Assignment 0: Getting started with webpage submission

Name: Xinyu Liu

Task 1. ChatGPT

Prompt: Write a funny story about a new cohort of MSCV students at CMU, a sloth, a newly discovered island on Earth, and a magical hat. The story should celebrate the new MSCV students at CMU, featuring unexpected twists and turns. Be as creative as you can.

GPT Answer:

Here’s a playful and whimsical story that weaves all your elements together:

Once upon a not-so-ordinary morning at Carnegie Mellon, a fresh cohort of MSCV students gathered in the buzzing halls of the Robotics Institute. They were ready for algorithms, optimization, and… unexpected adventures. Little did they know, today would not be about code at all.

As they filed into the lecture hall, a sloth—yes, a real, slow-moving, ridiculously adorable sloth—dangling from the ceiling fan, greeted them with a lazy wave. “Welcome, humans,” it yawned. “I’ve been waiting… centuries, I think.”

Before anyone could question their sanity, the sloth gestured toward a shimmering portal that appeared behind the whiteboard. It wasn’t just any portal; it glimmered like a hologram of a tropical sunset. “That, dear students, is the newly discovered island of ‘Algorithmia,’” said the sloth, who, it turned out, was not only wise but also had a PhD in island exploration. “It’s been hiding from humans because the GPS kept crashing.”

One daring student, armed with nothing but curiosity and a laptop, stepped forward. But before they could cross, a magical hat floated down from the ceiling. It landed perfectly on their head. Instantly, the student could speak fluent Sloth—critical for island negotiations—and also had the uncanny ability to debug code with just a wink. “I feel… powerful,” they whispered, as the rest of the cohort gasped.

On the island, things got even stranger. The palm trees were binary-coded, the coconuts contained tiny GPUs, and the beach sand spelled out neural network equations. But the island had a problem: a riddle-guarding crab controlled the only bridge back to Pittsburgh. The sloth turned to the students and said, “Only the most creatively caffeinated minds can solve this.”

After hours of brainstorming, coding on coconuts, and mild panic attacks (mainly due to the heat and oddly judgmental seagulls), the students solved the crab’s riddle using a convolutional neural network and a dance routine. The bridge extended, the sloth cheered, and the magical hat levitated back to the ceiling, satisfied with its job.

As they returned to CMU, the MSCV students realized that while they had signed up for computer vision, they had also accidentally become interspecies diplomats, island coders, and riddle masters. And the sloth? It promised to return next semester to check on their “progress in life and leisure.”

From that day on, the MSCV cohort was known not just for their brilliant minds but for surviving Algorithmia—and for having a sloth-approved sense of humor.

If you want, I can also make a shorter, punchier version that would fit perfectly as a welcome note for the new MSCV cohort—still full of unexpected twists and laughs. Do you want me to do that?

Prompt: Please provide a one-line title for the story that will grab the audience’s attention.

GPT Answer: “MSCV, a Sloth, and the Secret Island of Algorithmia”. It’s punchy, whimsical, and hints at adventure—perfect for grabbing attention.

If you want, I can draft 3–5 more equally catchy alternatives. Do you want me to?

Task 2. 3D shape images

Figure 1: "Beyond the Geometry: The World's Largest Modified Plastic 3D Printing Architecture" by Archi-Union Architects. Published on ArchDaily, 2021. Link

Task 3. Funny GIFs

Figure 2: "Happy Laughing Sloth GIF" from gettrendygifs.wordpress.com, 2016. Link