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Assignments

Here are the programming assignments and final project. If you're stuck, the checklists contain hints and possible progress steps. The course policies for collaboration and late work appear in the syllabus. The assignment FAQ answers many common questions related to the programming assignments.

# DUE LOGO ASSIGNMENT COLLABORATION SUBMIT
0 Monday
Feb. 8th
Hello, World (Checklist)
Install a Java programming environment; write five short Java programs; and submit them using our submission system.
This is an individual assignment. Submit!
1 Monday
Feb. 15th
Conditionals & Loops (Checklist)
Write five short Java programs to gain practice with loops, conditionals, and arrays.
This is an individual assignment. Submit!
2 Monday
Feb. 22nd
N-Body Simulation (Checklist)
Simulate the motion of N particles, mutually affected by gravitational forces, and animate the results.
This is an individual assignment. Submit!
3 Monday
Feb. 29th
Recursive Graphics (Checklist)
Plot a Sierpinski triangle, as illustrated to the left. Then, plot a recursive pattern of your own design.
This is an individual assignment. Submit!
4 Monday
Mar. 21st
Hamming Codes in TOY (Checklist)
Write a TOY program to encode data using Hamming codes. Then write a TOY program to correct encoded data that has been corrupted.
This is an individual assignment.
Submit!

Leaderboard
(results)      
5 Monday
Mar. 28th
Linear Feedback Shift Register (Checklist)
Simulate a linear feedback shift register to produce pseudorandom bits. Then, use those bits to implement a simple encryption scheme for digital images.
This is an individual assignment. Submit!
6 Monday
Apr. 4th
Guitar Hero (Checklist)
Simulate the plucking of a guitar string using the Karplus–Strong algorithm, transforming your computer into a musical instrument.
You can work with a partner on this assignment. Submit!
7 Monday
Apr. 11th
Markov Model (Checklist)
Use a Markov chain to create a statistical model of a piece of English text. Simulate the Markov chain to generate stylized pseudorandom text.
You can work with a partner on this assignment. Submit!
8 Monday
Apr. 18th
Traveling Salesperson Problem (Checklist)
Implement two greedy heuristics to find good (but not optimal) solutions to the traveling salesperson problem.
You can work with a partner on this assignment. Submit!
Leaderboard
(results)      
9 Monday
May 9th
Atomic Nature of Matter (Checklist)
Re-affirm the atomic nature of matter by tracking the motion of particles undergoing Brownian motion, fitting this data to Einstein's model, and estimating Avogadro's number.
You can work with a partner on this assignment. Submit!
With special thanks to Kathleen Ma '18 for creating these wonderful assignment logos.