this class should be apparent from in-class interactions, civics points, and critiques. Please ask me in person or in email if you ever have any question about your grade or class performance.

This class is graded using a mixture of requirements from Design, Architecture, and Engineering colleges. Grades will come from a combination of critiques, exercise reviews, original writing, and class participation, or “civics points”. There are no exams in this class, however we will have the occasional 1-2 page writing assignment based on a reading, this will be given Tuesday and due Thursday.

Most grading is a matter of two points, this will be used for simple assignments, civics points, etc:

0: incomplete, late, does not satisfy requirements

1: complete: meets the requirements

2: excellent: surprises the class, creates a new insight into a requirement, goes beyond the requirements.

Critiques and In-Class Review

Critiques and exercise reviews include the following areas of grading, with each element rated on the 2 points scale.

Concept. The core elements of the project, how they relate to the requirements, how they extend the requirements and how they meet contextual and outside constraints.

Deliverables. How the concept was executed and delivered.

Documentation. The quality and clarity of the documentation, the correct amount of detail, the presentation quality of the documentation.

Critique elements. How the project is presented during a critique including signage, quality of images and sound, and how all of this relates to the original requirements.

Teamwork. How the person worked on a team including feedback from other team members.

How to have a good critique

  • Give a brief verbal overview of your idea and execution. Rehearse this ahead of the crit so that you know how long it actually takes.
  • Demonstrate or perform your interaction, rehearse this ahead of the crit so you can discover any needs related to power or space.
  • Be prepared to describe the relationship between your concept and your execution, what you changed and what you left out of the execution and why.

In a crit we might explore other options or executions that you could have explored, which is not negative feedback. This is especially likely when we have guests from outside the class as part of the crit. This an exploration of your concept where we can reflect on how a visitor or an expert in your domain would have approached the execution.

Writing Assignments and “Civics Points”

Writing assignments are reflections and personal statements and are graded pass/fail based on whether or not they were turned in on time.

Class participation aka “civics points” are related to how the student participates in the class from the perspective of other students. Yes, this is vague, but so are the relationships you will have with coworkers, clients, and vendors.

Grades for Late Projects

Please note that project deadlines are strict and outlined in the Lateness Policy section below.

Extra Credit

Extra credit comes mostly from contributing to the class blog, in particular to the “Looking Outwards” category. Students are also encouraged to comment on one another’s assignments on the blog, providing feedback on solutions and alternative paths for a concept.

Final Grade

A good, successful score will typically be around %60, final grades will be based on weighted point totals. For non-stats people, this means that if you do all the work correctly and on time you will probably get an A.

Grading: (subject to revision as we explore a completly remote class)

20% Final Crit

30% Three Section Crits

30% Weekly Assignments

15% Journal Papers (grad) or Looking Outward (undergrad)

5% Civics

General Course Policies

Attendance

Attendance is required. Designated class hours are the most effective time for communicating among group members and instructors.

Attendance will be recorded for each class period and considered during final grading. Unexcused absences during crits are as serious as missing a scheduled exam.

Physical Computing Lab

In the past, the classroom for the course in the IDeATe Physical Computing Lab in Hunt A10. We are teaching this class remotely and cannot guarantee access to Hunt A10.

The lab inventory of components and materials is available online as a Google Sheet named Physical Computing Lab Inventory, with separate tabs for tools and materials.

All lab users are expected to abide by the Physical Computing Lab Policies and the CMU campus rules related to COVID-19 safety.

Late Assignments and Grading

All assignments must be submitted by the required deadline, unless prior authorization is obtained from an instructor and documented in email. Verbal authorization is not sufficient: any verbal discussion of late submission must be documented with an emailed request and reply.

Assignments received within 24 hours of the deadline will receive half-score. Assignments received later than 24 hours will not be examined and receive zero score.

Assignments bounced for revision at the discretion of the instructor must be returned within 24 hours if not otherwise specified. This rule is meant to allow a grace period for reports which overlook a required element; please do not assume that incomplete work can be resubmitted.   Please remember that something is always better than nothing. If the deadline is imminent, please submit whatever text, images, and drawings you can rather than do nothing. Always ask for an extension rather than silently fail to deliver.

Project Reports

Each assignment serves both learning and evaluative goals. Fulfilling the assignment is an essential step in the learning process, and the result also demonstrates learning success. Please take careful note of the requirements for each assignment: they represent a contract between student and instructor.

The objective of assigning reports is to encourage evaluative thinking throughout the process of development. Writing and sketching is much faster than physically building something, and writing the core of the report first is a great way to clarify a concept. It is highly recommended to consider the report requirements throughout your process, e.g., by taking in-process notes and photos, and fully drawing out designs.

Deliverables

All projects require an accompanying report as a blog post to our course website. We use a WordPress blog to distribute assignments, collect deliverables, and assign grades.

