566 - Syllabus

California State University, Chico
Computer Science Department
CSCI 566, Computer Graphics Programming, Fall 2026

Instructor

Oleksiy Al-saadi
Office Location: O'Connell 222
Phone: 530-898-6442
Email: oal-saadi (at) csuchico (dot) edu

General Information

We meet synchronously in our designated class times at our designated classroom. Details for synchronous meetings are on the calendar in Canvas.

Prerequisite: CSCI 311 with a grade of C- or higher.

Overview

Discussion, 3 units. This course covers algorithms and data structures in computer graphics. Topics include output primitives and their attributes, 2-D and 3-D geometric transformations and viewing, 3-D object modeling, parallel and perspective projections, visible surface detection, illumination models, and rendering algorithms.

Section	Time	Location
1	Tues/Thurs 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM	O'Connell Center 241

Objectives

Upon the completion of this class, the student will have a good understanding of the rendering pipeline and the algorithms involved, and will have undertaken the programming of significant computer graphics programs and algorithms. The student will be a competent WebGL programmer by the end of the course and will be prepared to investigate more advanced topics and applications in computer graphics. Topics include:

Output primitives and their attributes.
Interactive applications and animation.
2D and 3D geometric transformations and viewing.
Illumination models.
Rendering models and algorithms.
The GLSL language for running Shaders on the GPU.

A tentative schedule is provided below. Canvas shows the most accurate due dates for each assignment and the true pace of our activities. In-class activities are not listed and attendance is mandatory to participate.

Week(s)	Topics and Activities
1	Basic 3D Rotation OpenGL 1.1
2	The Modern Graphics Pipeline and WebGL Matrices and Linear Algebra Homework: Shapes and Gradients
3--4	Shaders and GLSL Illusion of Depth Homework: Oasis
5	Textures and UV Coordinates Project: Windmill
6	Diffuse Lighting and Illumination Homework: Cones of Dunshire (Part I)
7--9	Specular Lighting The Amiga Ball Fog Homework: Cones of Dunshire (Part II) Environment and Skyboxes Homework: Hills (Part I)
10--12	Frame Buffer Objects Shadow Maps Project: Hills (Part II) Loading Models Normal Maps
13--15	Homework: Object Loader (Gallery) Shadow Volumes and Ray Tracing Discussion Myst Project: Dynamic Cubemaps

Materials

Textbook
WebGL Programming Guide: Interactive 3D Graphics Programming with WebGL
Kouichi Matsuda and Rodger Lea
ISBN: 0321902920
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Year: 2013

CSU Email - I send emails regularly throughout this course. You are required to check your email often.

Canvas - Canvas always holds the most current and authoritative set of due dates, exam dates, assignment instructions, and other course material. Course announcements will be done via Canvas (which also sends these to your csuchico.edu email address).

Grading

Your final grade consists of the following components:

Homework (80%) - Homework assignments are assigned to reinforce coding concepts or test strong understanding of course material. They range from simple to complex and may require independent design, planning, and problem-solving.
Quizzes (20%) - Several take-home Canvas quizzes and in-class activities fall under this category. In-class activities, given as quizzes on Canvas, are meant to incentivize active class participation and may not be made-up later.

Grading Scale

C- 70% - 72.99%

Note: The instructor reserves the right to add up to 0.5% to the final grade when evidence that most extra-credit opportunities on programming assignments were taken and the student was an active in-class participant. No other adjustments of borderline grades will be considered.

Late Policy

An important part of your education and professional development in college is about learning to independently manage work and deadlines. This skill is incredibly authentic and valued by employers. It is a disservice to you if I act like deadlines do not matter. Moreover, lectures are often tailored to the current open programming assignment(s), and new concepts need to be applied quickly to be retained in memory. There is a late policy in effect.

All programming assignments can be turned late until the end of the semester and are subject to a 5% penalty per day, even if turned in minutes past the due date. However, Any submission that is 6 or more days late will penalized a maximum of 30% and no more. Submitting an assignment for a "regrade" after grades are posted is allowed, but the maximum penalty will be applied (so, the highest score possible will be 70% of the total score). Exceptions are granted only for specific circumstances such as severe illness or emergency. Only your most recently submission will be graded (e.g., if you submit an incomplete program before the due date and then submit a complete program after the due date, I will grade the late submission.) In the case of other issues that cause you to be unable to submit your programming assignment, do not make edits to your program. I will check when your code was most recently edited and that it was not worked on after the due date.

