The Computational Creativity Curriculum

A project supported by the CreativeIT program of the National Science Foundation.

Principal Investigators:


This project will explore the utility of "computational creativity" as an organizing theme for interdisciplinary curricula in computer science, media arts, and cognitive science. A computational creativity system is a computational system that simulates the cognitive processes involved in human creativity, or that implements an algorithm that meets the criteria for creativity even if it is not cognitively based. Many computational models of creativity have been described in the literature, and simple versions of many of these models have been implemented in software. One of the co-PIs of this proposal has used the development of such models as an organizing theme for the instruction of introductory computer science for 15 years; the present proposal expands the application of this theme to broader, interdisciplinary curricula in computer science, media arts, and cognitive science. The goal is to develop, in joint work among computer science and media arts faculty and undergraduate students, computational creativity systems that are useful in real artistic practice. These systems will be extended and used in computer science, media arts, and interdisciplinary courses. The curriculum will integrate research and teaching while drawing new populations of potentially creative and diverse students into the study of computer science.