15-469A/869K: Algorithmic Textiles Design (Spring, 2020)
Fridays from 13:30-16:20 in GHC 4301 via video conference.
Instructor: Jim McCann.
Office hours, virtually or in person, by appointment.
Help also available in Wean 1334 during Knitout Office Hours (most Thursday evenings at [around] 5-6:30pm, sign up for mailing list).
Class Piazza: http://piazza.com/cmu/spring2020/15869k.
Description
Textile artifacts are -- quite literally -- all around us; from clothing to carpets to car seats. These items are often produced by sophisticated, computer-controlled fabrication machinery. In this course we will discuss everywhere code touches textiles fabrication, including design tools, simulators, and machine control languages. Students will work on a series of multi-week, open-ended projects, where they use code to create patterns for modern sewing/embroidery, weaving, and knitting machines; and then fabricate these patterns in the textiles lab. Students in the 800-level version of the course will be required to create a final project which develops a new algorithm, device, or technique in the realm of textiles fabrication.
Other versions: this course also appeared in Spring 2019 and will appear in Spring 2021.
Prerequisites
Familiarity with at least one programming language.
Evaluation
Students will be graded out of 55 points, divided as follows:
| Points | Work |
|---|---|
| 15 | Class Exercises / Participation |
| 4·10 | Projects |
Feel free to use source code from others, as long as that code's license permits it and you give proper credit. Using the work of others without giving credit (even if they don't ask for credit) is plagiarism and will result in you failing the course.
Schedule
This schedule is perpetually prone to adjustment.