Course Outline: Visual Languages and Modelling

Instructor: Prof. S. K. Chang

Week-1 Introduction
Why Visual Languages
Black Swans, White Elephants, Limitations of Data Analysis, Pitfalls of Big Data
Elements of Visual Languages: Maps, Icons, Relations and Scenarios

Week-2 Maps, Visualization Tools
Week-3 Sentient Maps, Examples, Problems with Maps
Exercise 1

Week-4 Icons, Iconic Operators, Iconic Sentences, Iconic Languages
Week-5 Visual Programming, Visual Computing, Visual Computing Tools
Exercise 2

Week-6 Relations, Using UML to Represent Relations, UML Tools
Week-7 Spatial Relations
Week-8 Spatial Reasoning, Temporal Reasoning, Examples

Exercise 3

Week-9 Scenarios, Story Boards, Scenario Formulation, IC Card Tools, Lego Tools
Week-10 Using IC Card Tools and Lego Tools to represent scenarios
Enaction with Avatars and Real Actors, Scenario Presentation
Week-11 Project Suggestions
Exercise 4

Week-12 Project Discussions
Week-13 Review on Elements of Visual Languages - Maps, Icons, Relations and Scenarios.
Relations between Scenario Formulation, Science Fiction and Speculative Fantasy
Utopia vs Dystopia, Positive Scenario vs Negative Scenario, Scenario Analysis
Week-14 Project Discussions
Week-15 Project Presentations