CS 453 Spring 2026     [Syllabus]       Research Projects  

CS 453 Special Topics in New Media and Interactive Systems

Students in groups will work on a semester-long project in which they design, build and run a human computer interaction study or interactive media arts installation. Students will learn how to conduct a literature review, formulate a question, collect data, evaluate the results and present findings. The course would culminate in a presentation and a report in the style of a conference paper or art installation submission.

Learning Objectives

1. Conduct a literature review and formulate a question, evaluating the reliability, meaningfulness and relevance of related literature to a given research problem.
2. Design, build and evaluate systems at varying levels of fidelity, from prototypes to fully functional, interactive systems.
3. Use, adapt and extend design and evaluation methods to real-world problems and justify design decisions taking into account conceptual, practical, and ethical issues involved in evaluation.
4. Present findings, describing and explaining how a system that they have designed works, how it was evaluated and the results of the evaluation.
5. Work collaboratively in pairs or small groups to design, build and evaluate systems.

Time: T/Th 2:30pm-3:50pm
Place: Davis 201

Milestone Presentation: Thursday, March 19th
Research Methods Presentations: Tuesday, March 31st and Thursday April 2nd
Milestone Presentation: Thursday, April 16th
CLAS: Thursday, April 30th
Final Exam Session: TBD

Timeline

Week 1:	2/4-2/6	Course Introduction
Week 2:	2/9-2/13	Project Defined
Week 3:	2/16-2/20	Preliminary Literature Review
Week 4:	2/23-2/27	Milestone 1: Project Proposal
Week 5:	3/2-3/6	Milestone 2: Project Manufacturing Plan
Week 6:	3/9-3/13	Project Prototyping Study Design Proposal (individual)
Week 7:	3/16-3/20	Milestone 3: Project Prototype Oral Milestone Report
Week 8:	3/23-3/27	SPRING BREAK
Week 9:	3/30-4/3	Research Methods Presentations (individual)
Week 10:	4/6-4/10	Milestone 4: Group Study Design Proposal
Week 11:	4/13-4/17	Milestone 5: Final System Complete Oral Milestone Report
Week 12:	4/20-4/24	Milestone 6: Data Collection Complete
Week 13:	4/27-5/1	Milestone 7: Analysis CLAS Thursday, Thursday Lecture scheduled for Friday
Week 14:	5/4-5/8	Milestone 8: Documentation
FINALS:	5/13–5/18	Final Presentation Literature Review (individual)

Overview

Written & Oral Milestone Reports	35%	Weekly documentation and presentations of progress on your project.
Final Documentation and Presentation	30%	Cumulative documentation and presentation of your final project.
Participation	15%	Reading responses, in class assignments, attendance and peer evaluations (individual).
Research Methods Presentation	10%	An presentation on a research method (individual).
Literature Review	10%	A literature review on a chosen research topic (individual).

Written Milestone Reports

Presentations & Oral Milestone Reports

Participation

Participation: Reading Responses

Participation: In Class & Homework

Participation: Peer Reviews

Use of electronics in class

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.

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.

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.

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). You can learn more about what constitutes sexual misconduct or to report an incident here.

If you wish to speak confidentially about an incident of sexual misconduct, you may contact:

• Counseling Center: 207-859-4490
• Emily Schusterbauer, Director Gender and Sexual Diversity Program (eeschust@colby.edu; 207- 859-4093)
• Office of Religious & Spiritual Life: 207-859-4272
• Maine's 24/7 Sexual Assault Helpline: 1-800-871-7741

Students should be aware that faculty members are considered "responsible employees"; as such, if you disclose an incident of sexual misconduct to a faculty member, they have an obligation to report it to Melvin Adams, Colby's Title IX Coordinator. "Disclosure" may include communication in-person, via email/phone/text, or through class assignments.

Academic Accommodations

I am available to discuss academic accommodations that any student with a documented disability may require. Please note that you’ll need to provide a letter from the Dean of Studies Office documenting your approved accommodations. Please meet with me within two weeks of the start of the semester to make a request for accommodations so that we can work together with the College to make the appropriate arrangements for you. Office of Student Access & Disability Services (accommodations@colby.edu) is the primary contact for accommodations and any questions related to educational testing and documentation.

Mental health: I care about my students’ well-being and understand they may face mental health challenges. Students are encouraged to seek support from the College’s available resources, including your advising dean and Counseling Services. (For immediate care, please call 207-859-4490 and press “0” to reach the on-call counselor.) I am willing to discuss reasonable accommodations during a crisis, but to fulfill our educational mission, students are expected to adhere to the attendance policy. Failure to do so because of mental health challenges may require consultation with the Dean of Studies Office.

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.

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.

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.