CS 353 Fall 2025     [Syllabus]     Labs/Projects

CS 353 Interactive Agents, Environments and Systems

A hands-on introduction on designing and building interactive systems. Topics include physical computing, multimodal interfaces, rapid prototyping, multimedia systems, design methodologies, and more. The course incorporates examples of early and contemporary work in human computer interaction and new media art.

Learning Objectives

1. Evaluate an interactive system’s usability and suggest improvements
2. Design and build complex interactive systems which receive data from the environment and respond to it
3. Analyze the results of data collected from interactive systems and draw meaningful conclusions
4. Apply different design principles and approaches to a problem and justify the design decisions
5. Describe and explain how a system that they have designed works and its intended use
6. Work collaboratively in pairs or small groups to design, build and evaluate systems

Time: Tu/Th 2:30-3:45pm
Place: TBA

Thursday: Lab or Project assigned in class
Wednesday: Previous week's project or check-in due at 11:59pm

Quiz 1: Tuesday, September 9th
Quiz 2: Thursday, September 18th
Quiz 3: Thursday, October 2nd
Fall Recess: No class October 14th
Quiz 4: Thursday, October 16th
Quiz 5: Thursday, October 30th
Quiz 6: Thursday, November 13th
Thanksgiving Break: No class November 25th and 27th
Final Project Demos: December 2nd and 4th

Overview

Projects	40%	Weekly, hands-on, supervised and un-supervised learning.
Participation	15%	Reading responses, in class assignments, and peer evaluation.
Final Project	25%	Cumulative student designed group project.
Paper Presentation	10%	10-15 minute presentation on an academic paper (individual)
Quizzes	10%	Bi-weekly quizzes.

Projects

In-class Participation Assignments

Final Project

Paper Presentation

Use of electronics in class

Smart phones and smart watches are not allowed during quizzes and exams.
Please make sure your cell phones are off. I discourage the use of smartphones unless used as a mandated accommodation. It is distracting for those around you (Sana et al., 2013), for lecturers, and can be distracting for you. There is also empirical evidence that students learn better and remember more by taking notes by hand (Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). Please see me if you have concerns about this and I will work with you to support your learning needs.

Generative AI

You may not turn in any AI-generated code or written text. This includes the output of AI code assistants (Copilot, Tabnine, etc.). Work submitted with AI-generated content will not be graded.

I reserve the right to ask you about your submitted work and adjust your grade accordingly if you are not the author of the submitted work. Use of AI in submitted work could be considered a violation of Academic Integrity.

Collaboration, Academic Honesty

Computer science, both academically and professionally, is a collaborative discipline. In any collaboration, however, all parties are expected to make their own contributions and to generously credit the contributions of others. In our class, therefore, collaboration on homework and programming assignments is encouraged, but you as an individual are responsible for understanding all the material in the assignment and doing your own work. Always strive to do your best, give generous credit to others, start early, and seek help early from both your professors and classmates.

The following rules are intended to help you get the most out of your education and to clarify the line between honest and dishonest work. We reserve the right to ask you to verbally explain the reasoning behind any answer or code that you turn in and to modify your project grade based on your answers. It is vitally important that you turn in work that is your own. We do use automated plagiarism detection software, so please be sure to abide by these, rather minimal, rules. Reports of academic dishonesty are handled by an academic review board and a finding of academic dishonesty may result in significant sanctions. For more details on Colby's Academic Integrity policies and procedures, see colby.edu/academicintegrity.

• If you have had a substantive discussion of any homework or programming solution with a classmate, then be sure to cite them in your write-up. If you are unsure of what constitutes "substantive", then ask me or err on the side of caution. As one rule of thumb, if you see more than 10 lines of someone else's code, then you should cite them. You will not be penalized for working together.
• You must not copy answers or code from another student either by hand or electronically. Another way to think about it is that you should be talking English with one another, not program languages.

Help and Discussion Outside of Lecture

Miscellaneous

You should back up any files related to this course. If the code you submit to us is somehow lost (through your fault or our fault), we must be able to get another copy from you. We suggest you use the college's personal server (filer.colby.edu) to store your work in this class, as it is regularly backed up.

You should never leave your work in a public folder on a computer in a public lab. Instead your work should always be kept in your private account or copied to your own media such as flash drives and deleted from the computer's hard disk when you are finished using the computer.

Don't gloss over errors in your code. That is, if you pretend there are no errors in your code when you know there are some there, we will take off more points than if you point out the errors that you were unable to fix.

The Colby Affirmation

Colby College is a community dedicated to learning and committed to the growth and well-being of all its members.

