Syllabus FAQ

This is a rough schedule of topics for each day and the release and due dates for each assignment.

Class topics and homework information may change over the course of the term. Please treat this schedule as a rough guide for seeing what we’ll be focusing on, and expect that there will be shifts as the term progresses.

The slide links are all restricted to Carleton folks, so make sure you’re logged in to your Carleton account if you have one. If you are outside of Carleton and would like to see them, just shoot me an email!

Date Assignment/Reading Due Class Topic Assignment Out
Week 1   Introduction  
M 9/14 What is Life Prep What is (artificial) life?, Slides  
W 9/16 Dynamics of Life Prep History of AL, Slides  
F 9/18 Cellular Automata Prep CA Lab, Slides  
Week 2   Before life, there is chemistry  
M 9/21 Artificial Chemistry Prep AChem Lab, Slides  
W 9/23 Protocells Prep Protocells and Math Meetup, Slides Artificial Chemistry assignment out
F 9/25 Droplets Prep Droplets  
Week 3   Morphogenesis  
M 9/28   L-systems  
W 9/30 AChem due Geb L-System out
F 10/2   Reaction-Diffusion  
Week 4   Movement  
M 10/5   Robots  
W 10/7 L-System due Xenobots Encyclopedia assignment out
F 10/9   Implementing movement, Topic checkins  
Week 5   Groups and Swarms  
M 10/12 Encyclopedia topic due Boids and Swarms  
W 10/14   Modeling multicells and DISHTINY  
F 10/16   ALife Art  
Week 6   Ecosystems  
M 10/19   Midterm Break  
W 10/21 Encyclopedia due Lotka-Volterra and Hashtag Ecology Artificial Ecology assignment out
Th 10/22   Early voting in Great Hall 9-2  
F 10/23   Synthetic Ecology  
Week 7   Eco-Evo  
M 10/26   Implementing Digital Evolution  
W 10/28 Artificial ecology due Tierra Digital evolution assignment out
F 10/30   Avida and OEE  
Week 8   Open-ended Evolution  
M 11/2   Combining ODEs and ABMs  
T 11/3   Vote if you are eligible!  
W 11/4   Collaboration day  
F 11/6 Digital Evolution assignment due Code Review and Final Project Overview  
Week 9   Collaborative Science  
M 11/9   Final project planning  
W 11/11   Working on final project  
F 11/13   Code review  
Week 10   Wrapping up  
M 11/16   Technical communication  
W 11/18   Wrap-up and course feedback  
Exam Period      
  Nothing scheduled, projects and presentations due end of exams    
    Any request for an extension must go through the Dean of Students office as I am not otherwise permitted to consider work submitted after this time.