As an early assignment in his Introduction to Scientific Computing in Biomedical Engineering course, Michael Beer, Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, presented his students with an extra credit challenge. He asked students to create “random art” by writing Python programs (a general-purpose, high-level programming language which emphasizes code readability). What resulted was an amazing selection of art. In class the students reviewed the different techniques used in their programs to produce the art.
A sample of the submissions include Image 1, created by Howard Huang, BME freshman, generated by overlaying a shrinking rotating square, which is shown in process in Image 2.
Image 3, was created by Sean Erfurt, BME freshman, by placing triangles of varying shape and color in a random walk. Image 4, created by David Dong, BME sophomore, was made by overlaying a regular grid of overlapping squares and triangles with random colors.
Commenting on the results of the assignment, Dr. Beer stated, “I’m always surprised by the clever and creative ideas they produce, and every year a few are worth framing! It’s also a very useful way of discussing good programming techniques by walking through their codes in class after we vote on our favorites.”