The following specifies the detailed requirements for all reports:

  • All report documents must be submitted as a blog post to our course website.
  • Reports must include a statement of objectives, general descriptive text, narrative, results, photos, technical documentation, and citations of related work.
  • Any project photos must be embedded within the blog post.
  • Project videos must be uploaded to the hosting service of your choice and embedded in the blog-post.
  • Project videos must adhere to the minimum (1 min) and maximum (3 min) duration limits.
  • Project videos require a title and credits.
  • In general, enough technical documentation must be provided that a person of equal skill could replicate the construction of the project.
  • All program source code is required and must be provided within the single zip file linked within the blog post.
  • Electronic schematics must be provided as embedded elements or links in the blog post.  Hand-drawn or illustrated schematics are acceptable, electronic sketches from Frtizing are also allowed.
  • Mechanical drawings or sketches must be provided, clearly specify the scale and units.
  • Any original CAD files are required. Multi-file designs (typical for SolidWorks) must be provided as links in the blog post. Alternatively, STL and DXF files can be posted so others can replicate your work.

Project Gallery

Projects of merit may be requested to provide a version of their project documentation for the IDeATe public project gallery. This will not be required or graded, but represents an opportunity to have your work publicly presented as part of the IDeATe portfolio and should need only minimal additional effort to prepare.

Class time, One-on-ones, Homework, Projects and Time Management

A 10-unit course should take about 12-hours of time per week including class hours.  In our case, that generally means 4 hours of class-time and 6 hours of out-of-class work. Keep track of how much time you spend on this course.   If you are spending a lot more than 12 hours and you are concerned about this course’s demands in relation to your other coursework, please make an appointment with the instructor to discuss your situation.

At three points in the semester (beginning, middle and end), the instructor will meet each student for a short (10min) one-on-one session.  The goal of these sessions is to tune into each students individual goals and needs.

Wellness

Take care of yourself.  Do your best to maintain a healthy lifestyle this semester by eating well, exercising, avoiding drugs and alcohol, getting enough sleep and taking some time to relax. This will help you achieve your goals and cope with stress.

All of us benefit from support during times of struggle. You are not alone. There are many helpful resources available on campus and an important part of the college experience is learning how to ask for help. Asking for support sooner rather than later is often helpful.

If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support. Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) is here to help: call 412-268-2922 and visit their website at http://www.cmu.edu/counseling/. Consider reaching out to a friend, faculty or family member you trust for help getting connected to the support that can help.

If you or someone you know is feeling suicidal or in danger of self-harm, call someone immediately, day or night:

CaPS: 412-268-2922

Re:solve Crisis Network: 888-796-8226

If the situation is life threatening, call the police:

On campus: CMU Police: 412-268-2323

Off campus: 911

Diversity Statement

Class Statement (in development)

In Making Things Interactive we are working with physical computing and interaction design. That is, we make physical things that interact with people.

We are also from a variety of cultures, have a variety of different abilities and disabilities, and different reasons for studying at Carnegie Mellon.

This matters in interaction design, especially physical interaction design, because we come from different places where there are different rules and guidelines on how we interact with other people.

Some things to consider:

Physical contact. In some cultures, men and women cannot make physical contact unless they have met certain social requirements. This includes traditional greeting rituals from shaking hands, hugging, and cheek-kisses.

The meaning of color. The color of our clothing varies wildly between cultures and times. In the Christian west, we have worn black clothes as a sign of mourning going back to the Roman Empire. Hindus and Buddhists wear white to funerals. In the west, white is a color of wedding gowns and social events held in the Summer (we even have a social rule that one never wears white after Labor day or before Memorial Day).

Levels of politeness. In American English we don’t have much politeness other than “please” and “thank you”. If you are from the south, “Ma’am” and “Sir” appended to “yes”, “no”, and sometimes “thank you”. In English we use “you” freely in a variety of situations, but Japanese has an entirely diffrent set of rules. Instead of “you” Japanese uses suffixes like “-san” or “-sensei”; the direct translation of “you”, “Anata” (あなた, 貴方), is reserved for specific, in-family situations. (If you want to nerd out over “you” in Japanese: https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/08/anata-omae-kimi-kisama-meaning.html)

Giving instructions and making requests. In English, “may I” vs. “can I”; “Could you do this?” vs “Please do this” vs. “Do this now”.

Senate Faculty Approved Statement

We must treat every individual with respect. We are diverse in many ways, and this diversity is fundamental to building and maintaining an equitable and inclusive campus community. Diversity can refer to multiple ways that we identify ourselves, including but not limited to race, color, national origin, language, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, creed, ancestry, belief, veteran status, or genetic information. Each of these diverse identities, along with many others not mentioned here, shape the perspectives our students, faculty, and staff bring to our campus. We, at CMU, will work to promote diversity, equity and inclusion not only because diversity fuels excellence and innovation, but because we want to pursue justice. We acknowledge our imperfections while we also fully commit to the work, inside and outside of our classrooms, of building and sustaining a campus community that increasingly embraces these core values.

Each of us is responsible for creating a safer, more inclusive environment.

Unfortunately, incidents of bias or discrimination do occur, whether intentional or unintentional. They contribute to creating an unwelcoming environment for individuals and groups at the university. Therefore, the university encourages anyone who experiences or observes unfair or hostile treatment on the basis of identity to speak out for justice and support, within the moment of the incident or after the incident has passed. Anyone can share these experiences using the following resources:

All reports will be documented and deliberated to determine if there should be any following actions. Regardless of incident type, the university will use all shared experiences to transform our campus climate to be more equitable and just.