project

description:
The purpose of the project is to give you an opportunity to apply one (or more) of the ideas we've been reading about all semester to something that is interesting and meaningful to you. You will need to create an ALife application, either in simulation or using robots. This should not be a huge effort (this is only a 1-point seminar class, after all), but I think it is important for you to solidify some of the ideas we've been discussing by trying them out yourself.

requirements:

• proposal/abstract
  Write one paragraph describing what you plan to do for the project. This is due Thu Nov 10. Please bring a hardcopy to class. Include your name, a title for the project and one paragraph indicating which ideas or concepts you are applying and how you are planning to apply them. I would also appreciate a PLAIN TEXT or PDF version emailed to me.

• the application
  The application itself will be, as above, either in simulation or using real robots. As above, you need to pick one (or more) ideas or concepts that we have read about and/or discussed this term. Your application should demonstrate the ideas/concepts. You must write something new yourself!! You cannot just turn in something from the NetLogo community pages or some applet web site!!!

• demonstration
  In class on Thu Dec 15, everyone will have 5-7 minutes to demo their project.

• poster
  This is like a "poster" in an academic conference, which is basically a short (2-page) write-up describing your project. Include any pertinent implementation details, the ideas/concepts you demonstrated, images, drawings, screen shots -- anything that will help explain what you have done and express how hard you worked on it and how much fun you had putting it together. Make sure to include a complete bibliography, providing full references for any works cited. Bring a hardcopy of this to class on Thu Dec 15, and I would also appreciate a PDF version emailed to me.
  To give you practice in formatting conference papers, use the ACM style files which are available here:
  http://www.acm.org/pubs/submissions/submission.htm
  to format your 2-page paper.

notes:

• You may build the application alone or with ONE other person from the class. NOTE that if you work with a partner, you must:
  • Turn in the abstract and poster individually.
  • Each of you must also turn in, individually, a description of what you did, how you contributed to the project, what your partner did and how s/he contributed to the project.

• I recommend that you build a simulation using the NetLogo environment which I have talked about in class. You can download NetLogo from here: http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Once you download it, you'll see that a reference manual and tutorial materials are included. It's not hard to learn, especially if you already know another programming language.

• Feel free to be creative and expand on this project description, but you must explain yourself in the abstract and get my approval for any major diversions from the above :-)