Assignments

Get Set – due Monday, January 23
Before we can get down to the business, we need to make sure we have the right tools for the job. If you follow these instructions (with help from our amazing NINJA team), your computer will be primed and ready to do some serious computational work.
Mini Project 1: Gene Finder – parts due Mon Jan 30; and Mon Feb 6
In this assignment you will be writing a Python program that analyzes a DNA sequence and outputs snippets of DNA that are likely to be protein-coding genes. You will then use your program to find genes in a sequence of DNA from the bacterium Salmonella Enterica.
Mini Project 2: Computational Art – due Monday, February 13
In this assignment you will be exploring one particular means of using computers to generate images.
Mini Project 3: Text Mining and Analysis – due Thursday, February 23
In this assignment you will learn how to use computational techniques to analyze text.
Mini Project 4: Interactive Programming – parts due Thu Feb 23; Thu Mar 2; and Wed Mar 8
The big idea of this project will be to move from static programs (ones that are run, do some computations, and spit out a result) to interactive programs (ones that allow the user to perform actions that change the state of the program).
Mini Project 5: Feedback and Revision – due Sunday, April 23
Reflection and revision is an important part of the iterative feedback process. In this mini project, you will select one of your first four mini projects to revise/extend and resubmit.
Final Project – parts due Mon Mar 20; Mon Mar 27; Thu Mar 30; Mon Apr 24; Thu Apr 27; Sun Apr 30; and Thu May 4
From now until the end of the semester you will be working with a team of students on a group software project. The project will culminate during the Final Event period for this class, with EXPO style demo / poster session.