Multimodal Media Madness (Summer 2020)

  Class Information

Lab Thu, 14:30 - 16:30
  2222, i10 Seminar room
Language German
Credits 7

  Important Dates

Kickoff Thu, Apr 9th 14:30
Presentations Thu, Jul 16th 14:30

  Resources

RWTHonline

RWTHmoodle

FabLab

Multimodal Media Madness (M3) is our hands-on lab ("Praktikum") for Bachelor students in Computer Science, although we also invite students with strong skills from other disciplines to apply. Build an interactive system with an unusual user interface in hard- and software, that creates an awesome user experience! It's a great gateway into our lab's research and teaching focus on User Interface Design, Human-Computer Interaction, and Personal Fabrication.

This course has limited seating. You need to register to obtain a seat in this course.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Jan
Borchers

Adrian
Wagner

For any questions about the class, please contact Adrian.

Syllabus

This year, you will design and program using different digital fabrication tools created and/or located at our chair. These tools include but are not limited to VisiCut and CutCAD for the work with laser cutters. The unique iterative design process of working with digital tools, that you can change, adapt and extend according to the needs of your physical project will be a focus of this lab.

Depending on your topic you might learn:

  • How to use the digital fabrication tools in our Fab Lab, from our laser cutter and our VisiCut software, to our various 3D printers, to make your physical enclosures;
  • How to use the free Eagle PCB design software and our PCB mill to design and produce your own electronic circuit boards;
  • How to use the beginner-friendly ATmega-based Arduino microcontroller boards and the Arduino IDE to program interactive behavior in embedded software.


After some quick introductions to these tools, you'll then have most of the semester to iteratively design digital and/or physical prototypes and adapt our digital tools using your programming skills.

Schedule

  • Introduction

    • Lab: Introduction, Group Formation

      Thu, Apr 9th

  • Basic Knowledge

    • Lab: Basic Software Tools, Prototyping

      Thu, Apr 16th

  • 2D Design and Lasercutting

  • 3D Design and 3D Printing

  • Scripting and Plugins

    • Lab: Scripting with Python and UIs with QT

      Thu, May 7th

  • Arduino and Electronics

    • Lab: Arduino, Electronics and gcode

      Thu, May 14th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Thu, May 28th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Thu, Jun 18th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Thu, Jun 25th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Thu, Jul 2nd

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Thu, Jul 9th

  • Final Presentations

    • Lab: Final Presentations

      Thu, Jul 16th

All Projects from 2020

Grading

Lab exercises and assignments will be graded on the following scale:

1.0 Exceptional work that clearly went above and beyond what was given on the exercise
2.0 Exercise was completed satisfactorily as per the assignment specification
3.0 Exercise was completed, but has some problems
4.0 Incomplete exercise
5.0 Little or no effort was put into the exercise

Assignments

To take this course for credit, you must complete all assignments, lab exercises, and the final project. The grade of this course will be a combination of the assignments and final project. Note that you must achieve a cumulative score above 4.0 and complete all exercises to pass the course. You are also expected to be aware of, and abide by, the ethics policy for courses taught at our chair. Assignments/lab exercises will be assigned weekly. They are to be completed in groups as announced in the lab. If you do not complete the lab exercise during the scheduled lab section, you must complete it on your own time and submit it by the due date. Late assignments will be graded 5.0. Exceptions will be granted only for valid (i.e., medical) reasons.

Fields of Study

  • Informatik (B.Sc.)/Angewandte Informatik
  • Angewandte Geographie (B.Sc.)/Nebenfach Informatik

Course Allocation and Registration Guide

Number of SWS: P3 (Aachen)
ECTS Credits: 7
Course language: German for all lectures, assignments, and exams

Only 32 seats are available for this course. To get a seat in this course, you have to register for the practical in the appropriate timeframe one semester before the course is sheduled.

Featured Past Projects

Details