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Robots Coming to Intro Computer Science Classes
BlueCup writes "Two colleges are hoping to make computer science courses more attractive by including personal robots with the textbooks. Looking to boost enrollment in introductory computer science classes, Microsoft Corp. is working with Bryn Mawr College and Georgia Tech on developing new ways to bring robotics technology into the classroom. Douglas Blank, a computer science professor at Bryn Mawr, said the goal will be to start incorporating the robots in introductory courses at the suburban Philadelphia college next spring. Georgia Tech hopes to start during that term as well. The idea behind the program, Blank said, is to make computer science more hands-on and practical, rather than simply about debugging programs." Update: 07/13 15:52 GMT by T :Professor Blank wrote in with some clarification on one of his statements — read on below.
dougblank writes
"Note to self: when talking to the press, don't use complicated technical jargon, like 'debugging' :) I think what I actually said was 'rather than debug a program to make it give the right answer, the students must debug the program to make the robot behave the way they want it to.'I think many of you will actually like the hardware, software, and curriculum that we are designing. Check out roboteducation.org/ and pyrorobotics.org. The new version of the software will be based on Pyro, Python Robotics. We think of the hardware as something like an iPod on wheels. The software is also being developed with an open source license. This project is not what many of you guess it might be.
The CS1 and CS2 that we are developing won't be watered down, but also won't be just the standard 'intro to programming, using robots.' It's a complete rethinking of the intro courses."
Kinda like discussing Bronte during Maths to make it "less about numbers", isn't it?
Meta will eat itself
Yep. I'm really the last of the "real" CS students from LSU. Midway through my time in college, they started changing the classes over. Its more software development than anything else. Except starting out with .NET is not great in my opinion
They got rid of all the architecture classes, especially the good one where you learn about *how* memory works, threading, processor scheduling, all that stuff. They also got rid of the OS class. I mean, they still have an OS class, but its now a touchy-feely class where you don't actually *learn* anything. I feel bad for the kids who are going through right behind me...
We used to have a mandatory class on assembly too. Granted, its somewhat useless as a programming language in real life, but it still helps teach alot about what's going on at the low, low level.
Han shot first.
The idea behind the program, Blank said, is to make computer science more hands-on and practical, rather than simply about debugging programs.
Or maybe the idea is to make sure that the students have to use windows in order to use the robots. MS wants its OS to be used more for embedded and controller applications and have to do something to stop the students from using those small, open, inexpensive Linux systems.
Or am I wrong? Could the students use the robots and textbooks without MS tech?
)9TSS
Eh, AI can be applied relatively easily with a little bit of work. When I studied AI, my lecturer created a 2D virtual environment, and we had to write agents in LISP which could explore, gather food (for utiles), stave off predators and do it faster than the agents that other people had written, in a variety of scenarios. Good fun.
What really sucked is that they used to require everyone to take Scheme (godawful useless language for most of the engineers). Then, the semester after I took the Scheme class (got put in the "advanced" section somehow... didn't really belong there since it was over my head and I'm an aero engineer, but was worth it anyways), they start up their new "Computing for Engineers" course (using Matlab). And now all of my professors assume we know matlab very well because that course is offered... but we never took it!
It is good that they're branching out with the program though. They went from the standard "_everyone_ must take Scheme!" to having:
Intro CS, for CS and (I assume) CompE, EE, and the like
CoE (the Matlab course) for other engineering majors
CS 1315, an intro course for the liberal-arts majors which uses Java, Python, and others, and does stuff like image manipulation, sound generation, etc.
Also, they have the "threaded" CS now, and a new program called "Computational Media." From what I understand from my friends in the program, it combines CS with visual/arts stuff and the literature/culture group, and is intended for those who want to focus on, say, video-game development, graphical media, animation, and the like. They also have a good relationship with Cartoon Network, which sits just north of campus on 10th street.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the strong shall take the stars.
So is it the electrical engineers or computer engineers who program the complex, multi-threaded artificial intelligence applications? I mentored a high school robotics program that participates in the FIRST Robotics competition and I can tell you that the hardware students didn't know or care how to program the robot. They focused on building the robot and the software students focused on programming the behavior of the robot. I'm not saying that there aren't people interested in the hardware and software aspects of robotics but robots have become complex enough where there are few people who know enough to build the robot and create the software to drive the autonomous behavior of the robot.
Unfortunately I haven't made an account so don't dismiss me for being an AC. I have actually been working with a small college called Canisius in Buffalo and we have already introduced robotics into our lower level classes. Believe it or not, it does help. Students were going nuts with it. I even think we gave Doug the idea for this. If you check out AAAI last year, there was a paper from canisius college about robotics in CS classes. Of course you don't use the Aibo (which I love programming on) for lower level classes. It is far too advanced and delicate. It costs way over 2K after you get all the bells and whistles so having a CSC-1 kid play with it is stupid. We used Lego mindstorms for the lowest levels. They are robust and easily programmable in java (which is our primary language). We also have some handy boards flying around, but that is more for the adventurous older students. In addition, Doug is actually waiting for the work I am doing through Canisius with their Pyro program,the Aibo, and OpenCV. It kinda sucks that we weren't mentioned at all, given that we've worked so closely with Doug. Hell, I don't know why I'm posting I doubt anyone will believe me anyway.
My undergraduate cs department purchases some Lego Mindstorms off eBay and used them in the intro courses. They don't cost much (couple hundred max), so our tuition didn't go up anything. You got to write programs for them in Java. It was very exciting and sparked lots of interest (everybody wanted to take the class). Although it's not as cool as each student getting an individual robot, it is as close as some of the smaller campuses can get, and it's a great idea!