CS349 Students Present Final Projects

Students in CS349, Developing Interactive Multimedia Content, study both theoretical and practical aspects of digital media.  Specifically, they study: object-oriented programming techniques used in multimedia applications, event-based programming, a variety of different individual media (both auditory and visual), the issues that arise when combining multiple media, and dynamic (a.k.a., time-based) media.

Students are required to complete a final project that demonstrates that they have mastered the material in the course.  During the week of December 5, the students who took CS349 during the fall semester of 2011 presented their final projects.  Some students worked on their projects alone while others worked in groups.  What all of the projects had in common is that they involved the design and implementation of an interactive multimedia software product.

Each presentation was ten minutes long and had three parts.  The students first described the product design process they used and the actual product itself. They then discussed the engineering design process they used, the alternative designs they considered, and the design they implemented.  Finally, they demonstrated the product. 

Some of the products were educational (including a music theory education system and an interactive storybook), some were practical (including a technical analysis system for financial securities and a workout organizer), some were just fun (including a fish tank containing fish which respond to the outside world), and several games (including two that involved dolphins for reasons that are best left unstated, a quest game, a strategy game, and some classic arcade games).

The presentations were recorded so that students could assess their own performance, and compare their presentations to those of others.  Though the recordings are not available to the public, the products they developed are available from the course WWW site at users.cs.jmu.edu/bernstdh/web/cs349/FinalProjects/Fall2011.  Be forewarned – some of the products are a little buggy, some are a little “ugly” (CS349 is, after all, a computer science course not an art course), and some are addicting.  You’ll need to use a browser that supports Java (preferably version 1.6 or higher).