2. Experiences teaching CS1 with Personal Robots
The Institute for Personal Robots in Education
Jay Summet, Georgia Institute of Technology
with Tucker Balch, Doug Blank, Mark Guzdial, Deepak Kumar, Stewart Tansley, Jared Jackson, Natasha Eilbert, Keith O'Hara, Daniel Walker, Gaurav Gupta, and Monica Sweat

3. Help! My robot's gone crazy!
The Institute for Personal Robots in Education
Jay Summet, Georgia Institute of Technology
with Tucker Balch, Doug Blank, Mark Guzdial, Deepak Kumar, Stewart Tansley, Jared Jackson, Natasha Eilbert, Keith O'Hara, Daniel Walker, Gaurav Gupta, and Monica Sweat

4. Why make CS education more fun and effective?

5. IPRE Overview
Mission: Make Computer Science education more fun and effective, using Personal Robots
Focused on CS1 education at the undergraduate level
But we also want to promote pushing down to K-12 and extending to more advanced CS / ECE classes!

6. IPRE: Lead Institutions
Georgia Institute of Technology
Tier 1 research university, founded in 1885
15,000 students
2/3 of the undergraduate students are male
Bryn Mawr College
Liberal arts college, founded in 1885
1,200 students
Mostly female students

7. IPRE Principle Investigators
Tucker Balch, Director, GaTech
Douglas Blank, co-Director, BMC
Mark Guzdial, GaTech
Deepak Kumar, BMC
Stewart Tansley, MSR

8. Not your typical robots!
How are robots seen in popular culture?

9. 6 P's of IPRE Personal – Every student owns a robot
Price – Substitute for a textbook
Pedagogy – Robot designed by the curriculum
Peripheral – Robot is treated as a device
Performances – Creativity & expression
Programming Languages – High level, interpreted, break the compile/debug cycle

10. Personal Robot Small enough to carry in a backpack
Wireless, controlled from computer
Interactive and easy to program
Personalizable
More than “just a robot”

11. Current Prototype: Scribbler with IPRE Fluke
$149
RobotEducation.org

12. Current Prototype: Scribbler with IPRE Fluke
Bluetooth wireless control
Movement
Sound (beeps)‏
Light Sensors
Obstacle Sensors
Camera!

13. How to afford a robot for every student?
Transfer costs to the students
$150 is close to the cost of a science textbook (in the US)‏
Amortize the cost over time
$150 robot is a $50 robot if you use it for three classes
30 robots cost $4,500

14. How Reliable? But what if a robot breaks?
How frequently to robots break?
Parallax offers a 90 day guarantee on the Scribbler, but a 16 week semester is 112 days!

15. How Reliable? More reliable than student's laptops!
Laptop problems (software as well as hardware) were more prevalent than robot problems
Having a few hot-spares to lend/rent is still a good idea (Project groups!)‏
Failure rate around 1-2%, comparable to most consumer electronics

16. Language: Python Looks like English Indentation matters
Interpreted / Interactive
Easy to learn, but powerful
Job examples:
Google
Amazon
Industrial Light & Magic

17. Software: Goals
Easy to learn, but doesn't seem simplistic as the student grows in experience: “pedagogically scalable”
Easy to use: no compile-download-run
Instant gratification: interactive, dynamic
Open source: available for study or change
Cross-platform: runs on Linux, Mac, Win32

18. Myro/Robot Demo!
Turn on Bluetooth
Turn on Robot

19. Programming as a social activity

20. Towards an Accessible, Engaging Environment for new, diverse students
Competitions? Collaborations!
Race? Orchestra!
Compute factorial? Dance!
Battlebots? A robot performance!
Write a program of your own design!

21. The First Assignment Make your robot dance! Function calls
Musical accompaniment
Function calls
Encapsulation
Looping

22. A CS1 Assignment: Maze Data from sensors IF statements Recursion
Saving state

23. Using the Camera 3 person teams Week 1: Generate Special Effects (FX)!
Week 2: Shoot a movie
Robot camera
Robot actors
Using your special FX

24. Image Special FX Teaches looping through data Nested FOR loops
Data Representation
0-255 – One byte per color
24 bit color – 3 bytes per pixel

25. Movies Lists of individual frames Editing scenes together
Playing scenes backwards
Rendering at 1/2 or 2x speed
Overlay text and graphics?

26. Robot Performances 3 person teams “Live” performance
Synchronization of robots
Graded on technical correctness, but also entertainment value, costumes and story

33. Student Movies

34. Summary
Student owned personal robots provide a concrete context for learning computer science
Can be done relatively inexpensively
Creative, non-confrontational group assignments stress the social and creative nature of computer science

35. What was the most important or interesting thing that you learned in this course?
“That computer science can be creative!”

36. You can do this! http://wiki.RobotEducation.org
Software and textbooks are free – use AS-IS or modify to fit your needs
Print materials yourself or buy online from print on demand publishers

37. You can do this! http://wiki.RobotEducation.org
Educator materials available:
Lecture Notes
Power-point presentations
Assignments & Labs

38. Hardware? www.RobotEducation.org
We sell the robots and FLUKE upgrade modules from a non-profit company
Looking to encourage 3rd party manufactures
Contact us if you want the schematics / designs

39. www.RobotEducation.org Questions? Play with the Robots: Demo Booth 7
For more information please visit:
Play with the Robots: Demo Booth 7

40. IPRE Research Goals Hardware – Robust, inexpensive robot
Software – Easy for students to learn
Curricular Materials – Focus on learning CS
Assessment – Make sure it works
Adoptable – Easy for instructors to adopt!

41. © 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved
© 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.
The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.