This project will explore the utility of "computational creativity" as an organizing theme for interdisciplinary curricula in computer science, media arts, and cognitive science. The project develops and evaluates an approach to computer science education that challenges the students to develop computational creativity. A computational creativity system is a computational system that simulates the cognitive processes involved in human creativity, or that implements an algorithm that meets the criteria for creativity even if it is not cognitively based. The goal of this project is to develop, in joint work among computer science and media arts faculty and undergraduate students, computational creativity systems that are useful in real artistic practice. These systems will be extended and used in computer science, media arts, and interdisciplinary courses. The curriculum will integrate research and teaching while drawing new populations of potentially creative and diverse students into the study of computer science.
This project is experimental because it seeks to integrate and cross-fertilize curricula in two and possibly more disciplines in a novel way. The payoff for success may be high, however, because computational creativity could potentially integrate -- and draw students and ideas from -- several disciplines beyond computer science and media arts, including, for example, cognitive psychology, education, and philosophy of mind. The project will also explore ways in which the curriculum could be targeted to groups traditionally underrepresented in computer science, and expanded to include students from community colleges with significant populations of students from underrepresented groups. Software (including source code) and curricular materials will be disseminated on the internet for application at other institutions.
