Flocking Behavior - NetLogo - Boids - Dinosaurs

Ghostbusters, Waggle Dancing Bees, and Steps of the Modeling Process

CS 1025 - Take home test/assignment for December 2011 - Fall 2011

THIS WAS A Take Home Test - Fall of 2010.


FALL 2010: Four page PDF take-home test summary and checklist nicely condensed. <--- FALL 2010 but may be useful to glance at.


  1. FALL 2011 - 12/11/2011 Take-Home TEST Part 1 Summary and Checklist as a PDF. This is PART ONE for FALL 2011!

  2. FALL 2011 - 12/13/2011 Take-Home TEST part 2 Summary and Checklist as a PDF. This is PART TWO for FALL 2011!


Turn in on Friday of finals week or if needed anytime before 5 p.m. on Monday May 9th, 2011.


Netlogo agent based modeling - Flocking birds, simulating and modeling birds, dinosaur flocking behavior in Jurassic Park.

Answer these take home final exam questions - They are mostly fill in the blank, short answer, watch the video and transcribe the correct term or word or phrase.

Back to the previous take-home final exam page. YOU NEED BOTH! - http://www.cs.uni.edu/~jacobson/025/f10/f/GB1.html - GB1.html means GhostBusters is #1 - i.e. G B #1. GB = LAC.


OLD 2010: Four page PDF take-home test summary and checklist nicely condensed. OLD 2010, previous semester!

THREE PAGE FALL 2011 Take Home Test Part 1 questions and form.

TWO PAGE FALL 2011 Take Home Test Part 2 questions.



  1. Spring 2010 810:088 Topics in Computing: VE, A, and MG class - A tribute to BIRDS and BOIDS from spring 2010 Visual Effects, Animation, and Motion Graphics 810:088 class. Mostly done with Adobe After Effects applying techniques taught in the last 2 weeks of the class.

  2. The MAGIC of Jurassic Park - you tube Hellothasaurus calls them the Jurassic Park WONDER clips - at about 1:52 you will see flight. Is flocking behavior happening?
  3. From 1:52 to 2:24 - watch this 32 seconds several times.
    
            Flight, flocking, helicopter, prehistoric birds.
       
    
    

    Author of book Jurassic Park tribute: Michael Crichton - TV show ER (Good connection to the SIM ONE simulation model used at USC medical school).

    Described as author of scientific thrillers. Science and mathematics should be thrilling, right? It can be. Right? Write! Biction! The last 3 letters of the word THINK. Let the INK flow.

      "a great storyteller"
      
      "In 1994 he created the award winning TV series, ER."
    
      Answer the following fill in the blank question:
       
      JP1.  "Steven Spielberg, Jurassic Park's director and Crichton's friend for forty years 
             
             said Michael's talent outscaled even his own  _______________________________________________."
    

    You tube video that looks at every species of dinosaur in the movie Jurassic Park: From 01:23 to 01:42 is the scene in the movie after which they discuss having observed the amazing flocking behavior amonst the fleet footed, graceful sprinting Gallimimus who nearly trample them, perhaps like a herd of stampeding buffalo in the movie Dances With Wolves.

  4. How to model a bird flying using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. Creative Cow 07:52 long video: bird_flock1/video-tutorial
  5. Watch only the first 4 minutes 35 seconds of the video tutorial.  (04:35 of 07:52).
      
      Answer the following questions:
      
      CC1.  What are the two layers that make up the bird model?   This is just a fill in the blank question!  :-)
            (What is the names of each of the two layers is okay,
                 but its about the same as what you would likely call that
                 part of a real life bird, lol)?
                 
            ____________________________________   and   ________________________________________
    
      CC2.   At about 01:48 the tutorial speaker says:
          
             "Next, lets get this wing set up so we can have it ____________________________   ___________________________." 
             (This is a Fill in the two blanks question).
             
             
      CC3.  Why does the tutorial teacher type the letter A at 02:05 into the video tutorial? (Watch 01:48 to 02:50)
            What property is revealed?  (Hint: if you were in the Navy, you would have a huge advantage on at least
                                                                      the first word of this two word property name).
    
               
            _______________________________________   _______________________________________
            
      CC4.  What problem did he demonstrate when rotating the wing that was the occasion 
                for the need to expose and change the property (revealed by letter A shortcut)
                to more effectively model a flying bird?  (This is a short answer question, NOT a fill in the blanks).
            
