BALL STATE UNIVERSITY
Judging Results of the Spring 2014 CS 120: Computer Science 1
All-section Art Show
Sponsored by the Department of Computer Science

Held in the AJ Atrium on Friday, March 21, 2014, from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM

The collages shown below were created by students in the CS 120 course, and judged by a panel of faculty (CS and non-CS) to be the best in the show. Prior to the event, they were judged by their peers to be the best in each section of the course. Although these could have been created using an image-editing program, these students have written the code themselves to create these collages programmatically by manipulating individual pixels.

This page displays the entries from this semester. You may view entries from all other semesters. All student work included in this and other shows, as well as many other CS 120 students' work is provided in an online digital media repository maintained by the BSU University Libraries.

"Radial City" by Chris Graham Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "The function I found most challenging was the negative function and making the background stay tan while keeping the foreground white. Seeing the final result of my coding come together was very rewarding."

Best in Section 1 "The Sanctity of Art" by Aiden Feay Sophomore; History & Computer Science majors Artist's statement: "I ran into a few difficulties while trying to replicate the stock image over my original canvas as it could not evenly contain each row of images without running into a loop error. Through deliberation with the lab experts and after many unsuccessful attempts, I managed to arrive at a feasible solution. I found the solving of visual problems through code to be even more gratifying than solving the same issues in a program like Photoshop. Modifying each individual pixel not with a software tool but with my own problem-solving skills and a few built-in functions made the process all the more fulfilling."	Best in Section 2 - tie "Chirp, Chirp!" by Andy Nolan Freshman; Telecommunications (Digital Production: Emerging Media) major, Computer Science minor Artist's statement: "The most challenging part of the project for me was to get my original code for the upper right cardinal to work in the way I wanted it to. I knew exactly what I wanted: a checkered pattern on only the red of the cardinal. However, it took a lot of thought, trial and error, and adjustments to make the idea come to life. The most rewarding part of the project was looking at my finished product and being completely satisfied with the result. I had the idea in mind from the very beginning, so seeing it turn out the way I wanted it to was very rewarding and gratifying!"
Best in Section 2 - tie "GengarX5" by Jake Hendershot Freshman; Computer Technology major, Computer Security & Business Management minors Artist's statement: "The most challenging obstacle was getting the signature into the picture. The most rewarding was certainly getting the signature to work."	Best in Section 2 - tie "A Shocking Look of one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World" by Juan Rubio Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "What I found to be the most challenging when creating the collage would be coming up with the right strategy to figure out the correct size needed for my original picture as well as the modifications in order for it to properly fit on the new canvas. To me, the most rewarding part about creating the collage would be finally getting the pieces together (modifications) onto the canvas and unveiling the finished collage. I am very satisfied with the collage I have created."
Best in Section 3 - tie "It all Comes Together" by Bradley Ridge Freshman; Business & Computer Science majors Artist's statement: "The hardest part in creating this program was actually the faded edges. It is simple to set the transparency of each pixel to be associated with its distance from the edge (either by X or by Y), but at the corners, I had to figure out how to make each pixel determine which variable to use (X's distance to edge vs. Y's), and decided to use a ratio of both, and whichever one was smaller, used that variable. My favorite part of the collage was to see each function or program within the collage come together and actually work. The thrills of letting the program run, and actually seeing the correct output is incredible, and continues to keep me engaged and loving computer science."	Best in Section 3 - tie "Lords of Fire" by Maggie Schmits Freshman; Physics & Chemistry majors Artist's statement: "The most challenging part of the project for me was, in terms of writing a function, writing the enlarge picture function. Overall I have to say that spelling and colons that I forgot gave me the most trouble. The most rewarding part of the project to me is that I was able to express my own interests and I can show it off to most of my friends. And when they all ask how I did it, explaining the program to them has helped me realize that I have learned more about computer science than I originally thought I would."

Honorable Mention "Lunch Table" by Josh Conley Freshman; Computer Science major Artist's statement: "The most challenging part of this collage was probably just thinking about how I should actually arrange/modify the pictures. Overall, the coding wasn't difficult at all, but I usually am not a very artistic person. I even took a while trying to decide what picture to do, but I ended up scrolling through my phone and picking this picture of the sunset I took while out on the Prairie Creek Reservoir. The most rewarding part of the collage was seeing the final product. Almost nothing feels as satisfying and fulfilling as seeing that all the code that you wrote ended up working out. I am also pleasantly surprised at how good some of the modified posterize functions turned out to look."

Honorable Mention "Jack" by Jack Smith Junior; Telecommunications major, Computer Science minor Artist's statement: "I think the most challenging aspect of the collage was coding the chroma key function. The most rewarding part of the collage creation was seeing the vast difference just a few lines of code can make."

Honorable Mention "Chicago" by Lucas Pylypczak Freshman; Music Media Production major Artist's statement: "I found it difficult to find the most efficient way to write the program to do what I wanted. I spent alot of time rewriting parts in order to make it concise and easy to read. I found the final product to be the most rewarding part, after all the work I put into the project."

Honorable Mention "Photo Mosaic" by Elijah Dotson Senior; Theatre Education major Artist's statement: "The most challenging part of the project was creating the function to access the average intensity of multiple pixels. The most rewarding part of the collage creation was seeing the finished mosaic displayed."

Copyright © 2014 by the collage creators identified above each image.
Fall 2014 CS 120 All-section Art Show organized by David Largent with significant support from Paul Buis, Kim Bechdolt, and Jeff Zhang.