From Pixels to Pictures: A Student’s Journey in Coding and Creativity

저자 Tanya Kuruvilla, November 4, 2024

270 회 조회 (최근 30일) | 0 좋아요 | 0 댓글

Meet Isaac, a 15-year-old student from Cristo Rey Boston High School, whose journey through the corridors of creativity and coding is nothing short of inspiring. With a penchant for drawing, a rhythm in his soul for drumming, and a newly kindled passion for programming, Isaac’s story is a testament to the power of blending diverse interests. His latest adventure had him diving deep into the world of MATLAB, a programming environment that has not only piqued his curiosity but also expanded his toolkit of creative expression.

Isaac’s exploration into programming was sparked by his involvement in a corporate work study program at MathWorks. This opportunity gave him a unique vantage point into the practical applications of programming in the professional world. His journey with MATLAB began with foundational self-paced courses such as “Learn to Code with MATLAB“, and “MATLAB Onramp“. These courses laid the groundwork for his understanding of key programming concepts, including variables, arrays, and ‘for loops’, as well as familiarizing himself with the MATLAB desktop environment.

After developing a foundational understanding of the MATLAB desktop environment, Isaac created a comic that personified different components of the MATLAB layout, breaking down its various sections—such as the Command Window, Workspace, and Current Folder—into relatable characters and scenarios. To further enhance his comprehension, he also created a comic about arrays, portraying them as organized groups of characters, each holding a specific value or piece of information. This comic illustrated how arrays can store multiple values in a single variable and how these values can be accessed and manipulated using indices, making the concept visually engaging and easier to grasp.

Isaac’s most ambitious project was his comic on for loops, a programming construct that allows for the repetitive execution of code. He conceptualized for loops as a superhero character, capable of tackling repetitive tasks with speed and efficiency. The comic told the story of a character overwhelmed by the task of moving boxes across a room, symbolizing repetitive manual work.

In the narrative, the character struggles under the weight of the boxes, representing the burden of repetitive tasks. Just as the character is about to give up, the superhero for loop arrives, demonstrating how to use a loop to automate the task. The for loop superhero swiftly and efficiently moves the boxes, illustrating the power of loops to simplify and expedite repetitive processes. Isaac’s ‘for loop’ comics were born out of his realization of the power of ‘for loops’ in coding—how they could make repetitive tasks more efficient.

The comic reads: ““A coding program is pretty simple. But what if you wanted that code repeated multiple times? Without having to stress about typing over and over again. You use a ‘for loop’. You can type in the code in a for loop in MATLAB to repeat itself as many times as you want.Ta-da! And after all that you’ll have a lot more spare time to ride a lot less stress.”

However, it was the “Pixels to Pictures” lessons that opened a new chapter in Isaac’s exploration. These lessons introduced him to the art of manipulating images with MATLAB’s Image Processing Toolbox, teaching him how to add words to specific locations of images and change background and text colors programmatically. Armed with this new knowledge, Isaac set out to enhance his for loop comic animations, a project that combined his love for drawing with his burgeoning interest in programming.

He brought the monotonous task of moving boxes to life through animation, illustrating the story of a character overwhelmed. With the lessons from “Pixels to Pictures”, Isaac transformed his static drawings into animated sequences in MATLAB was both a challenge and a thrill. Isaac created frames in Paint, ensuring each captured a moment of the story, and then used MATLAB to bring these frames to life.

Scene 1

Scene 2

Isaac’s journey from drawing and drumming to creating animated comics with MATLAB is a compelling narrative of interdisciplinary learning. It highlights how creativity and technical skills can come together, opening new avenues for learning and expression. As Isaac continues to explore the vast possibilities at the intersection of art and programming, his story encourages others to look beyond traditional learning methods and embrace their unique interests as powerful tools for innovation and discovery.

For Isaac, the project revealed how his diverse interests could intersect, creating a unique and powerful way to understand and communicate complex ideas. Could comics also inspire others to learn complex concepts?

Check out Pixels to Pictures. You can use MATLAB to learn the basics of programming while editting images, building GIFs, and creating color filters and face masks that are applied in popular apps.