Quizzes often have a strict completion deadline. In-class activities cannot be made-up after the deadline which is normally the end of class in order to encourage attendance.

Illness

If you are ill (fever, coughing or contagious with anything), please don't come to school. Stay home. Although in-class activities may not be made up for any reason, the lowest scored quiz (which may include 0's from missed quizzes) will be dropped from the gradebook automatically. Extra credit opportunities provide ways to obtain additional points.

Administrative Drops

If you do not indicate your commitment to taking this course in the first two weeks of the semester, you may be administratively dropped from the class. In this course, your commitment is evidenced by:

Completing either the in-class activities during the first week.
Completing the preliminary coding assignments within the first two weeks.
Otherwise communicating with the instructor to explain your lack of progress, before the end of your second week of class.

Regrade Policy

Regrade requests will be accepted up to 1 week after a graded item is returned. The reason for the regrade request must be explained in email, with a copy of the assignment to be re-graded, to the instructor's university email. Note that all regrade requests, except for those pointing out mistakes in the totaling of points, will cause the entire assignment to be re-graded. The adjusted grade may therefore be higher or lower than the initial grade.

Incomplete Grade Policy

It is the policy of the Computer Science Department that a grade of Incomplete (I) shall be assigned only when the instructor concludes that a clearly identifiable portion of course requirements cannot be met within the academic term for unforeseen, but fully justified, reasons; and when there is still a possibility of earning credit.

An incomplete shall not be assigned when:

The request is made before the thirteenth week of instruction.
It is necessary for the student to attend a major portion of the class when it is next offered (i.e., if a student needs to repeat a class, an incomplete should not be given).
The student is not passing the course with a C- or better at the time of the request.
The student is unable to keep up with course work due to an excessive course load.

The condition for removal of the Incomplete shall be entered on the "Request for Incomplete" form and a copy filed in the department office prior to listing an "I" on the Grade Roster. The student must retain the grades for any coursework that was due prior to the incomplete being assigned. An incomplete grade cannot be removed on the basis of work taken at another institution nor by re-enrolling in the course.

An incomplete must be made up within one calendar year immediately following the end of the term in which it was assigned. This limitation prevails whether or not the student maintains continuous enrollment. Failure to complete the assigned work will result in an incomplete "I" being converted to a "NC" which will affect the grade point average.

Academic Dishonesty

Collaboration is a complex idea in the programming world, since professionals routinely work in teams sharing code; they also navigate a variety of complex intellectual property rules that sometimes encourage (and sometimes discourage) sharing code more generally. In our class, the collaboration policies are more artificial than the real world since they are designed to support you, as a beginner learner, to grow towards mastery and independence.

Generally, I encourage you to seek help from and provide support to your peers, but only in ways that do not steal learning opportunities from them or from yourself. I call this "supportive collaboration." It is not only allowed, it is encouraged.

Warning: The boundary between collaboration and plagiarism is often unclear. Once you see someone's solution, it is hard to unsee. It is safer to collaborate without looking at each other's screens. Use drawings to communicate ideas. Use references to past labs and class resources to establish common ground ("I just modified everything after line 40 in the textbook solution to 9.4, and that really helped me as a guide"). Help identify tools that are useful ("I found using a while loop was helpful") without sharing code. If you just share your screen and show someone how you did it, you are robbing them of a learning opportunity.

In particular, you are responsible not just for understanding every line of code you write, but also for knowing what would happen if your code was modified in some way or how to modify it to accomplish some nearby task.

There is no collaboration of any form allowed on exams or quizzes, unless explicitly directed. Generally, graded work is to be completed by the individual student unless otherwise specified and following the university's policies on academic integrity. Academic dishonesty will be severely penalized; at a minimum, you will receive a grade of 0 on the assignment.

Copying any code provided by artificial intelligence (i.e. ChatGPT) will result in an automatic 0 on the assignment. Moreover, unconventional coding solutions--in particular, the use of single-line nested loops, single-line if else clauses, or user-made classes that are not explicitally required by the assignment--will be assumed to be AI-generated.

Accomodations

Disability Services for Students

If you are a student with a disability, and think you may need academic accommodations, please contact Accessibility Resource Center (ARC, see link) as early as possible in order to avoid a delay in receiving accommodation services. Use of ARC services, including testing accommodations, requires prior authorization by ARC in compliance with university policies and procedures.

Athletic Schedules

To student athletes: I value your identity as a scholar/athlete. Please notify me before the end of the drop/add period about any possible game conflicts with our class schedule (and as soon as possible about subsequent changes).