Multimodal Media Madness (Summer 2022)

  Class Information

Lab Mon, 14:30 - 16:00
  Zoom
Language German
Credits
(BSc/MSc CS)		 7

  Important Dates

Kickoff Mon, Apr 4th 14:30
Midterm Checkup Mon, May 30th 14:30
Presentations Mon, July 11th 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.

Instructors

Prof. Dr. Jan
Borchers

Adrian
Wagner

For any questions about the class, please contact Adrian.

Syllabus

This year, you will create a game on low-cost, hand-held hardware. Creating software within the constraints of hand-held devices poses interesting challenges in power consumption and code optimisation. Making sure that basic human-computer-interaction (HCI) principles are still incorporated within these limits is your goal. During the semester you will learn:

  • The role of HCI in software and especially game design;
  • How to use beginner-friendly ATmega-based Arduino microcontroller boards and the Arduino IDE to program interactive behavior in embedded software;
  • The creation of interactive experiences utilizing libraries like Arcada on the mobile Arduino platform PyBadge.


After some quick introductions to these tools, you'll then have most of the semester to iteratively design digital prototypes and create a game using your programming skills.

Schedule

  • Introduction

    • Lab: Introduction, Group Formation

      Mon, Apr 4th

  • Basic Knowledge

    • Lab: Interaction Design, Arduino Basics

      Mon, Apr 11th

  • Asset Ressources

    • Lab: Software and Ressources for Assets

      Mon, Apr 25th

  • Game Design

    • Lab: Game Design and PyBadge Basics

      Mon, May 2nd

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, May 9th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, May 16th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, May 23th

  • Midterm Checkup

    • Lab: Midterm Checkup

      Mon, May 30th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, Jun 13th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, Jun 20th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, Jun 27th

  • Labtime

    • Lab: Project

      Mon, Jul 4th

  • Final Presentations

    • Lab: Final Presentations

      Mon, Jul 11th

Featured Project

All Projects from 2022

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.

Details