HCI in the age of AI

Leonard McMillan

Annoucements

2026-01-07: Welcome to the first meeting of Comp 590 Today's class will be canceled. The first class will be held on 1/12. See you then.
2026-01-26: CLASS IS CANCELED. The university is closed. Stay safe.
2026-01-28: We will be holding class today, however I will not be taking attendance.
2026-02-02: CLASS IS CANCELED. The university is closed. I will need to do some major revamping of the schedule.
2026-02-28: Problem Set #3 is now on-line. You should look over it before your midterm. Your midterm will consider aspects of the application "Gumballs.py" from this problem set.
2026-03-14: The preliminary schedule for Course Project Pitches is available. Let me know immediately if there are any issues. I have been slowly looking over the progress on your projects as indicated in your NotebookLMs. I will continue to do so over the break.
2026-04-11: The schedule for the Final Project Presentations are posted. Make sure that you keep your Notebooks up to date.
2026-04-27: The final exam will be held in SN014 from 12:00pm-3:00pm on April 29 (Make sure that your NotebookLM is ready to take it!)

Course Overview

Forget everything you know about traditional coding. This course embraces the on-going "prompt" and "vibe" programming revolution, where software is developed through iterative conversations with AI rather than written line-by-line. We will explore the radical integration of AI tools as Human-Computer Interfaces. You won't just be "exposed" to technology; you will actively use LLMs, build RAGs, fine-tune open-weight models, and create speech and vision interfaces. You will learn how to translate high-level creative "vibes" into functional code and weld these new capabilities into usable interfaces. Through intensive labs, you will build AI-enhanced games and applications, tackling ethical hurdles along the way, and finish by presenting your own AI-native software project.

The course syllabus can be found here.

Instructor

Leonard McMillan

Meeting Time: MW 9:05am - 10:20
Classroom: FB009
Office: SN316
Office Hours by Reservation: Wed 10am-noon

Grading POLICY

3 Assignments (20%, 10% each with the lowest dropped)
Midterm (25%)
Final (25%)
Final Project (20%)
Class Participation (10%, In-class exercises)

Course Schedule

Note: Future dates in the following schedule are for reference only, and, therefore, are subject to change.

Comp590Spring2026Schedule

Supplemental Materials

Ollama

Ollama allows you to run open-source large language models (LLMs) on your own computer, offering privacy, offline access, and customization. It supports a variety of models, including Llama 3, Emma, and DeepSeek, and can be used for tasks like writing, code generation, data analysis, and more. Essentially, Ollama puts the power of LLMs directly in your hands, without reliance on cloud services or internet connectivity.

LM Studio

LM Studio is a user-friendly application that lets you run and experiment with large language models (LLMs) directly on your own computer. It simplifies the process of downloading, installing, and interacting with various open-source LLMs, providing a convenient interface for tasks like generating text, translating languages, writing different kinds of creative content, and answering your questions in an informative way.

With LM Studio, you can explore the capabilities of LLMs without needing advanced technical expertise, while keeping your data private and secure on your local machine.

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