No room for robots? Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09 Zachary DoddsHarvey Mudd College strategies for sneaking them in anyway…

This summer… IJCAI 2009 in Pasadena July all platforms Exhibit: class, team, or individual projects Challenge: exploration task ~ landmarks and/or Why? all tasks

Institutionally invested in our current, required CS 1 CS1CS2 Electives Software Engineering Operating Systems Data Structures but I want to motivate students' computational thinking with robots. Robotics! Students? … student-run robotics club Robotics? Students!

CS1CS2 Electives Software Engineering Operating Systems Data Structures Robotics! Students? … student-run robotics club Robotics! Students! Institutionally invested in our current, required CS 1 but I want to motivate students' computational thinking with robots.

An opportunity… In 2007 the CS department decided to actively invite first-year women into independent summer projects - build our (low!) number of women majors - chance to really "get into" CS pre-major - without demanding too much background… Motivating, accessible task? -- when you're not as courageous as Andy!

An opportunity… credit to Jeff Forbes and Chad Jenkins and now Monica Anderson In 2007 the CS department decided to actively invite first-year women into independent summer projects - build our (low!) number of women majors - chance to really "get into" CS pre-major - without demanding too much background…

Create! Independence Ownership Guidance Directed the idea help to turn to "Insomnia" the specified base "creative mess" students!

Create! Independence Ownership Guidance start from scratch help w/ direction 7 summer weeks is MUCH more than a semester… test Directed

Share… Independence Ownership Guidance presenting one's system on their own presented at CS colloquium 10/19/09 madness vs. method? Directed

Results? Share… run

Results? Share… run 1/3 ~ not as good as we'd hoped… CS Eng Physics

Results? Share… run 3/5 sounds a whole lot better! Eng Physics CS

Momentum? Summer 2008 CS 1 The mess theory in action 4 of 10 app. 3 of 4 cs Simulator ~ final project Try it out on the Create… "teaser"

Robotics: Hardware and Software Greed Lab-seminar advised by Engineering & CS but taught entirely by students 16 of 45 app. ? of 16 cs Fall 2008 run 3 of 8 women, 1 of 8 men  CS2

Perspective Early summer projects CS 1 teasers First-term seminar student-led or summertime Keys motivation powerful, accessible platform accessible task commodity PCs sustainable vs. credit Robots can always fit in ! external task! to get them through the door… to making it positive

Platforms ~ future? Hardware and software that scales up pedagogically Myro, running FastSLAM maps vision Peaches' pen and landmarks run

Beyond Blobs… Image profiles ~ impressive compass run

Image profiles ~ impressive compass run

Platforms ~ future? And scales back down again, as needed! AAAI 2008 Elaine and the exhibition

Hence… IJCAI 2009 A pedagogically scalable venue ! in Pasadena July any platform any landmarks and/or task Have your students join in…

the labs are online Robotics: Hardware and Software Greed 16 of 45 app. ? of 16 cs Fall 2008

One Laptop Per Child Netbooks (Chad Jenkins) Tekkotsu (David T. et al.) Platforms: future?

Fall 2008 Results… picture pictures

Thoughts Summer projects ownership & support: create – tests - share CS 1 teasers First-term seminar motivating tasks & venues shared across departments student-led curricularized Keys motivationpower & accessibility accessible task (and venue) commodity PCs

Platforms: future? Outdoor vehicle: Jeep

Thoughts Summer projects ownership & support: create – tests - share CS 1 teasers first-term seminar motivating tasks & venues shared across departments student-led curricularized Keys motivation powerful platforms accessible platforms accessible task and venue commodity PCs

Robotics at CS's margins: outward in and vice versa. Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09 Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College

images Robotics: drawing power from the margins Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09 Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College Extremal Extreme Robots motivate fun physical need nurturing capture an essence of being human that other computational interactions lack messy vs. clean

An undergraduate CS view of the curricular world CS1CS2Subfields Software Engineering Operating Systems CS0 What to do with that motivation? This the answer to the symposium's question - and it's our choice. (1) exposure story - not good intra-departmental problems… (2) recruitment (3) depth students recruit themselves! <-- our findings (4) integration focused investigations

An undergraduate CS view of the curricular world CS1CS2Subfields out-of-band Operating Systems CS0 What to do with that motivation? This the answer to the symposium's question - and it's our choice. (1) exposure story - not good intra-departmental problems… (2) recruitment (3) depth students recruit themselves! <-- our findings (4) integration focused investigations

images First-year Advising Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09 Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College Extremal Extreme Robots motivate fun physical need nurturing capture an essence of being human that other computational interactions lack

First-year advising First-year Advising Challenge: create extremely accessible resources Rachel, Vedika, and Jessica Middle/high school events Depth: Elaine Myro materials OLPC ~ PC + motors Answer: vision

The undergraduate CS view of the curricular world Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09 Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College Computation

The undergraduate CS view of the curricular world Future of Robots in Education, 3/4/09 Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College Computation

The undergraduate CS view of the curricular world SIGCSE '09 CS 1 strategy 1 CS 1 strategy 2 CS 1 strategy 3 CS 1 in anonymization in blue Audrey Lawrence

It is more important for a student of X to have computational-savvy than it is for a student of CS to have X-savvy. SIGCSE '09 CS 1 strategy 1 CS 1 strategy 2 CS 1 strategy 3 CS 1 in anonymization in blue

Looking ahead, it is more important for a student of X to be computationally-savvy X At its best, computation amplifies. than it is for a student of CS to be X-savvy. Opportunity in orthogonality! Warning: do not say this to anyone in field X ! Our audience is not our students!

At its best, computation amplifies. Personal Relevant Accessible Sharable axis CS departments might consider following the computation… axis Prescribed Shortcuttable Passion Beauty Joy Awe What is learned is the square root of what is taught! balancing act Bloom's 2-sigma rule All educatonal experiments are doomed to succeed… Education ~ economics, not science. real