The Institute For Personal Robots In Education (IPRE)

Tucker Balch Associate Professor College of Computing at Georgia Tech Stewart Tansley Program Manager Microsoft Research

Contents

Attraction and retention in CS Microsoft’s motivation and role A program for addressing the challenge The Institute for Personal Robots in Education

Background -- Context for CS & Threads Program overview The robots

Discussion

Computer Science In Decline Computer Science Listed As Probable Major Among Incoming Freshman

Source: HERI at UCLA

Microsoft Program Vision Partner with academia to bring measurable gains in Computer Science enrollment & retention through the deployment of compelling robotics-based technologies in CS1/CS2 curriculum

Institute Concept

Concerted, focused applied research effort Leverage best contemporary technologies and approaches Target CS1/CS2 specifically 3-year program, $1M from Microsoft Use this to establish a center of excellence in robotics-based education Mutually select a partner from a pre-qualified invited list of potential hosts, using an augmented form of MSR’s proven Request For Proposals program

The Institute For Personal Robots In Education (IPRE)

Hosted at the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, with Bryn Mawr College

The Institute

The Institute for Personal Robots in Education July 12 announcement Hosted at Georgia Tech with Bryn Mawr College $1M over 3 years, $1M matching funds Goal:

To develop a proven, practical, reliable, cost-effective robot technology platform for teaching CS, targeted at CS1/CS2

The Institute

Tucker Balch, Director Doug Blank, Software Mark Guzdial, Curricula Deepak Kumar, Curricula

Background: Teaching CS At GT

As of 1999:

All GT students must take CS-1 Many take CS-1 and CS-2 3800 students per year

Problems:

28% WDF rate (50% for non-CS majors)

Solution: Context & Choice

Computational Media (Guzdial) Engineering/Matlab (Smith)

Impact Of Context

WDF rate 16% for non-majors 1 year later: 20% of non-major students report programming outside class Students who move to CS major perform as well as “regular” CS students

New: Threads CS Curriculum

Computing & Computational Modeling Computing & Embodiment Computing & Foundations Computing & Information Internetworks Computing & Intelligence Computing & Media Computing & People Computing & Platforms

New:

New joint Computing and Engineering research center ~30 faculty, +2 / year Henrik Christensen, Director Endowed chair: KUKA Robotics Robotics PhD program 2007

Robots For CS Education

Our proposal is not to create a set of introductory robotics courses . . .

but to create a set of introductory computer science courses using robots that reveal the fundamental concepts of computer science

Elements Of Our Plan

Novel robots for the student’s desktop Curricula: Robotics context for CS1 and CS2 Pyro/Myro: educational robotics software platform Evaluation using proven assessment instruments Broad dissemination Communicating the message

Element: Robots

Recall the

PC.

Meet the

PR.

Every student with her own robot.

Design goals:

Inexpensive Reliable “Brainless”

Element: Curricula

“Use robots to reveal the fundamental issues in computer science”

This is a research problem We have roadmap pioneered by Mark Guzdial

Element: CS Teaching Laboratories

Four diverse universities:

Georgia Institute of Technology; Bryn Mawr College; Georgia State University; The University of Georgia

Element: Software

The Microsoft Robotics SDK.

Visual Studio Pyro/Myro: the leading educational robotics software platform

Element: Evaluation

Substantial experience with media based CS education Test deployments at 4 universities Proven assessment instruments

Element: Dissemination

Initial deployment at 4 partner universities Two workshops for broader audience Textbooks

The Robots

Challenges/Tradeoffs

High cost:

Insurmountable obstacle for some schools Come to the lab, check out a robot….

Doesn’t scale

Compile, download and run:

Increases cost Decreases understandability

Build the robot:

Requires support infrastructure Reduces reliability Intimidates some people

Our Approach

Low cost Reliable:

Simple hardware; Microsoft Robotics SDK.

Easy:

“Brainless;” Leverages the Microsoft desktop

Two Robots

CS1 Robot

Bluetooth + PIC 2 x wheels & motors 1 x actuator Sensors Buttons, LEDs Speaker Assembly, packaging $30- $20- $10- $15- $5- $5- $10--

Example Lesson

A program is a sequence of steps to execute:

Forward(10) Right(90) Forward(10) Right(90) Forward(10) Right(90) Forward(10) Right(90)

Example Lesson

Iteration:

For(I=1; I<=4; I++) Forward(10) Right(90)

CS2 Robot

Arm and camera

Any Questions?

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