      
      CC5.  Which rotation for the wing does the tutorial teacher change?  (This is a multiple choice question).
      
                   a.  X rotation          or           b.  Y rotation           or            c.  Z rotation
            
            
                   Circle the one best answer above.  3D Graphics uses X and Y and Z and they match Red and Green and Blue.
                                                    
                                         X Y Z rhymes with R G B and R G and B are one letter acronyms for the three 
                                                                                   one syllable words red, green and blu             
       
      CC6.  "Lets also change all of the keyframes from __________________________ keyframes to ______________________ keyframes."
       
             
            "This will cause the wing motion to ______________  _______  and  ____________  of the most extreme parts of the motion,
             
                                                                                                      as they would do in real life."
                       
             The above 5 blanks can be filled in with 5 words that you will learn 
             as you watch the video from 04:08 to 04:32, which is only 24 or 25 seconds
             of the entire video tutorial.  This CC6 question is a 5 part Fill in the Blank question.
                       
             " ... as they do in real life." is an interesting phrase.  All computer models and simulations are done in virtual worlds,
                                                                           in digital life in numbers, equations, and stunning CGI graphics
                                                                           and visual representations and animations.
                                                                        
                                                                           The closer we model the real life system, 
                                                                               the better and 
                                                                                   the more useful
                                                                                      the model is.
                                                                           
                                                                           The ISU Cyclones psychology students excellent stat rap
                                                                                might apply here, 
                                                                                    and the following 
                                                                                        fabulous fifteen
                                                                                            comes to mind.
                                                                                            
                                                                           "Which model is best, 
                                                                                which is robust
                                                                                    which model leaves the others in the dust?"
    
    
    Superb Iowa State Stat Rap video - of special interest to English, Art and Electronic Media majors, and anyone elsej, no matter what the major, with a pulse. Needed by January 1st of 2012. Comp Modeling and Simulation rap, similar in spirit and educational, motivational value to the ISU stat rap.

    Transcription of 90% of the Stat Rap lyrics for IMSA and UBMS statistics students.

  6. Video: Creating a Flock of Birds - Part 2 - You need to only watch 02:00 to 02:25 for background, and then closely watch from 02:25 to 02:41 to answer the following FILL IN THE BLANKs question.

       Creative Cow fill in the blank questions 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, i.e. ----> CC7, CC8, CC9, CC10 and CC11.
       
             Okay, I want this bird to float around the comp window a bit, so I'm going to add a wiggle expression
             to it's position property.  This will create a small amount of random motion for some added realism.
             ... and then add the expression you're seeing here on your screen.
             
             This expression means:  
           
       CC7.         One time per __________________________________ wiggle the layer 
                
                
       CC8.         up to ________  
       
       CC9.                          _________________________ off its current location on every axis.
                
       CC10.         So our first number is a ______________________ of wiggle, 
       
       
       CC11.                                            and our second number is the ____________________ of wiggle.
                
                
    

  7. Flocking and the beautifully written paragraphs from our textbook. Please reread and explore the information on this Boids and Flocking web page. Simulated birds (the Boids) were a very important milestone in movie special effects and computer graphics history. Flocking is used for lots more situations than just bird flocks. Crowd panic scenes in movies often even use it.
  8. VIP: Netlogo Models Library: Sample Models/Biology category: Flocking Model. Start up your NetLogo and play with the FLocking model. Try it out. Run lots of simulations. Read about it. Modify it. A few questions will be posted here about it fairly soon.
  9.   NL1: What three rules do the birds follow in the Netlogo BIRDS model?  (Interface, Information, Procedures) - you want the INFORMATION tab)
    
           
           ________________________________________  and  __________________________________________  and  ______________________________________
           
      NL2:  For each one of the three words you found an filled in the blanks with for question NL1 above, look up the definition of
            that word in a dictionary and write down the dictionary definition and derivation information about the word, the term
            for the rule.
            
            Term 1 dictionary definition/derivation:
            
            
            
            Term 2 dictionary definition/derivation:
            
            
            
            
            Term 3 dictionary definition/derivation:        
    
    

  10. READ and STUDY: Ghostbusters and waggle dancing bees questions ... GHOSTBUSTERS and WAGGLE DANCING BEES readings.

    VIP: http://www.cs.uni.edu/~jacobson/ghost.txt

    VIP: http://www.cs.uni.edu/~jacobson/waggle.txt .

