Old Stuff

Robots:

Augmented Reality (AR)

A common example is the virtual scrimmage line in televised football games.

    • Microsoft's Ilumiroom uses a projector to extend a gaming experience past the borders of the screen.

    • Filter out parts of what you are hearing using the Here Active Listening earbuds.

    • Google's TiltBrush allows you to paint virtually in 3d

    • Microsoft's Virtual 3D Teleportation called HoloLens allows multiple people to share physical space.

    • The Google Glass project is a special pair of glasses that provides helpful data and web interaction as you go about your daily life.[Thanks to Jeff Solin, Northside College Prep]

    • Pranav Mistry at the MIT Media lab has come up with SixthSense, using a combination of a network-connected small wearable camera and projector. [Thanks to Dave Hayes, King Prep]

    • Instead of adding to reality, you can subtract from it, giving "Diminished Reality." [Thanks to Jakob Eriksson]

      • Soon you might interact with an augmented reality game of Kweekies. This could be combined with ultrasound to give tactile feedback. Car makers can try out virtual car rims, complete with lighting effects.[Thanks to Joshua Herman, UIC]

      • Build your own desktop models with the BuildAR software from www.hitlabnz.org

      • The above pool-playing robot has a mode that helps you make your shot.

      • Wikitude superimposes Wikipedia location information on a Android G1 phone's camera view. See this photo of New York

      • Walk through the modern world, and see what used to be there in "Archaeology" from LifeClipper2

      • Try on different virtual hair styles and colors

      • Though not Augmented Reality (AR), Quick Response (QR) codes can be used to encapsulate contact information or a web site address. See http://qrcode.kaywa.com to generate your own QR code, or download the Zint software to do this on your own machine. See this article for a good explanation of how QR codes work.

Visualization / Interactive Web Sites:

      • Make a music video customized to your location, just by typing in your address, at thewildernessdowntown.com

      • See a description and link to visualizations that show how many spoken lines females have in top movies, as opposed to males.

      • See Google's public data explorer showing the interrelationship over time of items such as infant mortality and life expectancy. Developed by Hans Rosling and then acquired by Google, see Hans' captivating introduction in his TED talk.

      • See unemployment for people like you at the New York Times interactive graph, which shows how unemployment over the last couple of years is different depending on your race, age, and education level. [Thanks to Bruce Giffen]

      • See how 2D pictures can be combined to make a 3D image using Photosynth. Similar algorithms were used by Univ. Washington researchers to use 4,619 photos to make a 3.5 million point 3D reconstruction of Dubrovnik

      • Make word clouds using wordle.net

      • Excerpts from blogs tell if We Feel Fine

        • Lots of data is presented usefully in the airline reservation system hipmunk.com which sorts flights on those considered "least painful"

        • The Cave 2 at UIC allows multiple people to interact in a 3D environment. See this WTTW write-up. The EVL lab was an early pioneer, creating some of the graphics for the first Star Wars movie.

3D, Head-tracking, Illusions

Computer Interfaces

      • See this example of how a muscle-sensing system could allow you to play "air guitar", change songs on your music player while jogging, or open your car door while your hands are full. [Thanks to Rob Altman]

        • The XBox 360 Project Natal shows interacting with a game using your body, without a controller. Also see the Project Natal official site.

      • Blind can "see" with tongue vision [Thanks to Rob Altman, UIC]

Other

      • iLuminate combines technology and dance, on America's Got Talent YouTube compilation

      • See realistic physics modelling using Crayon Physics

      • "Surf" through letters using Dasher

      • Random Writer program can do computer forensics, determining who wrote something.

      • See the EVLTube videos for examples of cutting-edge research in electronic visualization

      • First clue in the multiple-step online Scavenger hunt. (Also a scavenger hunt for parents)

Chicago-area CS Programs

At UIC we are part of Chicago-area universities supporting CS education. When looking at school options, it is important to find the best fit. For each school consider average ACT, private vs. public, average class size, cost, and program emphasis. Here are some options for you to pursue for a Computer Science degree in the Chicago area, listed in alphabetical order:

DePaul

Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)

Loyola University Chicago (LUC)

Northwestern University (NU)

University of Chicago (UofC)

University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)

Though not in the immediate Chicago area, many students from the Chicago area also attend:

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)

An alternative pathway is to attend a community college for 1-2 years and then transfer to one of the above programs.

Teacher Resources

Programming Environments

Scratch is a a captivating 2-D environment that makes it easy for 7+ year-olds to create 2-D animations and upload their interactive creations to the web.

Use visual programming (like Scratch) to program an Android phone using App Inventor.

Create puzzles with Robuzzle, then post them for the world to solve.

Girls in CS

Code.org offers many hands-on activities for all ages. MadeWithCode.com has interactive and motivational activities focused on women (See also dotdiva.org).

Animation

Create frame-by-frame stick figure animations using Stykz (PC/Mac). This is a multi-platform free program similar to Pivot. Download additional figures to use at Droidz.org. [Thanks to Mark Nance, Mt. Edgecumbe HS in Sitka, AK]

Tools

PortableApps.com allows you to load free useful software on your flash drive and take it with you.

See light-Bot for a nice flash game introduction to the need for subprograms

Looking for programming assignment ideas? See the Nifty Assignments page. See also old programs used at UIC.

In the Chicago area consider joining the Chicago Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) at https://chicago.csteachers.org/

SIGCSE is the ACM Special Interest Group for Computer Science Educators. The yearly conference provides a wealth of resources and ideas for CS teachers at both the high school and college level.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  1. Why take Computer Science Classes in High School?Some years ago Money magazine chose Software Engineering as the best job in America, considering salary, job growth, stress, flexibility, creativity, and ease of entry. Computer jobs today are the fastest growing, highest-paid jobs.Computers today are essential in almost any career. Nurses who are computer literate have advantages over their co-workers who aren’t; Businesses rely heavily on computers; Teachers use them for instruction. High School computer courses are an excellent preparation to give you the level of computer knowledge that Universities and top employers will expect.

  2. How about in the future? Is Computer Science declining?There was a surge in Computer Science in the 80’s, then again in the late 90’s. US Dept. Commerce forecasts between 2006 and 2016 indicate that 2 out of the 4 fastest growing jobs are computer related, with many other computer jobs in the top 25 fastest growing jobs.

  3. What about the idea that all you do in Computer Science is sit in front of a terminal in a office cubicle?Thinking that Computer Scientists only sit in front of a computer all day can be compared to thinking that carpenters only hammer nails all day, or biologists only look at test tubes all day. Computer Science is a vast field that includes:

  4. Applications: Internet technology, Making Computers Smarter (Artificial Intelligence), Organizing large amounts of information using databases, (e.g. Google), Computer Graphics (e.g. Computer Games, iPod interfaces);

  5. Architecture: Building new computer systems and networks

  6. Figuring out how to make computer programs and systems run better (e.g. completing allowing the Humane Genome project to be finished many years early)

  7. If I'm interested in working in the Gaming industry, do I have to major in Gaming in college?Gaming is a very fast-paced and demanding area of Computer Science and requires that you are knowledgeable in math and skilled in programming, using advanced data structures. Taking advanced math classes and working on your programming skills are good ways to prepare. Gaming companies are more interested in you having a solid foundation as an expert programmer than they are in you having a gaming major. See recommended courses for UIC Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL) students for an idea about this program.