As a community devoted to intellectual growth, we value academic integrity. We agree to take ownership of our academic work, to submit only work that is our own, to fully acknowledge the research and ideas of others in our work, and to abide by the instructions and regulations governing academic work established by the faculty.

As a community built on respect for ourselves, each other, and our physical environment, we recognize the diversity of people that have gathered here and that genuine inclusivity requires active, honest, and compassionate engagement with one another. We agree to respect each other, to honor community expectations, and to comply with college policies.

As a member of this community, I pledge to hold myself and others accountable to these values.

What does this mean to students?

• We respect each other and ourselves.
• We respect our physical spaces on campus.
• We respect our academics and complete work honestly.

Title IX Statement

Colby College prohibits and will not tolerate sexual misconduct or gender-based discrimination of any kind. Colby is legally obligated to investigate sexual misconduct (including, but not limited to, sexual assault and sexual harassment) and other specific forms of behavior that violate federal and state laws (Title IX and Title VII, and the Maine Human Rights Act). Such behavior also requires the College to fulfill certain obligations under two other federal laws, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Statistics Act (Clery Act). To learn more about what constitutes sexual misconduct or to report an incident, see:
https://life.colby.edu/your-safety/sexual-violence-title-ix/. I am committed to all Colby students feeling safe, accepted, and included in all aspects of their college experiences, including this course. Colby prohibits and will not tolerate sexual misconduct or gender based discrimination of any kind and is obligated, by federal and state laws, to respond to reports and provide resources to students. As your professor I am considered a "responsible employee" which requires me to report incidence of sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, or stalking to the Title IX Coordinator. If you wish to access confidential support services, you may contact:

• The Counseling Center: 207-859-4490
• The Title IX Confidential Advocate: 207-509-9122
• The Office of Religious and Spiritual Life: 207-859-4272
• Maines's 24/7 Sexual Assault Helpline: 1-800-871-7741

Academic Accommodations

I am committed to creating a course that is inclusive in its design. If you encounter barriers, please let me know immediately so we can determine if there is a design adjustment that can be made. I am happy to consider creative solutions as long as they do not compromise the intent of the assessment or learning activity.
If you are a student with a disability, or think you may have a disability, you are also welcome to initiate this conversation with the Dean of Students Office. The Dean of Students Office works with students with disabilities and faculty members to identify reasonable accommodations. Please visit their website for contact and other information:
https://www.colby.edu/studentadvising/student-access-and-disability-services/. If you have already been approved for academic accommodations, please connect within the two weeks of the start of the semester so the office can develop an implementation plan.

Mental and Emotional Health

I am invested in the mental and emotional health of my students. Even as I establish and maintain the academic standards of my course, I value each of you as individuals with complex lives, identities, and challenges.
Throughout the semester, the responsibilities of your Colby education may interact with situational as well as ongoing mental and emotional challenges in foreseeable and unforeseeable ways. If you are in need of reasonable flexibility due to an emotional situation or an ongoing mental health issue, please communicate as openly as possible with your Class Dean, and/or members of the office of Access and Disability Services, preferably in advance of the need, so that we can discuss how your circumstances interface with course requirements. Together, we will consider what is needed and what is possible. If we can discuss the situation, we can manage the situation together.
Please do not allow academic responsibilities to prevent you from getting help you need. Our Colby Counseling Services staff (207-859-4490) and the staff in the Dean of Studies office (207-859-4560) are available to connect with you. The safety of my students and every member of this community is paramount. If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or may be a danger to themselves or others, please call the on-call counselor immediately (207-859-4490, press ‘0’).”

Athletic Participation

While Colby College is supportive of athletic participation by its students, academics take priority over athletics. Both NCAA and Colby rules prohibit missing class for practices. In the case of overlapping commitments between class and athletic competitions, the student must meet with the professor as soon as possible to discuss these overlaps. The student may request permission to miss class and make up the missed work; the instructor has final authority either to grant or to withhold permission.
Please bring me a copy of your athletics travel schedule at the beginning of the semester and we can discuss accommodations.

Respect for Diversity

It is my intent that students from diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well-served by this course, that students' learning needs be addressed both in and out of class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. I expect you to feel challenged and sometimes outside of your comfort zone in this course, but it is my intent to present materials and activities that are inclusive and respectful of all persons, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, culture, perspective, and other background characteristics.
Class rosters are provided to each instructor with the student's legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name and/or gender pronoun. Please advise me of this early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records.

I have attempted to avoid scheduling exams during major religious holidays. If, however, I have inadvertently scheduled an exam or major deadline that creates a conflict with your religious observances, please let me know within two weeks of the start of classes so that we can make other arrangements. Colby College is supportive of the religious practices of its students, faculty, and staff. The College is committed to ensuring that all students are able to observe their religious beliefs without academic penalty.