  11. Adobe After Effects enhanced photo - See the 3 Ghostbusters - Pete, Ray and Egon - characters representing problem solving, programming, building computer simulations and models, and also applying to far more - communication, dialogue, politics, music, sports psychology -

    Ghostbuster's song segment with some dialogue from scene #3 - Scott and Jennifer and Dr. Peter Venkman - negative reinforcement and ESP ability. Another version of the same Flash application visually shows the left and right sound channels for the stereo song.

    1. Dr. Peter Venkman symbolizes what phase of the four step problem solving process? Short answer discuss.

    2. Dr. Raymond Stantz symbolizes what phase of the four step problem solving/programming/model building process? Short answer discuss.

    3. Dr. Egon Spengler symbolizes what phase of the four step computer troubleshooting, programming and model building process? Short answer discuss.

    4. What are the 3 D's that waggle dancing bees convey when they are solving the problem of overpopulation of a successful colony and need to split it or the need to relocate a colony due to destruction of their food source. Think of 3D as in 3D graphics, but D and D and D are just a convenient way to remember the lessons of the waggle dancing bees for computational modeling and simulation and programming NetLogo issues. Fill in the blanks question.

    5. THREE questions. Answer these Modeling and Simulation Steps as compared to Ghostbusters and Waggle Dancing Bees steps in programming and problem solving. ShifletModelingGhostbusters.pdf is the document with the 3 questions that connect ghost.txt, waggle.txt and the Shiftlet book excerpt on the Steps Of The Modeling Process. There are SIX STEPS, but you can ignore that last 3 steps. The 3 questions focus on steps 1, 2 and 3 only.

  12. There will NOT be any Monte Carlo simulation questions on the take home exam. :-) Next time you play some darts, or see someone playing darts, I hope you think of the Monte Carlo simulation approach.
  13. What is INK SHEDDING? What is Free Writing (PDF by Peter Elbow) and why it is so easy, yet so valuable. It is the most stress-free forms of writing, cause you can babble. An ink-shedding free-writing exercise that ties the entire take home test ideas together. Ink shedding and free writing are both quite stress-FREE, by the way, so no worries, mates, as an Aussie might say. Decentralization will be involved.
  14. Pages on Decentralization from the book in case you sold yours back already: Decentralization.pdf - the first ten pages of chapter 01 are all you will need.

    Decentralization concepts from the Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams book.

    VIP resource - The group exercise brain-storming session from last Wednesday's class.

    1. Group 1 - Devin, Steffania, Katie, Lindsay
    2. Group 2 - John, Dalyn, Alex, Kaila
    3. Group 3 - Blake, Justin, Abby, Troy



    Using the book, your notes, and the above Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 summaries and sets of ideas - discuss what you have learned about the concept of Decentralization. Feel free to free-write and/or ink shed about it first. You might surprise yourself and discover some angles you never would have dreamed you would uncover. Or ink shed and free write about it afterwards, when you have written your one page of thoughts already. With the concepts fresh in mind, free writing lots of words really fast might uncover a gem of an insight or phrasing you did not anticipate.

    Please turn about one page of your thoughts, insights, confusions, and/or connections (to your major, hobbies, interests, career goals, citizenship, current events) with the Resnick Turtles, Termites and Traffic jams focus on this agent based modeling (NetLogo was our software vehicle) concept he stresses.


    Pages on Decentralization from the book in case you sold yours back already: Decentralization.pdf



    Note: A discussion question will be posted on UNI eLearning for you to BLOG about and share your ideas during the final exam period. We will also discuss it briefly during the final exam period. You can prepare your ideas BEFORE then, or wait until 10 a.m. Wednesday morning in StudioIT 1 hands-on final exam period session to BLOG about it and get help with UNI eLearning with me present to help.

  15. If all or any part of your take home test is NOT ready by Wednesday at 10 a.m. when we meet in StudioIT 1 ITT 134 lab classroom, you may turn it in anytime before Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. - no pressure, no worries, so I whisper to myself what you might be thinking during stressful finals week: "Thank you, Mark." Please note the use of the FIRST NAME, lol! Feel free to use it in your email notes or in person.