CS 315 in Fall 2026

Weekly Schedule (Tentative)

Week of	Meetings		Topics	Items of Note
Week of	Mon	Wed	Topics	Items of Note
Aug 31, 2026		01	New Course Orientation
Sep 7, 2026		02		Labour Day
Sep 14, 2026	03	04
Sep 21, 2026	05	06
Sep 28, 2026	07			National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Oct 5, 2026	08	09
Oct 12, 2026		10		Thanksgiving
Oct 19, 2026	11	12
Oct 26, 2026	13	14
Nov 2, 2026	15	16
Nov 9, 2026				Fall Reading Week; Remembrance Day
Nov 16, 2026	17	18
Nov 23, 2026	19	20
Nov 30, 2026	21	22
Dec 7, 2026	23

Office Hours and Semester Schedule

--- layout: default --- # SCHEDULE STUB

Time	Mon	Tue	Wed	Fri
08:30–09:00
09:00–09:30
09:30–10:00				Research
10:00–10:30	CS-315CL-126		CS-315CL-126
10:30–11:00
11:00–11:30
11:30–12:00	Office hours	Office hours	Office hours
12:00–12:30	Office hours	Office hours	Office hours
12:30–13:00			Reserved
13:00–13:30
13:30–14:00
14:00–14:30
14:30–15:00
15:00–15:30
15:30–16:00
16:00–16:30
16:30–17:00
17:00–17:30

Class
Office hours
Research
Reserved

Topics and Learning Outcomes

The Topics and Learning Outcomes below, for the Knowledge Units within each Knowledge Area explored in this course, are drawn from the ACM/IEEE-CS/AAAI Computer Science Curricula (CS2023) .

Reading this section:

Items are grouped by coreness. Those above the KA Core divider are CS Core (expected in every accredited program); those below it are KA Core (core to this area, typically covered when the unit is taught in depth).
Grey text marks Topics and Learning Outcomes that are not covered in this course offering.
Nested sub-points are lettered and roman-numbered by depth; the numbering is generated from the curriculum outline, not authored.

GIT / Fundamental Concepts

Graphics and Interactive Techniques

Computer graphics is the term used to describe the computer generation and manipulation of images and can be viewed as the science of enabling visual communication through computation. Its application domains include animation, CGI and VFX; engineering; machine learning; medical imaging; scientific, information, and knowledge visualization; simulators; special effects; user interfaces; and video games. # … paste the rest of the cleaned preamble_GIT prose here as one block …

For nearly every computer scientist and software developer, an understanding of how humans interact with machines is essential.

Topics

1. Uses of computer graphics and interactive techniques and their potential risks and abuses.

a. Entertainment, business, and scientific applications: e.g., visual effects, generative imagery, computer vision, machine learning, user interfaces, video editing, games and game engines, computer-aided design and manufacturing, data visualization, and virtual/augmented/mixed reality

b. Intellectual property, deep fakes, facial recognition, privacy(see SEP-DEIA, SEP-Privacy, SEP-IP, SEP-Professional-Ethics)

2. Graphic output

a. Displays (e.g., LCD)

b. Printers

c. Analog film

d. Concepts

i. Resolution (e.g., pixels, dots)

ii. Aspect ratio

iii. Frame rate

3. Human vision system

a. Tristimulus reception (RGB)

b. Eye as a camera (projection)

c. Persistence of vision (frame rate, motion blur)

d. Contrast (detection, Mach banding, dithering/aliasing)

e. Non-linear response (dynamic range, tone mapping)

f. Binocular vision (stereo)

g. Accessibility (color deficiency, strobing, monocular vision, etc.)(see SEP-DEIA, HCI-User)

4. Standard image formats

a. Raster

i. Lossless (e.g., TIF)

ii. Lossy (e.g., JPG, GIF, etc.)

b. Vector (e.g., SVG, Adobe Illustrator)

5. Digitization of analog data

a. Rasterization

b. Resolution

c. Sampling and quantization

6. Color models: additive (RGB), subtractive (CMYK), and color perception (HSV)

7. Tradeoffs between storing image data and re-computing image data

8. Spatialization: coordinate systems, absolute and relative positioning

9. Animation as a sequence of still images

KA Core

10. Applied interactive graphics (e.g., processing, python)

11. Display characteristics (protocols and ports)

Learning Outcomes

1. Identify common uses of digital presentation to humans (e.g., computer graphics, sound).

2. Describe how analog signals can be reasonably represented by discrete samples, for example, how images can be represented by pixels.

3. Compute the memory requirement for storing a color image given its resolution.

4. Create a graphic depicting how the limits of human perception affect choices about the digital representation of analog signals.

5. Indicate when and why you should use each of the following common file formats: JPG, PNG, MP3, MP4, and GIF.

6. Describe color models and their use in graphics display devices.

7. Compute the memory requirements for a multi-second movie (lasting n seconds) displaying at a specific framerate (f frames per second) at a specified resolution (r pixels per frame).

8. Compare and contrast digital video to analog video.

9. Describe the basic process of producing continuous motion from a sequence of discrete frames (sometimes called “flicker fusion”).

10. Describe a possible visual misrepresentation that could result from digitally sampling an analog world.

11. Compute memory space requirements based on resolution and color coding.

12. Compute time requirements based on refresh rates and rasterization techniques.

KA Core

13. Design a user interface and an alternative for persons with color perception deficiency.

14. Construct a simple graphical user interface using a graphics library.

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