Geography 167 - Computational Cartography


Computational Cartography Winter 2000
Geography 167	Student Pages - Links - Calendar

Syllabus...
Subject to change depending upon the availability of hardware and software.

A hands-on exploration of how we represent reality with computers and maps. We will meet in the College Library Instructional Computing Commons CLICC (PC) computer classroom C, Powell 320. We will construct and dissect maps from low-level bits and bytes to high-level static and moving images and text. We will look beyond traditional geographic maps on paper to reasoning with diagrams, conceptual spaces, visualizations, and virtual realities. We will examine their effectiveness by considering the aesthetics, psychology, and epistemology of map-making. Finally, we will look at "living" maps brought to life by computers. These include dynamic interactive and animated maps and the creation of agents which can be dropped onto maps in simulated multiagent worlds. You don't need any programming skills as prerequisites, just an interest in exploring the world of computational cartography. We (your classmates I and) will help you learn what you need to know. For more information, please write to:

Instructor:

Teaching Assistant

Nicholas Gessler
gessler@ucla.edu

Office:
Kinsey 70A
(310) 825-4728

Monday 11:30 - 1:00
Wednesday 11:30 - 1:00

MWF 10:00 - 11:30.

Mondays and Wednesdays - Lectures, discussions, explorations, making and critiquing maps.
Fridays - Lab time for you to work on assignments and projects
CLICC Classroom C, Powell 320.

Class Websites

Class Web - http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/00W/geog167-1/
Geography - http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/gessler/

Grading Policy:

Six (approximately weekly) assignments posted to your website (6% each).	36%
Classroom attendance (3 absenses permitted with no penalty), participation and discussions.	14%
One final project and class presentation. in a subject of your choice. Project focuses on a subject area (your thesis, dissertation, major, or other interest), examines the present state-of-the-art in computational cartography in that field, critiques it in terms of the criteria raised in this course, and proposes improvements (in the form of a report and funding application).	50%
Total possible points.	100%

No Exams.
Grading is only partially based upon "the curve."

Weekly Schedule:


		Monday - lecture	Wednesday - lecture	Friday - lab
	1	Jan 10 - Overview & Introduction. Computers & Computation. Maps & Visualization.	Jan 12 - Bits, Bytes, and the Web. Codes from the bottom up. Binary and ASCII editors.	Jan 14 - Assignment 1. Create and upload pages to your Website..
	2	Jan 17 - Holiday Martin Luther King Day	Jan 19 - Recap	Jan 21 - Assignment 2. Deconstructing a .bmp image file.
	3	Jan 24 - Pixel and raster graphics. HiQ & Photoshop.	Jan 26 - Mein Herr's dilemma. Dynamic visualization. Tufte.	Jan 28 - Assignment 3. Stereo Pairs & Layered Images.
	4	Jan 31 - Mapping facts & processes. Student 10-minute pre-presentations and discussions.	Feb 2 - Mapping facts & processes. Student 10-minute pre-presentations and discussions.	Feb 4 - Proprietary GIS: ArcView and ArcInfo.
	5	Feb 7 GPS and the Garmin GPS-12.	Feb 9 GPS and the Garmin GPS-12. Aesthetics and maps.	Feb 11 - Assignment 4. Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) mapping.
	6	Feb 14 GPS synchronized measurements. Uploading data and plotting in Waypoint.	Feb 16 Epistemology and practice of multiagent simulations and evolutionary computation. Videos and critiques.	Feb 18 - Assignment 5. - Spherical projections, Dynamic HTML, JavaScript, animated .gifs.
	7	Feb 21 - Holiday President's Day	Feb 23 Tufte and the aesthetics of representation. Projections. Representing multidimensional spaces.	Feb 25 - The search for longitude. Navigational technology and maps.
	8	Feb 28 - Java and C++. Multiple agency and evolutionary computation.	Mar 1 - Java and C++. Multiple agency and evolutionary computation.	Mar 3 - Assignment 6. Java and C++. Multiagent spatial computation.
	9	Mar 6 Java and C++. Multiagent spatial computation.	Mar 8 - Java and C++. Multiagent spatial computation.	Mar 10 - Project Presentations (20 min each). Class discussions (10 min each).	SWARM
SWARM	10	Mar 13 - Project Presentations (20 min each). Class discussions (10 min each). SWARM	Mar 15 - Project Presentations (20 min each). Class discussions (10 min each).	Mar 17 - Project Presentations (20 min each). Class discussions (10 min each).
	11	Mar 20 - No Final	Mar 22 - No Final	Mar 24 - No Final

Prerequisites:

Although there are no prerequisites other than interest in the topic, you will have an advantage if you are comfortable working with PCs, the Web, E-mail. We will spend some time on these skills and you will have your own website up and running by the end of the first week. Make sure to contact Bruin-On-Line to get your own identification, password, email and website. Familiarize your self with the services they offer.

Software We Will Evaluate (tentative list subject to availability):

Bruin-On-Line E-mail, HTML, FTP and Web authoring software
Virtual Reality Modeling Language
Damashek's Wacky Thinking Tools - sequential analysis, labeled mapping, sequence synthesis
Hedit - a primitive binary file editor
Notepad - a less primitive ASCII file editor
Photoshop - an advanced pixel-based image editor
Mathematica - a rewrite language with extensive graphics capabilities
HiQ - a 3-d graphics renderer
Illustrator - an advanced vector-based graphics editor
Global Positioning Satellite data capture and presentation
Microsoft Excel Maps
Basic, C++, J++ programming language routines to modify and analyze maps
GMT - Generic Mapping Tools
Dynamic Interactive Maps
Running Agents on Maps - e.g. virtual realities and SWARM

Arrive on the first day of class with your:

A Bruin-On-Line ID, Password, E-mail account, and Website
Diskettes and ZIP Cartridges
An amount (to be arranged) for your print account. Printouts cost $0.10 per page for black and white and $0.40 for color

Check out these links (how well do they represent what they try to represent?):

A Quotation for your Consideration:

Mein Herr on the problem of representation...

"That's another thing we've learned from your Nation," said Mein Herr, "map-making. But we've carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?"

"About six inches to the mile."

""Only six inches!"exclaimed Mein Herr. "We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!"

"Have you used it much?" I enquired.

"It has never been spread out, yet," said Mein Herr: "the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well.

From Sylvie and Bruno Concluded by Lewis Carroll, first published in 1893. Lewis Carroll - The Complete Illustrated Works. Gramercy Books, New York (1982). Page 727.